wimdows media 10: extension/codec problem (1 Viewer)

[Ted Lee]

hi all -

like a boner, i decided to upgrade to 10.

now, when i try to play my old windows media files, i the following error.

the file you are attempting to play has an extension that does not match the file format. playing the file may result in unexpected behavior.

these are definitely wmv files. they have the little icon and i used to be able to play them. it also gave me some error about a missing codec, but i went to the website and downloaded all the current ones (at least i think i did).

so what happened? any ideas are welcome!



edit: it's also giving me another error now.

Windows Media Player cannot play the file because a required codec is not installed on your computer.
so how do i get the freakin' codec?

 

[Gabriel_Lam]

Give this codec pack a try:

http://www.divx-digest.com/software/acemega_codec.html

 

[Scott L]

Yikes, WMP10 has been pretty good to me after installing. What I would do:

1) Codec packs suck and can intall a lot of unnecessary things. Just drop the clip into GSpot and see what codec it uses. Just because it says .wmv at the end doesn't mean it was encoded in WM9 or any previous versions.

2) Re-install/repair WMP10.

3) Try playing it in Zoom Player.

4) Try installing the WM9 VCM codec or even Windows Media Encoder.

 

[Ted Lee]

thx guys! i may need those codecs, but i think something bigger is going on. i just realized my system won't recognize my quicktime movies either.

i *know* these are valid files (bmw films, triumph insults whoever, etc.) -- i've played them many times already. it's odd, i have no clue what suddenly happened. i constantly run all my spyware stuff, so i'm pretty sure my system is clean.

in both cases, the error my os is giving me is something about the system not recognizing the file. for quicktime, the error is:

couldn't open the file xxx because it is not a file that quicktime understands

but quicktime is working correctly because i can play the little mini-sample file no problem.

 

[Scott L]

hmmm.. have DirextX 9.0c installed? See anything possibly related in Windows Update?

 

[ChristopherDAC]

I know I had a certain amount of trouble with this. It eventually turned out I had the appropriate codec in my computer, but not in the correct directory thanks to the updates shuffling things around; so I found the old ones and copied them into the proper folders.
Now Windows has a codec server, and if you're online it can "automatically find" codecs but I'm not sure how well that works.
wm10 should give you an option, though: "attempt to play this file anyway". Does it?

 

[NickSo]

could they be divx/xvid files? WMP10 doesnt know where to find codecs for those files...

 

[Ted Lee]

nope, they're definitely standard wmv files.

i've been doing some more playing around and i don't think it's the applications after all. i re-downloaded some "fresh" copies of some quicktime and wmv files and they play perfectly. i think, for some reason, my existing files have been corrupted. i'm also having some weird problems with some of my existing picture files.

as long as i know my app's are working fine, then i'm cool. most of my video files are stupid ones anyway. all my dvd editing files work fine, so that's a relief.

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on a totally side note, is media player supposed to play dvd's by default or am i *supposed* to have/download a specific codec for that? i do plan on checking out that freecodecs.com site more thoroughly.