Well. i tryed this codec. I think it made things worse.
Not only will WMC not play any of my vids, now, everytime i try to play any
vids, Media Center crashes. joy.
CODECS are funny in that they can mess up how others function. NEVER
install a CODEC pack. Only install the specific codec you need, one at
a time, never a whole bunch at once then see if that solves your
problem, if not uninstall and try the next one. A slow painfull
process for sure. Microsoft recommends a specific site. I would check
there first. Don't have the URL handy, if I remember right is gets
pointed to from within Vista's help system.
The newer file type div or divX presents special issues in that they
are based on a hack which in turn was based on a old codec Microsoft
started to develop and never finished. You can get multiple codecs
that conflict, as you probably have done now. To further muddy the
waters it is common for people making little music videos and the like
to often post same to some web site or newsgroup using a .avi as a
"wrapper" which may have a divX file inside. This for sure can confuse
some players, especially Media Player that gets confused even with
simpler stuff. If you play a lot of DivX movies, then download and
install a DivX player. There are several good free ones.
You can get a better idea of what's really inside a .avi wrapper by
opening with GSpot or some similar free utility. Just install GSpot,
then open the problem .avi file with it, then press the render button
(misuse of the term) then it will report which codecs on your system
should be able to open the file. There often is more than one that can
already on your system. This utility will also show file corruption.
For anything in a .avi wrapper many players will freeze, break up or
stutter and you will be unable to "scub" the timeline. That term
simply means rapidly advance through the movie back and worth like
doing a fast forward or reverse on a VCR or DVD player. If the file is
corrupt you won't be able to scrub totally. Usually that issue is due
to the .avi file not having a header, which is in the last part in a
multipart file, unlike a .mpg file that split that has the header in
the first part. There are many utilites and can seek out and repair
corruption in .avi files and also rebuild the header so the vid scrubs
correctly which is another test if it will play correctly all the way
through.
