Codecs in a terrible mess!

[cybercat]

Hello! I wasn't sure which forum to put this under, so hopefully this is the most accurate choice.

So I'm having some terrible problems with my video codecs. Like a month or so ago I was trying to convert some DVDs so I installed GordianKnot Codec pack + GordianKnot Rippack (using the latest versions of them at the time). Unfortunately, a lot of the files that it was putting out were corrupt or something (unplayable), so I installed AutoGK (which worked well enough, albeit, without x264 support).

I suspect the preceding info is the cause of my problem. Here are my symptoms. Pretty much any video file is unplayable in pretty much any media player. Files such as XviD, DivX, h264, wmv, mpeg, pretty much any video file. Note however, that when I try to play video files generally the AUDIO plays fine, while the video is either black, or a weird mostly green fuzziness (it just shows up as black in a screenshot).

This problem affects basically every "media player" type program that I have, such as Quicktime, Windows Media Player, WinDVD, VLC, Media Player Classic, Real Player, Showtime, et al.

Pretty much the ONLY video filetype I can play is .FLVs (youtube-esque videos).

The main thing I've done so far to try to fix the issue is uninstalling as much of the above mention programs as possible (AutoGK, codec packs, etc.). I've also tried reinstalling DivX, but alas, even their official player can't even play DivX/XviD files!

Please advise me on any other helpful information I can provide!

This issue is driving me nuts, so ANY help is very greatly appreciated! :thanks:

[foxyshadis]

Try starting with uninstalling both packs from add/remove programs. Reboot, then just for good measure run 'regsvr32 quartz.dll' to ensure directshow is in a good state. Download CCCP insurgent and run a test render on different files, if any decoders (besides divx) come up, run a 'regsvr32 -u "path to .ax"' on them.

Then install haali's splitter & ffdshow-tryout, and reinstall divx or xvid, whichever is your preference for encoding.

[cybercat]

Hello, foxyshadis, thank you for the fast reply.

By "both packs" I'm assuming you mean Codec pack and GordianKnot Rippack. I had already uninstalled these before, although since they have many "subinstallers", I'm not certain if it completely removed everything.

I ran "regsvr32 quartz.dll" which succeeded. Now I'm a little bit confused by the next step. I got CCCP Insurgent, but I'm not sure which DirectShot filters I'm supposed to use to "test render" with which files, and there are 662 filters! Some of the filter names do sound like certain files types, such as "MPEG Layer-3 Decoder" sounds like it is for playing MP3 files. But for example, there is no "MPEG-2 Decoder" for MPEG-2 files. There is a MPEG-2 Splitter, MPEG-2 Demultiplexer, and such. I tried test rendering with some of these with a MPEG2 video. What happens is an approximately 75x75px borderless box appears in the upper-left most of the monitor which is a static random cyan and green pattern (although it looks basically the same each time) which stays on top of all other windows.

The "render results" window does give about four or so .AX files, are you saying that I just go through the entire 662 filter list and run "regsvr32 -u *.ax" for each activex filter that shows up?

[foxyshadis]

If they start with a q or wm, they're most likely Microsoft codecs and shouldn't be touched. (Some others, like Indeo and l3dec, are also system codecs.) Everything outside system32 is definitely 3rd-party.

Actually, there's an advanced option that makes it a filter manager, where you can register and unregister directly, I see, so you don't have to use the command window. At this point you might already be able to patch it up with ffdshow and haali's, further tinkering is just to be sure nothing else will interfere.

The test render command will use the highest merit filters, you don't actually have to choose any. If you see a 3rd party decoder in the test render list, that's one you'll want to unregister.

[blizard]

Try starting with uninstalling both packs from add/remove programs. Reboot, then just for good measure run 'regsvr32 quartz.dll' to ensure directshow is in a good state. Download CCCP insurgent and run a test render on different files, if any decoders (besides divx) come up, run a 'regsvr32 -u "path to .ax"' on them.

Then install haali's splitter & ffdshow-tryout, and reinstall divx or xvid, whichever is your preference for encoding.

Is there really a need to install XviD or Divx codec as FFDSHOW can do that decoding too? FFDSHOW can do almost all MPEG-4 ASP (=XviD and DivX) and MPEG-4 AVC (h.264) decoding (+ some more MPEG-4 variants) and also MP3, AAC (with help of FAAD) for sound, so I don't see why any extra codec to decode those kind of audio and video would be necessary. Even DTS and AC3 can either be decoded or pass-through via S/PDIF to an external decoder which mean that FFDSHOW and some directshow capable player (front end) would be enough.

AutoGK will need VFW cable codec, so that is the only reason to keep those codec, but there is today better option to use MeGUI or some other front end to handle those task.

Cybercat:
You did use VLC and still have that problem with green fuzzy picture? VLC don't make use of directshow to create a filter chain as it has FFMPEG codec built into its software. In that case I would start to look for what kind of driver you have installed for your video card and that it has no conflict to render picture in windows.

