Playback problem: Win 98SE

[castellanos]

Hi there! I am having a problem playing DivX files with Windows 98 SE, I can hear only the audio stream, but I can not see any video... Sometimes I have also an error window, the audio goes on and no video at all.
I got a pentium 4 2.26 Ghz and 256 RAM
Any help there for that problem?
Greetings! :)

[piscator]

Did it work before on that machine? You can try the following.

1) Install/reinstall the proper codecs. And use ffdshow (http://www.doom9.org/Soft21/Filters/ffdshow-20040227.exe) for playback.
2) Use a decent player. And that's not windows media player! Try Media Player Classic or BSPlayer or something from the download section.
3) Something messed up with your DirectX installation.
4) Something messed up with your video card installation (has usual to do with a stupid thing called 'overlay settings'.

If all this didn't work, upgrade to a better OS :D

greetz,
Piscator

[castellanos]

Thank you very much for your quick reply!
Actually it is the first time I am trying to play DivX files on that machine.
I've tried already with BS Player...and same result as before.
The codec is already instaled of course, the new version of DivX 5.2 for Win 98 & ME. I am not sure wich version of DirectX is on the machine, I will check it out inmediatelly...
Something came in my mind: That computer has a SiS 650 grafik chip... I am not sure about the performance quality of that chip, may be a driver update will help too?
More ideas are welcome!
Greetings! ;)

[piscator]

Use/install ffdshow for videoplayback and make sure that you select the 'libavcodec' on the codec settings page.
Make sure the latest DirectX drivers are installed and a driver update wouldn't hurt either.

btw, exactly which error message are you getting?

greetz,
Piscator

[castellanos]

Thanks! I reinstall the DivX codec and now it works, at least at the moment.
Do you know the minimum system requirements for DivX playback?
Greetings!

[piscator]

Originally posted by castellanos
Do you know the minimum system requirements for DivX playback?

You really don't need much for playback. I was always able to playback on an AMD 350MHz provided you don't use QPel for encodes, but nowadays my equipment is a bit better than that ;) btw, I really encourage to use ffdshow for playback. It's far more compatible than the DivX decoder with MP4 sources.

greetz,
Piscator

[castellanos]

Hi! Thank you very much for your help, now I am having a similar problem, but with a slower computer: Windows 98, Pentium III 800 Mhz, 128 RAM... This machine should play DivX files (I want it only for playback) I am following your suggestions: Last DivX codec, Last DirectX, and last graphic driver (SIS 630) still much too slow and jerky on DivX playback (sound faster than video), useing all the possibles players: Media Player, Media Player classic, BS player, DivX player etc.
I downloaded de ffdshow...but I would like to know how to use it for playback.
More ideas please!
Greetings! :)

[piscator]

Like I said before:
Use/install ffdshow for videoplayback and make sure that you select the 'libavcodec' on the codec settings page.
If you use ffdshow, you don't need to install DivX codec; it's a different decoder just doing a better job.

If it is still slow, then it prolly has to do with your video card. Check if you can enable 'Overlay mode' or something the like 'somewhere' (i.e. depends on your driver software) in your display properties/video driver settings.

greetz,
Piscator