Black screen with audio in all players except WMP

[charliei]

Hi everyone,
In all players except Windows Media Player 11, I don't get any video, but I do get sound. This happened in the last few weeks, but I'm not sure what triggered it as I normally use WMP. I would be very grateful if someone could help me out, or at least have a guess at what might be causing it.

I have:
Windows XP SP2, all updates.
ATI Radeon 9600, catalyst 7.4 (latest).
Previously installed K-lite codec packs, but without problems. Have now uninstalled all codecs I can find, tried re-installing, installing ffdshow only, but problem still exists.

In windows media player, all videos (avi, wmv etc) play fine. However, in media player classic, vlc 0.8.6b, and my DTV program BlazeDTV 2.1, I don't get any video, but I do get audio. The black video is the correct size (i.e. if I open a widescreen film it makes the black the right shape).

I have discovered a workaround to make vlc work - by changing the settings - video - output modules to DirectX 3D Video Output, it works. The "Default" and "DirectX Video Output" do not work.

This workaround only applies to vlc. While I can ignore media player classic as vlc works, my DTV program BlazeDTV 2.1 doesn't work.

If anyone knows why my media players are doing this, please let me know (even if you don't know a fix)!

Apologies for the long post - thought it would be better to provide more info...

Thanks very much for your help,

Charlie

[Baldrick]

It could be an overlay problem. Do you use two monitors or connected to a tv? Under ATI Catalyst Control Center check under Display manager to check if you have two devices. Set your first monitor to the Main Desktop.


And welcome to our forum!

[charliei]

Hi Baldrick,
Thanks for your reply and the welcome.
I only have 1 monitor, but I tried plugging it into the second socket on my video card, and back again, and clicking what you said, and now it works! It must have jogged its memory or something...
Thanks for your help. I spent ages fiddling with codecs - oops!

Charlie

[charliei]

Argh! Spoke too soon... It's now not working, and I can't seem to replicate what I did earlier!

At least I know where to focus now! I'll see if ATI can help.

Charlie

[jagabo]

Play a video in two players (that don't work alone) at the same time. If you see a picture in one and a black window in the other you have a video overlay problem. Go through ATI's display setup applet from Control Panel and look for Overlay settings.

Video overlay is a feature of graphics cards. The window in the player is actually a hole in the desktop through which the video can be seen. This allows the graphics card to do the scaling for full screen viewing, colorspace conversions, TV output, etc. Only one program at a time can use the overlay feature. The second player doesn't get the overlay feature so its video is placed directly on the desktop.

[charliei]

Hi guys, thanks again for your speedy and helpful replies.
After twiddling in catalyst control center, looking for overlay settings, it now works! Yay!

(just in case someone else has the same problem and googles their way here, I did the following:
Go to catalyst control center, expand video menu on left, choose video basics and try a different video preset - mine was on custom, now it's on home.
In the "Theatre Mode" menu, check the overlay settings to ensure the main display has the picture of a woman in, and not a black window. You can clone it to the second display too)


Charlie

[trick_dogg13]

Hi all,

I have a similar problem, but instead of the video playing on a specific player and not on another, it's simply not playing on any player... and I mean ANY player. I've have played these files before in vlc and now I just get a black screen with audio. I've tried the overlay solution with no luck. I don't think that it's a file corruption problem since I have tested these files on an another computer and they played fine; nor do I believe that it is a media player problem since I have tried it on multiple players with the same results. I'm running Win XP SP3 on a Compaq Evo N610c if that helps.

Any help will be highly appreciated.

Thanks!!

[redwudz]

It might still be overlay. Try this: Go to your video card settings in 'Control Panel>Display>Settings>Advanced>Troubleshoot' and move the Hardware acceleration slider to about 1/3 and see if that helps. If so, it's likely a overlay problem.

If no improvement, download the latest video drivers and have them ready, then uninstall your existing video drivers, reboot, and install the new ones. That should fix a corrupted video driver.

[jagabo]

In VLC go to Tools -> Preferences -> Video. In the Display box set Output to Windows GDI Video Output and then press Save. It may be necessary to exit and restart VLC. If your videos play normally after that the problem is with Video Overlay. Using Windows GDI is not a solution to your problem -- it increases CPU usage and you lose all the advantages of Video Overlay. But it's a good way to be sure.

You can also play a video in two players at once. Only one will get Video Overlay. The other will use Windows GDI. If one shows an image and one doesn't you have a Video Overlay problem.

[trick_dogg13]

Thanks!!

I set the hardware accelerator to about a third like you said and this resolved the problem. I just don't understand why if I had never changed that configuration, the video would just stop working. In any case thanks!!

[jagabo]

I set the hardware accelerator to about a third like you said and this resolved the problem.

Put it back up to full and see if playback still works. Sometimes that's enough to fix the problem. Sometimes you have to reinstall the graphics cards drivers. You don't really want to run with hardware acceleration turned down all the time.

[redwudz]

You don't really want to run with hardware acceleration turned down all the time.

Right, I should have mentioned that. Turning down the slider is really only to check if it is a overlay problem. I would unistall and reinstall the proper video card driver and that should get you back to normal.