MPC-HC and VLC show no video (black), but screenshots and audio are working

[OddTheodora]

So, I'm having the strangest bug of 2020 here. All of a sudden, both MPC-HC and VLC only show a black image when playing videos. Windows Media Player is not affected.

I have another parallel installation of MPC-HC (another folder), which worked for a while until it also stopped working in the same way - black image, only audio.

I can take screenshots and they work fine.

All video formats seem to be affected. CD covers (tag images) are shown normally.

Trying to view the video in fullscreen will not work, it will glitch out (I keep seing the window).

Playback on admin account is the same.

Deactivating ffdshow (which I'm using as default) did not change anything, but VLC does not rely on ffdshow either. Also, it was working fine until now.

I recently updated to Windows 10 20H2 (x64), although the black screen thingy occurred somewhat later, not right after the update.

Graphics card is an Nvidia GTX 970. Updating (which also means reinstalling) the graphics driver did not change anything.

[jagabo]

Try changing the output device in the players.

[OddTheodora]

Try changing the output device in the players.

Yes! (MPC-HC settings: Playback > Output > Video Renderer). MadVR was still selected, even though I had uninstalled it recently. must have messed up the settings. For some reason though, playback wasn't affected right away (??). I'm not sure what was selected before that or what is the default here.

Thanks, jagabo!

[jagabo]

Try changing the output device in the players.

Yes! (MPC-HC settings: Playback > Output > Video Renderer). MadVR was still selected, even though I had uninstalled it recently. must have messed up the settings. For some reason though, playback wasn't affected right away (??).

Changes to the output device usually require exiting and restarting the program.

[OddTheodora]

Try changing the output device in the players.

Yes! (MPC-HC settings: Playback > Output > Video Renderer). MadVR was still selected, even though I had uninstalled it recently. must have messed up the settings. For some reason though, playback wasn't affected right away (??).

Changes to the output device usually require exiting and restarting the program.

Yeah, but MPC-HC had been closed before that and the change actually occurred while MPC-HC was running afaik. I don't know the specifics anymore though and luckily it doesn't matter. Thanks for helping me out.

[butterw]

It's called the video output or renderer. In MPC-HC the default is EVR-CP which is dx9 based. Changing the video renderer always requires restarting the player. The Mpc-hc renderer shouldn't affect VLC though.
if you detect a problem, it's always worth clean restarting your machine before reporting a bug as the issue may not be reproducible.
In your case, a simple mpc-hc settings reset would have solved the problem. You can do this without losing your saved settings by doing the reset while using a new mpc.ini settings file.

[OddTheodora]

It's called the video output or renderer. In MPC-HC the default is EVR-CP which is dx9 based. Changing the video renderer always requires restarting the player. The Mpc-hc renderer shouldn't affect VLC though.
if you detect a problem, it's always worth clean restarting your machine before reporting a bug as the issue may not be reproducible.
In your case, a simple mpc-hc settings reset would have solved the problem. You can do this without losing your saved settings by doing the reset while using a new mpc.ini settings file.

Okay, thanks