All videos show up as Black Screen

[Bruce]

Some time back I lost the ability to play videos. The
problem is independent of the player. For example, it
the same for real player, media player, and quicktime.

Videos that onced played now just show up as a black
screen. I can hear the sound, but the video is black.

I have Windows XP professional.

Any Ideas where to start?

 

[Cari \(MS MVP\)]

What are the file extensions of the videos?

What happened during the time period between when these files played
correctly and now?

 

[Dr. Indera]

hi bruce,

i took some video today. they have sound and the video is black.
hopefully, we will get an answer shortly.

--
Indera
* * * * * * * * * *
Don't just live life.
Live life well.


:
:
: Some time back I lost the ability to play videos. The
: problem is independent of the player. For example, it
: the same for real player, media player, and quicktime.
:
: Videos that onced played now just show up as a black
: screen. I can hear the sound, but the video is black.
:
: I have Windows XP professional.
:
: Any Ideas where to start?

 

[Dr. Indera]

hi cari,
the file extension is .asf
my files are still on the sd card in the digital camera.
there are files on the sd card before < the video's are numbered
sequentially> and after the file that only has audio.
any help would be greatly appreciated.

--
Indera
* * * * * * * * * *
Don't just live life.
Live life well.


: What are the file extensions of the videos?
:
: What happened during the time period between when these files played
: correctly and now?
:
: --
: Cari (MS-MVP Windows Client - Printing, Imaging & Hardware)
: www.coribright.com
:
: : >
: >
: > Some time back I lost the ability to play videos. The
: > problem is independent of the player. For example, it
: > the same for real player, media player, and quicktime.
: >
: > Videos that onced played now just show up as a black
: > screen. I can hear the sound, but the video is black.
: >
: > I have Windows XP professional.
: >
: > Any Ideas where to start?
:
:

 

[Bruce]

I wish I knew. It could have been something that adaware
caused or it could have been the install of Intervideo
Winproducer or microsoft movie maker. I'm not really
sure has I do not watch a lot of videos on my PC, so when
I discovered it, as much as a month could have gone by.
I just ran a test just to make sure I was clear on the
facts:

All formats show up black in Media player
All .avi formats result in errors with Media PLayer,
Quicktime and realplayer

..mov and .qt play correctly in realplayer and Quicktime

I just dont know where to start

 

[Cari \(MS MVP\)]

AVI files can be compresed or uncompressed. An uncompressed AVI will take
up approximately 12gb of hard drive space per hour.....so you probably won't
find many online - and if you did, you probably wouldn't try downloading
them.

So we come to the conclusion that the AVI file you want to play is
compressed... and in order to be able to play it, you need to know which
particular codec it is compressed with.

Happily someone wrote something that will help
http://www.headbands.com/gspot/

Let G-Spot analyze the AVI and once you know which codec encoded and
compressed the file, you can download them, install them and the file will
play.

 

[Cari \(MS MVP\)]

Try copying it to the hard drive..... asf is usually a link to a streamed
video (active streaming format), I haven't seen it in a hardware device
before. You might try renaming the extension to wmv once it's on your hard
drive and see if Windows Media Player can handle it correctly then.
http://filext.com/detaillist.php?extdetail=asf&goButton=Go

 

[Rehan]

Cari,

An uncompressed AVI will take
up approximately 12gb of hard drive space per hour.....

Sorry for the intrusion but I have seen this statement of yours in reply to
many other messages... and it has been bugging me for a while. May I ask why
do you consider that uncompressed AVi file would take only 12gb per hour ?

I suspect you are referring to DV AVI files which take up about that size.
However DV AVI is a compressed file format and on top of that it is a
"lossy" file format.


The true uncompressed avi as in "Unocmpressed RGB" using null codec would
result in huge file sizes which can be calculated as follows:

One RGB pixel = 24bits = 3bytes
For an NTSC movie of 720x480 @ 30fps
A single frame would take = 3x720x480 = 1036800 bytes = 0.988 Mb
One hour of movie would take = 3600*30*0.988 Mb = 104.284 Gb
(assuming 1024bytes=1Kb, 1024Kb=1Mb, 1024Mb=1Gb)

Which is about 8 times the DV-AVI file size (13Gb/hour)... Calculation for
PAL is no different.

Please correct me if there is any error in above assumptions/calculations.


--
Rehan
www.rehanfx.org - get transitions and effects for Windows MovieMaker

 

[Dr. Indera]

hi cari,

windows media player will play other asf files that i have.
this one seems to be corrupt.
i renamed it to wmv while on my hard drive and still no luck.

--
Indera
* * * * * * * * * *
Don't just live life.
Live life well.


: Try copying it to the hard drive..... asf is usually a link to a streamed
: video (active streaming format), I haven't seen it in a hardware device
: before. You might try renaming the extension to wmv once it's on your
hard
: drive and see if Windows Media Player can handle it correctly then.
: http://filext.com/detaillist.php?extdetail=asf&goButton=Go
: --
: Cari (MS-MVP Windows Client - Printing, Imaging & Hardware)
: www.coribright.com
:
: : > hi cari,
: > the file extension is .asf
: > my files are still on the sd card in the digital camera.
: > there are files on the sd card before < the video's are numbered
: > sequentially> and after the file that only has audio.
: > any help would be greatly appreciated.
: >
: > --
: > Indera
: > * * * * * * * * * *
: > Don't just live life.
: > Live life well.
: >
: >
: > : > : What are the file extensions of the videos?
: > :
: > : What happened during the time period between when these files played
: > : correctly and now?
: > :
: > : --
: > : Cari (MS-MVP Windows Client - Printing, Imaging & Hardware)
: > : www.coribright.com
: > :
: > : : > : >
: > : >
: > : > Some time back I lost the ability to play videos. The
: > : > problem is independent of the player. For example, it
: > : > the same for real player, media player, and quicktime.
: > : >
: > : > Videos that onced played now just show up as a black
: > : > screen. I can hear the sound, but the video is black.
: > : >
: > : > I have Windows XP professional.
: > : >
: > : > Any Ideas where to start?
: > :
: > :
: >
: >
:
:

 

[M.L.]

One hour of movie would take = 3600*30*0.988 Mb = 104.284 Gb
(assuming 1024bytes=1Kb, 1024Kb=1Mb, 1024Mb=1Gb)

Which is about 8 times the DV-AVI file size (13Gb/hour)... Calculation for
PAL is no different.

Please correct me if there is any error in above assumptions/calculations.

The Huffy codec can compress the AVI losslessly; I think it compresses
even better than DV-AVI.