DirectShow render error - Help!

[dizz]

Hi,

I have this problem where certain .avi's wont play. I get the same error message, I checked with gspot, and the following is typical of what I get:

0x80040218: VFW_E_CANNOT_RENDER - No combination of filters

even when gspot says that the codecs required are installed....
(I have seen it with both DivX 3 and XviD movies)
The strange thing is that I have movie files using the same codecs and that don't have this problem. I am really frustrated I don't have a clue what to do, except I want to remove all codecs from my machine and re-install them. This problem either occurred when I first installed Nimo Codec Pack 5.8, or upgraded to win xp sp1. Before that, these files would play. Any help would be very welcome! Also if there is some way to remove codecs in windows xp... Or, am I missing something? I have tried to install all codecs conceivable, as well as filters... to no avail.
Anybody else ever had the same problem...?

Thanks!

dizz

[Prospero424]

Yeah, the combination of certain versions of the Nemo pack and XP SP1 seems to be causing problems for some people. There is a very easy way to view installed codecs and remove unwanted ones in XP. Right-click My Computer, click Manage, then Device Manager. Expand the Sound, Video, and Game Controllers sub-menu, at the very bottom of this should be a "video codecs" entry. Right-click on this and hit properties, then click on the properties tab of the window that comes up. Here is a list of installed video codecs and a "remove" button below them.

What I do is install only the latest DivX codec and let it handle playback of files encoded using older DivX versions. The only downside to this is that I cannot convert DivX3/4 files to other formats with something like virtual dub, but for me this doesn't come up much anymore.

Also, it sounds like you are using Windows Media Player for Playback. Have you tried any other players like PowerDVD, WinDVD, or Zoom Player? I would try some of these alternative players on the off chance that WMP is simply not handling playback codecs properly.

Hope this helps,

Prospero

[dizz]

Thanks Prospero,

I did check the tab you mentioned, but it appears it only has a small number of codecs :/ When I check the codecs with gspot it looks like zillions of them are installed So I thought there might be another way (application?) that could help me clean them out, or at least "unregister" them. I will nevertheless try and remove them all from this tab...
BTW, I also tried with Zoom Player, and have the exact same problem (btw, the error message in both wmp and zoom is some obscure error message, I only realized the "real nature" of it by using gspot). I tried PowerDVD just now, and nothing happens at all
I am more sceptic about the Nimo pack, but uninstalling it doesn't appear to affect the codecs... :/
So anybody knows about some codec-cleaner app?

/dizz

[Prospero424]

One other thing I thought of. Did you try using the "manual filters" option in the player options menu of Zoom Player (I don't know if this is in the 2.x version, but I know it's in Zoom Player 3.x) in this section you can register and unregister playback filters for use with Zoom Player.
Just a thought.

I scoured google for anything that would let you install/uninstall register/unregister codecs and/or filters but was unable to find anything.

Creator of Gspot, if you're reading, how about putting a remove codec or filter option in the next version!!!

Prospero

[Prospero424]

Also, if the above doesn't work, you might make sure that you have the latest version of ffdshow installed, and if installing it doesn't work, configure ffdshow to override other filters and handle the playback of DivX and XviD files itself.

Good Luck
Prospero

[dizz]

Thanks again Prospero,

you have given me a few leads about how to get around the problem
I'll download the latest Zoom player and fiddle with ffdshow tonight.

Thanks!

/dizz