I am no expert on this, but it sound more like you have a problem related to video driver as you have tried many different media player (both directshow and non-directshow based one) with the same success.

In VLC you can mark "advanced option" to get access to some hidden features in preference: video>output modules.

Make sure that it is set to "default", that is the most flexible setting for driver support. You can also try between "DirectX 3D support" (Hardware) or "OpenGL".

[cybercat]

Hi blizard, thanks for the advice.

I had forgotten to mention before that VLC didn't show the cyan/green pattern while playing a video. It instead just reverts to "minimal" mode (same as while playing an audio file) and just plays the audio from the video.

So, as you suggested, blizard, I looked at the VLC video output module which was set to Default. I played around with the different settings and thankfully, OpenGL makes it work fine! As far as I can tell, VLC can play all the video files that it used to be able to play (I've tested XviD, DivX, MP4/H.264, MPEG-2). This is definitely a big step in the right direction! Unfortunately, the other media players still don't work (not that changing VLC settings would effect other players).

Like you recommended, foxyshadis, I've spent the last few hours registering/unregistering various "apparent" third-party codecs that show up in test render results, unfortunately with very little success. It's actually quite hard to figure out which codecs are third-party and which aren't since many developers put their codecs in system32, how do you know which to keep? So far I've only managed to get WMP to be able to play MPEG-2 files again, but at least that's something. I think I did that by removing a CyberLink MPEG-2 decoder.

Is there any software that I should uninstall? I have Nero, PowerDVD and WinDVD (just uninstalled WinDVD though). Their codecs probably account for at least a quarter of the total filters. I also have "quartz.dll", "l3codecx.ax" and "MMswitch.ax" showing up for most every filetype (all in system32) in the render results.

I've look through the filter list in Insurgent and I think that a good chunk of them are actually audio filters/effects. Probably half of them are Waves, and Cakewalk Sonar effects. Would it be helpful if I saved a list of all the filters? Maybe then you could pin point the most likely ones that are causing the problem.

In regards to what you were saying, blizard, about ffdshow verses DivX/XviD, unfortunately, I really need to have the "official" DivX codec because I use the video editing program, Sony Vegas, which for whatever reason can only import and export DivX files correctly with that codec (it seems if you install XviD, it takes over DivX in Vegas and you can't even import DivX/XviD movies then).

Thanks for all your help so far, what would you recommend I do next?

[Dark Shikari]

Remove MMswitch, that's the Morgan Stream Switcher which comes with K-Lite, possibly one of the most evil individual filters of all time in terms of incompatibility.

I'd suggest you download the CCCP Insurgent and use the Test Render on various types of files that do not work for you. Then post the logs of the Test Render.

[cybercat]

Hi Dark Shikari, here's my CCCP Insurgent Render Results for some filetypes that I can't play. Also attached is the complete CCCP log of all filters on my system in case that helps (note that I had to chop it down a bit since it was slightly over the 200KB limit). I also unregistered mmswitch.ax as you recommended.

