No MP4 Output from Notebook to Projector - Troubleshooting for a friend

[kastro68]

Hi,

A friend from interstate had trouble getting video output from his Notebook computer to a Sony Projector. He does not know much about computers, and asked me for help.

The Problem:
He can see MPEG clips, vcd movies on the projector when played on the Notebook. However, he does not get any video output when he plays xvid or divx movies/clips. He tried both Windows media player 6.4, 8 and media player classic. He tells me he can see the desktop and the border of the player, but there is only black where the video should be. I think it may be a problem with his video overlay, but then why can he see MPEG videos??


His Setup:
-WinXp
-directx 8.1
-The video card on the notebook is and 8mb Ati-rage mobility. He connected the Notebook to the projector via a 15 pin trapezoidal like cable. He said his notebook does not have a video out port.

Since he is from interstate I cannot see his setup in person, so it makes it very difficult for me to help him, especially since I know nothing about that 15pin connector. I told him to install directx 9 and update his video drivers, but I doubt this will solve his problem.

If anyone knows what is wrong please help.

[LeonMcNichol]

Sounds similar to what I was getting with XviD and YV12. I got the sound, but no video. I had a temp fix with XviD by changing the force color to YUY2. The other way I was able to get it to work, is in zoomplayer, I used Force Overlay Mixer. This made it show up too.

In in the end, I updated my video drivers and all was fixed.

[kastro68]

I think you may be right.
I'll call him tonight.

I hope this works,

*fingers crossed*.

PS: to force yuy2 output, can this be done by not ticking the yv12 output in ffdshow?

[unmei]

yes
and you can verifiy it by looking in the "info" tab. Might need a restart of the player to take effect, tho.

[kastro68]

Unfortunately disabling YV12 output did not solve my friend's problem.

Does anyone have any other ideas/suggestions as to what is wrong?

[geoffwa]

The 15-pin trapezoidal cable sounds like the old RGBHV we know and love.

Does the overlay render correctly on his laptop's screen?

[kastro68]

Does the overlay render correctly on his laptop's screen?

Yes it does. He can watch divx, xvid, mpeg1, mpeg2 on his his laptop screen.

However, only mpeg1 from vcd makes it to the projector. He didn't have a dvd around at the time, so I don't know if mpeg2 makes it to the projector.

The 15-pin trapezoidal cable sounds like the old RGBHV we know and love.
Does this mean he should disable yuy2 output as well as yv12? He did say the connector was trapezoidal with 15 pins.

Interstate phone calls are expensive, and so I haven't contacted him that frequently.

[Vladdy]

I also have a projector and use VGA out (that sounds like the 15 pin plug).. Anyway, I cannot view divx/xvid/dvd on my 2nd display when using overlay.. It just comes up as a black space but audio plays.. What fixes it for me is to use VMR9 renderer in zoomplayer but i also believe its in things like media player classic.

If you go into zoomplayer, and options, in the filter control area, settings tab, you can select the video renderer. You need to have directx 9 installed for this to work.

In a nutshell, when using vmr9 it uses direct3d to render the display. It creates a 3d polgon, and the image is mapped onto it, therefore getting advanced filters that 3d accelerator can provide. The older way of using overlay is frustrating on dual monitor setups. Usually, you can only overlay onto 1 monitor and some drivers will only let you overlay onto the primary monitor.. Very frustrating.. At least with VMR9 you can use as many displays as you like and you will see the picture on all screens.


Before VMR9, i had to go through lengthy config screens to setup my projector, but now its as if the 2nd screen is like my primary screen.

[kastro68]

I told him to install directx 9 with the intention of telling him to use Media player classic and renderless mode, just like you described. However, I thought this was a long shot. However, since it works for you and because It seems that you were experiencing the exact same problem as him, hopefully your solution should also solve my friends problem too.

The only problem is that he hasn't got around to downloading directx9 yet. Since it works for you, I guess I should give him a ring and encourage him to try it sooner, rather than later.

I'll keep you informed of the outcome.