Mmkay, completely at random about two weeks ago, I started having this weird problem with Windows Media Player v6.4: whenever I play a video clip and click File, Properties, WMP locks up completely and I have to CTRL+ALT+DEL to close it. This happens with anything EXCEPT Divx files. It happens with VCDs, SVCDs, VOBs, etc. I haven't installed anything new or deleted anything important, it just started happening. Any ideas (besides formatting)?
What?
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MediaPlayer build so-called filter graph, consists of a few DirectShow filters to play a media file.
For playback DivX encoded AVI file it looks like this (without audio):
FileSource -> AVI Splitter -> DivX Video Decoder -> Video Renderer
Each filter is DLL, i.e. separate program, it has .ax or .dll extension
When you try to see file properties, MediaPlayer asking all filters about their properties. In your case one of them crashes on property request.
What do you need to solve the problem without hard drive formatting:
1. Download and install MS DirectX SDK 8.1 http://www.microsoft.com/windows/directx/default.asp
install release version, do not install samples - this for developers only.
2. Start graphedt.exe tool
3. Menu -> File -> Render Media File -> choose any file where you see this problem
4. Try to play it
5. Right click on each filter and try to see it's property, find the filter that will crash grapheditor
6. Restart grapheditor
7. Menu -> Graph -> Insert Filters -> DirectShow Filters - find there your bad filter by name
8. Click on + and find where it is reside on your harddrive
9. run from command line:
regsvr32.exe bad_filter.ax /u
this will uninstall it from using in any filtergraph
(regsvr32.exe bad_filter.ax - install it back)
10. Try to play the file in MediaPlayer and check it's property
11. Delete bad_filter.ax if you don't want to use it any more
That's it. By the way, this technik can help you in many usual problems, which happens with install/uninstall different codec packs.
I prefer Elecard's codec pack: mpeg2 decoder, ac3/mp2/mp3 decoder, mpeg2 TS/PS/SS splitter, and div3/div4/mp4 decoder - about everything you need to play most common video formats
http://www.elecard.com/download -
Thank you for your assistance. I was able to get through steps 1-8 with no trouble. However, upon reaching step 9, I found that the apparent bad filter was not a *.ax file, rather a *.dll file (quartz.dll to be exact). The file is located in my System folder. The name of the filter is MPEG-1 Stream Splitter.
I'll probably wind up formatting this weekend anyway; I can live with it until then. Thanks again for your help. -
In fact, quartz.dll is a part of operation system. I've heard from somebody, that there were some problems with it in early builds of Windows XP. They say, that it provide incorrect .avi splitting, when divx and mp3 is multiplexed to .avi file.
But I never heard about incorrect work of MPEG1 Splitter. It was written by very good company, called Mediamatics, as well as MPEG1 Video Decoder from the same quartz.dll. And Mediamatics usually provides much better software then common microsoft programs.
Probably you are not right. Could you write all filters by name in the problem filtergraph? I trust, it's another one.
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