.AVI/.DIVX (DivX)
Filter 0: Default DirectSound Device
Filename: C:\WINDOWS\system32\quartz.dll
Filter CRC: EF5A266F
Date: 2005-08-29 | 20:54:26
Filter 1: Video Renderer
Filename: C:\WINDOWS\system32\quartz.dll
Filter CRC: EF5A266F
Date: 2005-08-29 | 20:54:26
Filter 2: MPEG Layer-3 Decoder
Filename: C:\WINDOWS\system32\l3codecx.ax
Filter CRC: 73C33639
Date: 2001-08-23 | 05:00:00
Filter 3: DivX Decoder Filter
Filename: C:\WINDOWS\system32\divxdec.ax
Filter CRC: BC95005E
Date: 2007-09-18 | 05:24:32
Filter 4: AVI Splitter
Filename: C:\WINDOWS\system32\quartz.dll
Filter CRC: EF5A266F
Date: 2005-08-29 | 20:54:26
Filter 5: C:\Documents and Settings\CyberCat\Desktop\1685730.avi
Filename: C:\WINDOWS\system32\quartz.dll
Filter CRC: EF5A266F
Date: 2005-08-29 | 20:54:26
.AVI (XviD)
Filter 0: Default DirectSound Device
Filename: C:\WINDOWS\system32\quartz.dll
Filter CRC: EF5A266F
Date: 2005-08-29 | 20:54:26
Filter 1: Video Renderer
Filename: C:\WINDOWS\system32\quartz.dll
Filter CRC: EF5A266F
Date: 2005-08-29 | 20:54:26
Filter 2: MPEG Layer-3 Decoder
Filename: C:\WINDOWS\system32\l3codecx.ax
Filter CRC: 73C33639
Date: 2001-08-23 | 05:00:00
Filter 3: DivX Decoder Filter
Filename: C:\WINDOWS\system32\divxdec.ax
Filter CRC: BC95005E
Date: 2007-09-18 | 05:24:32
Filter 4: AVI Splitter
Filename: C:\WINDOWS\system32\quartz.dll
Filter CRC: EF5A266F
Date: 2005-08-29 | 20:54:26
Filter 5: C:\Documents and Settings\CyberCat\Desktop\1184730.avi
Filename: C:\WINDOWS\system32\quartz.dll
Filter CRC: EF5A266F
Date: 2005-08-29 | 20:54:26
.AVI (Sony DV) dvsd?
Filter 0: Default DirectSound Device
Filename: C:\WINDOWS\system32\quartz.dll
Filter CRC: EF5A266F
Date: 2005-08-29 | 20:54:26
Filter 1: Video Renderer
Filename: C:\WINDOWS\system32\quartz.dll
Filter CRC: EF5A266F
Date: 2005-08-29 | 20:54:26
Filter 2: DV Video Decoder
Filename: C:\WINDOWS\system32\qdv.dll
Filter CRC: C1737688
Date: 2004-08-04 | 01:56:46
Filter 3: AVI Splitter
Filename: C:\WINDOWS\system32\quartz.dll
Filter CRC: EF5A266F
Date: 2005-08-29 | 20:54:26
Filter 4: C:\Documents and Settings\CyberCat\Desktop\1183730.avi
Filename: C:\WINDOWS\system32\quartz.dll
Filter CRC: EF5A266F
Date: 2005-08-29 | 20:54:26
.MP4 (AVC/h264)
Filter 0: Default DirectSound Device
Filename: C:\WINDOWS\system32\quartz.dll
Filter CRC: EF5A266F
Date: 2005-08-29 | 20:54:26
Filter 1: CyberLink Audio Decoder (PDVD7)
Filename: C:\Program Files\Cyberlink\PowerDVD\AudioFilter\CLAud_w.ax
Filter CRC: 2F369645
Date: 2007-02-08 | 18:43:06
Filter 2: Nero MP4 Splitter
Filename: C:\Program Files\Common Files\Ahead\DSFilter\NeMP4Splitter.ax
Filter CRC: DDB566E0
Date: 2007-03-13 | 14:24:56
Filter 3: C:\Documents and Settings\CyberCat\Desktop\6184730.mp4
Filename: C:\WINDOWS\system32\quartz.dll
Filter CRC: EF5A266F
Date: 2005-08-29 | 20:54:26

[Dark Shikari]

Everything I have left here, kill with fire if you don't need it for a good reason. Also, install the CCCP or at least just FFDShow to replace all the codecs you're removing.

Filter 3: DivX Decoder Filter
Filename: C:\WINDOWS\system32\divxdec.ax
Filter CRC: BC95005E
Date: 2007-09-18 | 05:24:32

Filter 1: CyberLink Audio Decoder (PDVD7)
Filename: C:\Program Files\Cyberlink\PowerDVD\AudioFilter\CLAud_w.ax
Filter CRC: 2F369645
Date: 2007-02-08 | 18:43:06

Filter 2: Nero MP4 Splitter
Filename: C:\Program Files\Common Files\Ahead\DSFilter\NeMP4Splitter.ax
Filter CRC: DDB566E0
Date: 2007-03-13 | 14:24:56

[diogen]

Unless you really enjoy figuring out the intricacies of DirectShow, just do nuke-n-pave.
If nothing else, it'll be much faster go get where you are going...

Diogen.

[Thunderbolt8]

edited -.-

[cybercat]

All right, I unregistered divxdec.ax, CLAud_w.ax, and NeMP4Splitter.ax as you suggested, Dark Shikari. I also downloaded CCCP and when I ran the installer it said that there was a file that had to be disabled for CCCP to work properly, there were three warnings and I said yes to disable each thing. Now I'm at the component selection screen, which things do I want to install?

Also, once I install this, DivX won't work with Vegas, correct? Can I install DivX official again so it will work?

[Dark Shikari]

All right, I unregistered divxdec.ax, CLAud_w.ax, and NeMP4Splitter.ax as you suggested, Dark Shikari. I also downloaded CCCP and when I ran the installer it said that there was a file that had to be disabled for CCCP to work properly, there were three warnings and I said yes to disable each thing. Now I'm at the component selection screen, which things do I want to install?

Also, once I install this, DivX won't work with Vegas, correct? Can I install DivX official again so it will work?I'm not sure if that's the DivX encoder, decoder, or both. You can probably reinstall after this.

Just install the CCCP defaults.

If you still have trouble, you can head over to the CCCP forums--they're experts in DirectShow codec messes.

[cybercat]

I'm not sure if that's the DivX encoder, decoder, or both. You can probably reinstall after this.

Just install the CCCP defaults.

If you still have trouble, you can head over to the CCCP forums--they're experts in DirectShow codec messes.

Okay, I'll try installing CCCP tomorrow, and if I have any further trouble I'll go ask for help on their forums like you say. Thanks for all your help! :thanks: