Media Player troubles - can anyone help?

[Dr. Vollin]

A couple of weeks ago, I had to send my PC in for repairs and ended up losing everything on the hard drive. Before all this, I had a perfectly good Windows Media Player (version 7). When I got the computer back, I re-downloaded WMP, but it hasn't been working properly since then. Since then, many of the clips I download are too messed up to watch (and some of them are clips that worked fine before, so I don't think the problem lies with the clips). I don't know what to make of this; can anybody here point me toward an answer?

 

[His Divine Shadow]

You may have had updated codecs on the system that WMP7 was able to use to play files that it no longer can. I assume that you are unable to use the latest version of Windows Media Player. If you can, updating to version ten might fix the problem. If you can tell me what types of files don't like to play, I may be able to point you to updated codecs.

Otherwise, try grabbing Media Player Classic. It can play a great many file types, and should it fail, you can also try the K-Lite Mega Codec Pack, although I don't recommend it unless you are confident enough to tweak installation settings or are willing to go without your current players. You see, it puts in codecs for anything you could possibly want to play, but those codecs often render current players useless by replacing their (WMP for one will complain when it is used if the WMP Codecs are not unchecked during installation).

 

[Dr. Vollin]

Thanks for replying.

I forgot to add that I'm using Windows 98, which means I can't use WMP 10 (already tried that). As far as the file types which don't like to play, it's the .wmv files where the problem lies.

I will try this Media Player Classic, and let you know if it works any better.

 

[Dr. Vollin]

That didn't take long. I downloaded and tried Media Player Classic - but all it does is start opening clips, then say "Failed to render file".

 

[His Divine Shadow]

Hmm...well, if the only files that give you trouble are wmv files, maybe Microsoft has a codec out for WMP7...let me check...well, you said you were using version 7, yes? Grab version 9 for WIndows 98: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...19-9A5B-44C3-B1DE-9B2A9AA6CFF6&displaylang=en

Should that fail, try the codec package from Microsoft: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...B7-DCC9-466B-B0C4-04DB144BB601&displaylang=en
While it says only for XP in the system requirements, it also says it works for below XP elsewhere on the page, so it might be worth a shot.

 

[Dr. Vollin]

Got Media Player 9 and everything is working now.

to His Divine Shadow.