Can't play .MPG videos in new Vista SP1 install

[Prizm4]

Hi guys,

I can't figure this out - I've just re-installed Vista Home w/SP1 (been using Vista for 2 years) and for some reason I can't play .MPG files. I've installed ffdshow (and made sure the MPEG boxes were ticked), but that doesn't make a difference. Both WMP and GomPlayer whinge about codecs.
I've installed the GSpot codec program and when I load up the same MPGs, it says things are all ok: Codecs installed.

I can play everything else: AVI, h.264, MKV, DVD discs.

I have not installed WinDVD or PowerDVD. I'm trying to avoid installing them as I use Vista Media Center for DVDs. However I am aware that WinDVD/PowerDVD do contain the MPEG codecs. I just thought ffdshow could do the job??

Any ideas?

Prizm

[aedipuss]

if it's home basic it doesn't come with the required codec to play mpeg-2(dvd).

you will need to install powerdvd/windvd/or upgrade to a higher version of vista.

[Ai Haibara]

MPEG-1, or MPEG-2?

Have you made sure MPEG support is activated in both decoder configurations? (If you're using one of the more recent versions of ffdshow, you should have "VFW configuration" and "Video decoder configuration" (DirectShow, really) entries in your ffdshow Start menu folder. MPEG support (both MPEG-1 and MPEG-2) may need to be enabled for both.

Also, you might take a look at:
Video decoder configuration > DirectShow control > "Don't use ffdshow in"/"Use ffdshow only in"
and see if WMP/GomPlayer are mentioned in either box.
(and whether or not the "Show dialog when an unknown application tries to load ffdshow" box is checked)

[Prizm4]

I mentioned in my post that I can play DVDs fine. It's just .MPG files that have the problem - MPEG 1. And I'm using Vista Home Premium, not Basic.

A friend of mine just put together a new PC with Vista Premium w/SP1, and has the exact same problem - by default Windows simply won't play MPG files. I installed the latest ffdshow on his PC to see what happens and there's no change.

I did go through the ffdshow options, both VFW Config and Video Config, and still no change. The only options in VFW is "MPEG in AVI" and "Other MPEG". I enable both of those with no change. The Video Decoder config already had MPEG1 enabled.

[Ai Haibara]

Hmm... Well, I just ran downstairs to find an MPEG-1 video on the Vista system, and test it (August 11 build of ffdshow). I first tried my normal player (Media Player Classic), and the .mpg played properly, there.
Then, I tried loading it in Media Player, and it didn't play. The MPEG options in the 'Video decoder configuration'/DirectShow setup were set to 'disabled' (note: I'm not saying your options are set to 'disabled,' of course. ) I changed all four MPEG entries to 'libavcodec,' and it worked in Media Player.

Do you have them set to libavcodec, or libmpeg2? (Though, I'm not sure how much of a difference it makes.)

[Prizm4]

Thanks for your help.

I changed those options as you mentioned (most of mine were on the other option, not libavcodec), however still no change. No go in Media Player or GOMPlayer, and again GSpot still loads the MPGs fine and gives me all kinds of details about them, but nothing plays them!

Anyway, I found some MainConcept MPEG codecs. I installed them and my MPGs worked straight away. This is very annoying as I just wanted to use one set of codecs (ie ffdshow), not install a bunch.

I can't tell whether the problem is Vista SP1 or simply the current build of ffshow (although you mention it worked fine on your machine when you changed the options).

[Ai Haibara]

Yeah, that's the only problem I found. I hadn't noticed it before as I don't normally use WMP as a player.

Glad to hear you've got it working, though. I was going to suggest loading one of the MPEG-1 files in GSpot and using the render tests to see which paths are taken to render the video, if setting ffdshow to use libavcodec didn't help. (A codec with a higher priority could have been preventing ffdshow from 'receiving' the video, for example.) But, it's not necessary, now.