Video Hangs, Audio Plays On

[HardwareGeek]

Hi,

I need assistance helping someone else's problem. In a nutshell, the video hangs after 30 minutes or so, but the audio plays on.

It sounds to me like a problem with the AV filter. Problem occurs when the person plays DVDs, AVIs, & MPEGS. Platform is XP. Players affected are WMP, PowerDVD, & Nero's Player.

I am going to recommend that the person uninstall the current filter, if he can find it, and to download and install the AC3Filter listed among the doom9 downloads. Does this seem like a good course of action? Any suggestions or ideas would be appreciated.

[communist]

Huh?!
The audio plays but you want to recommend installing AC3Filter (which decodes AC3 = audio) - this doesnt make sense at all.

I would start by asking if any codec packs etc. have been installed and if yes - deinstall them first.

[HardwareGeek]

Huh?!
The audio plays but you want to recommend installing AC3Filter (which decodes AC3 = audio) - this doesnt make sense at all.I thought that filters handled both audio and video? Had a similar problem once myself with just the video freezing. Can't remember what I uninstalled. Maybe it was a codec and not a filter. At any rate, if I remember correctly, I installed the ffdshow filter, and it took care of the problem.

I would start by asking if any codec packs etc. have been installed and if yes - deinstall them first.Good idea. Maybe I am mistaken in thinking filters and should be thinking codecs instead?

[HardwareGeek]

if I remember correctly, I installed the ffdshow filter, and it took care of the problem. Correction. It is 3ivx, which is currently installed on that computer. I have ffdshow is installed on another computer.

So, it appears that this person needs a codec that can handle at least AVI & MPEG2, such as 3ivx, which has "playback filters for any media player" (quote from doom9's download page).

[communist]

Sorry but this doesnt make sense either - if he didn have a video decoder (codec/filter whatever) installed he wouldn see the video to begin with.
I would check DirectX, display drivers and try VLC player.

[HardwareGeek]

if he didn have a video decoder (codec/filter whatever) installed he wouldn see the video to begin withCorrect. But he is able to see video, so clearly he has something installed. What I meant was he needs a new codec filter that will not cause poblems with the video portion stopping.

BTW, thanks for your help.

[foxyshadis]

Well, there's always the nuclear option: reinstall. May as well go with vlc or mplayer though. For a directshow solution, using MPC or zoomplayer to force native decoding and ffdshow/haali's should take care of any other messiness. For DS players that can't force filter graphs, you'll probably need to do directshow surgery with Insurgent, see the CCCP page (http://www.cccp-project.net/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page#Latest_CCCP_.28aka._Download_Here.21.29).

They don't tell you, but you might have to regsvr32 /u "filter.ax" a lot of discovered old directshow filters if they have no uninstall option.

[setarip_old]

@HardwareGeek

Just to eliminate possible causes - Have you tried playing the IDENTICAL problematic files (copied from your friend's hard drive) on a different PC (e.g. Yours)?

[HardwareGeek]

Well, there's always the nuclear option: reinstallAlready done, but problem persists. Or maybe the problem didn't appear until after the re-install?
Have you tried playing the IDENTICAL problematic files (copied from your friend's hard drive) on a different PC (e.g. Yours)?Friend is in Denmark. I'm in Los Angeles. According to the person, it happens with DVD, AVI, & MPEG. I don't think it's limited to one movie.

Problem is very similar to a problem that I once had, & it turned out to be the codec I was using. The person says that he has been using Codec Pack de Elisoftv13.505, & it has never given him problems. He is currently downloading latest DirectX software and installing it to see if that fixes the issue.

Thanks for all your suggestions. I shall pass them along & hopefully we will get this thing licked.

[check]

I'd suggest he uninstalls all the codecs he has installed at the moment, then installs Haali splitter, ffdshow a/v decoder, directvobsub if he needs subtitles and a directshow player such as MPC. If you aren't that keen on running him through uninstalling each of those components seperately, I'd recommend you check out the CCCP (in my signature) - although it says anime, it will playback all the files you listed. The main video types it does not include support for are realmedia (which you need Real Alternative for) and VP6/7 (which you need the official decoder for).

Also, stay away from divx stuff! The decoder is useless (it doesn't even decode some files encoded by divx properly), and the player will only a play a small subset of all videos he has.

[HardwareGeek]

stay away from divx stuff! I think it was the divx decoder that was giving me problems a while back.

Thanks for your input.

[setarip_old]

he has been using Codec Pack de Elisoftv13.505If you check out the website from which it's available for download, you'll see that among god-knows-how-many freeware codecs and filters there also appear to be a slew of commercial filters and codecs!

When your dealing with what appears to be illicit/cracked/warez codecs/filters, you never know what you're getting - and sometimes "you get what you paid for" - troubles...

http://codecpack.elisoft.net/

[HardwareGeek]

@setarip_old

thx