Media player goes black

[carolinatim]

I have media player 11 installed, recently it has started going black screen while playing videos about 1/2 - 2/3 through the video. Audio plays OK to the end of the file but the video just goes black. This happens on new files as well as older ones I have played before and are saved on my computer.

[tech_support]

Try downloading and installing the K-Lite Codec Pack.

[carolinatim]

Tried that, still the same problem.

[carolinatim]

anybody have another suggestion? I have seen the same problem in a couple of other forums from 2-3 years ago but nobody answered them. I can play the files with VLC media player and they are fine all the way to the end.

[BLiZZaRD]

Try playing a video in skins mode, as well as windowed, NOT full screen mode, and see if it still happens.

I know it sounds weird, but this is a posted fix, LMAO.

also, if it does continue to stop, download and reinstall WMP11 over the old one.

[carolinatim]

Tried that also, and rolled back to WMP 10. Still does the same thing. I emailed microsoft, maybe they will answer me. Still open to suggestions from here tho!

[BLiZZaRD]

Okay I am going to guess you have Vista? There seems to be a HUGE problem with Vista upgrades (did you come from XP on the same computer?) and WMP 11. The problem is Vista doesn't already have all of the codecs needed for all video types. This causes the error messages and the black screens.

You have a few options, I will list the 2 most probable here:

Download GSpot Which is a codec finder. Basically you run this free utility and it will tell you which codecs are missing. You can then search google for the codec name and download/install them all. If you like WMP 11 this is what you want to do.

The other option is to drop WMP and go with another one. RealPlayer 11 is good and there is a free one called VLC that I have heard nothing but praise about. I run all my video/audio on Linux and have plenty of players so I haven't found the need to test out VLC myself.

[ItsMeOnly]

Did you try other players and if that happens with them too? If so, did you update the drivers for graphic card lately? The "black" going WMP might indicate that your overlay settings/control are messed up (and thus, overlay is destroyed after call for refresh/redraw). You'd need to check if all parameters are in sane limits.

[carolinatim]

Sorry, I didn't say what OS I am running. I have XP home edition, and the files will play fine in VLC media player or with quicktime player for the MPEG's. the problem only exists in WMP.

[carolinatim]

bump^