Reverting back to WMF 9.0

[Ldavis]

Okay...
I am working with my companies Encoders for encoding VOBs into WMVs for presentation on the web. We have 15 total encoders, ten of which have windows media player 9.0 and therefore likely the 9.0 Codec. The newer five machines have WMP 11.0 on them and the 9.5 Codec. I need to revert these newer machines back to the 9.0 codec, remove WMP 11 and install WMP 9.0. I have trolled the net looking for anwsers and I am not finding anything that is even remotely useful.

Before I go through the nasty task of reinstalling XP (a verison that has WMP 9.0 on it) I need your help in doing what I want to do (if it is possible).

I am working with the following setup:
Windows XP Professional
Version 2002
SP 2

Dual Intel Xeon 5160 @ 3.00 GHz
with a 1 Gig of Ram

What do you all think?

regards,
LDavis

[zambelli]

The WMP11 machines actually have WMF11 codecs.

WMP9 = WM Format 9
WMP10 = WM Format 9.5 (yeah, go figure)
WMP11 = WM Format 11

Reverting from v11 to v9 is going to be very difficult, if not impossible. If you can't get it done through simple Add/Remove Programs uninstall, it's probably not possible.

Your alternative is to manually unregister v11 codecs and then copy and register v9 codecs.

But let me ask you this: why do you want to use v9 anyway? v11 produces better quality than v9 - it'd be a shame to use older inferior technology if there's no need for it.

[Ldavis]

zambelli,
So far everything I have looked for as turned up a dead end on reverting back. So its likely that I will have to reinstall windows XP to get back to the codec.

"But let me ask you this: why do you want to use v9 anyway? v11 produces better quality than v9 - it'd be a shame to use older inferior technology if there's no need for it."

First, I completely agree with you. Unfortunately, I am bound by the requirements of the company to do it a specific way. We have the capability of taking a VOB and turning it into 5 different Bit Rates from 150 to 2000 mb, while it is of my lowly opinion that having 5 seperate bit rates produces a much better quality WMV, and that the WMV 11 is better, I am constrained by the company and its requirements to have 1 WMV with 5 bit rates in it. This works fine with a 9.0 codec but anything higher causes WM Encoder to "freak out" which causes it to drop samples instead of dropping whole frames and thus gives the end product that is viewed a staggering look as it plays.

Any other ideas before I dissect my encoders?

regards
Ldavis

[zambelli]

First, I completely agree with you. Unfortunately, I am bound by the requirements of the company to do it a specific way. We have the capability of taking a VOB and turning it into 5 different Bit Rates from 150 to 2000 mb, while it is of my lowly opinion that having 5 seperate bit rates produces a much better quality WMV, and that the WMV 11 is better, I am constrained by the company and its requirements to have 1 WMV with 5 bit rates in it. This works fine with a 9.0 codec but anything higher causes WM Encoder to "freak out" which causes it to drop samples instead of dropping whole frames and thus gives the end product that is viewed a staggering look as it plays.
That's unfortunate. I wasn't aware of that problem with multibitrate encoding. I wonder if it's a problem in WME9, WM Format SDK or in the codecs. I'll send you my e-mail address by PM. If you could send me an e-mail with a detailed description of the problem, I can forward it to the WME9 support team - maybe they'll know what's going on.

Any other ideas before I dissect my encoders?
You could try swapping encoder DLLs. Try this:

regsvr32 /u c:\windows\system32\wmvencod.dll
regsvr32 /u c:\windows\system32\wmvxencd.dll
regsvr32 /u c:\windows\system32\wmvdmoe2.dll
regsvr32 /u c:\windows\system32\wmvadve.dll

Then copy wmvdmoe.dll from a WMP9 system to some other local folder (not System32) and run:

regsvr32 wmvdmoe.dll

Give that a try, see if it fixes the MBR issue.

[Ldavis]

Zambelli,
I wil definitely give that a try just before I have to dissect my encoders, in case i have to dissect my encoders.

I would appreciate getting your email so i can get a more detailed problem of the issue.

Regards,
Ldavis

[zambelli]

I sent you my e-mail address by PM yesterday. Check your private messages inbox.

[Ldavis]

Thank you for help in resolving this problem. I haven’t yet had a chance to switch out DLL’s, but I am looking forward to doing this. I have a small question before I start. I feel that I should uninstall the WM Ver. 11 off these machines and install WM9 before I switch out the DLL’s. What do you think? In addition, is it possible for me to get a DL of the WM9.0?