1/11/2006 5:38:22 PM

I have to play a mpeg1 for this Sunday morning.  However, it keeps locking up SSP and won't play at all.  I am almost certain we have played them before.  We have WinDVD 5 installed and I vaguely remember somebody suggesting I uninstall it and reinstall it; however, I don't know if I can reinstall it because on their website you can only download the latest version which is 7.0.  7.0 doesn't work with SSP 5.5, does it?

Any ideas?

1/11/2006 6:44:14 PM

I installed the demo for a week or two, and didn't have problems.

However, over in this thread, one of David's troubleshooting tips is to uninstall WinDVD V7. And anther tip is to get either V4 or 6.

We were able to pick up V4 on eBay for about $10 and v7 worked for us until the v4 disk came in.

We haven't had trouble with that since.

1/11/2006 9:03:33 PM

But, we have had version 5 and haven't had any trouble playing them until recently.  I wonder what the trouble is. 

1/12/2006 2:32:20 AM

I see that I have asked this before.  I am going to try to uninstall and reinstall WinDVD tomorrow.

Posted By David on 12/06/2005 9:43 AM
Karen,

This sounds a little bit like something I have seen before.  When you install DVD software it has to register the MPEG2 codec with Windows.  This allows Windows to know what codecs are installed and where.

There have been cases where the installer misregisters the mpeg2 codec as the codec for mep1 and mpeg2.  In thise case mpeg2's will play fine but mpeg1's will be very jerky, and cause all sorts of issues.  To resolve this you can simply uninstall your DVD playing software and then reinstall it. 

Personally, I would uninstall the software, then try to play the file and see if it's any better.  Then reinstall the DVD software.  I have seen this a few times with WinDVD.  It's not a huge problem and in many cases is related to the order in which things are isntalled. 

1/12/2006 7:01:02 AM

In answer to Lee's, no missing, question regarding why uninstalling and reinstalling WinDVD doesn't just recreate the problem:

The misregistering the codec issue has more to do with the order in which things are done.  If you install WinDVD it's codecs are probably fine.  However if you were to then install something else, WinDVD's codecs could get messed up.  In that case uninstalling and reinstalling forces them to be re-registered and cleans up the mess.

Usually what happens is the mpeg2 codec gets registered as the mpeg1 codec as well.  The names are similar but the codecs are quite different.  In this case mpeg1 files become choppy, crash or simply won't play at all. Interestingly enough, programs like media player will always use their built-in mpeg1 codec, instead of the WinDVD codec, so your mpeg1 files will run just fine in Windows Media Player but stumble in SSP. 

We don't actually know WHY WinDVD 7 has problems.  But it's behaving exactly as if it's using an mpeg2 codec for mpeg1 files.  It could be a DRM thing or more likely a problem with WinDVD 7. 

1/12/2006 7:03:26 AM

What is it about WinDVD V7 that makes it not work with SSP while its V4 and V6 works? (This has the smell of DRM.)
 
Obviously something has to get fixed since people aren't about to keep installing old versions of stuff.

1/12/2006 7:52:21 AM

Luckily, I found a trial version of WinDVD 5.0 on the internet last night.  I am going to copy it and take it to the church computer and hopefully I'll be able to reactivate it again after I reinstall it.  I may have to call them. 

It seems that if somebody purchases a new computer, it may come with WinDVD 7.0 and it would be a shame for them to have to uninstall it and search for an older version. 

1/12/2006 8:47:42 PM

I would check with WinDVD to see if a WinDVD 7 license can be used for an older version. That way all you would have to do is find the media.

I know that at my previous job in St Louis that we were able to get permission from MS to use W2k licenses that we purchased to cover W98se. The reason it was allowed was that the hdwr would not support W2k, and the company could not afford to upgrade all those PCs.

One might be able to make a similar plea with WinDVD. Point out that there newer version breaks the software that the machine was designed for, and they may allow you to apply a license to an older version.

gap

1/13/2006 7:07:21 AM

????????
In a post above, someone answered a question I had, but the question got lost and their answer became a post as if from me. I can see screwing up html, but I don't understand how that post got attributed to me.

1/13/2006 7:11:44 AM

Oh, now that is really odd.  Which post? 

1/13/2006 9:43:58 AM

Lee,

We're looking into that right now. 

At any rate, the question you asked was more or less "If WinDVD is misregistering the codec, why would uninstalling and reinstalling fix it instead of just cause it to misregister again?"

Somehow in answering that I just took over your post. 

1/13/2006 9:49:27 AM

Sorry everyone, I'm seeing what I can do about this right now!!!

1/13/2006 10:15:59 AM

Well...I set David as the "Owner" of his post, but it appears that when he tried to quote Lee's post it somehow edited it and overwrote his text....so, I apologize Lee but it appears your post has been swallowed by the forum. 

1/13/2006 3:35:54 PM

Thanks!  Today I went up to church and uninstalled WinDVD version 5.0.  After I uninstalled it, the mpeg1s worked great!  I reinstalled it and they also worked great!  I also downloaded and installed all of the windows updates and those were awesome . . .

Now if only the color scroller wouldn't have broke

1/14/2006 7:34:20 AM

No need to apologize to me, it was David who got slighted by giving me credit for his wisdom

1/14/2006 7:46:27 AM

OK, thanks, it helps to understand that a second product was involved. It seems what you are saying is that subsequent to a WinDVD installation, an attempt to install an mpeg1 codec (by a(n) unstated errant product(s)) may overwrite WinDVD's mpeg2 entry in the registry, probably because the errant product is keying off of file extension only (mpg) which does not itself distinguish between mpeg1 and mpeg2. So playback considers any mpg file to be an mpeg1.

So by recommending WinDVD be the last installation, its ability to distinguish between mepg1 and mpeg2 is retained. Or something like that?

2/5/2006 3:18:24 AM

I think I have Lee's original post that got lost. (unless I'm totally confused by all this, which is quite likely!) It starts just after the *'s and finishes just before the #'s:

************************************************
Lee

01/12/2006 9:01 AM
_____________________________________________________________________________________________





I'm puzzling over this one. If the (presumably) DVD player software misregisters the mpeg codecs, and one uninstalls the DVD player software and reinstalls the DVD player software, why doesn't it again misregister the codecs?
______________________________________________________________________________________________

#########################################

thanks to Gmail for having heaps of space so I don't have to delete any of my e-mails! I get sent all the posts to my e-mail address when they are posted, so I effectively get a back up of ALL original posts! Maybe SSP Admin could consider doing this themselves, for backup purposes when things like this happen?

2/5/2006 3:27:26 AM

Oooops, to totally confuse everyone even more, I mis-wrote my last post! Because I can't edit my posts for some reason????? my next post will be my above post with the "mis-written" bit "re-written"!

2/5/2006 3:28:28 AM

I think I have Lee's original post that got lost. (unless I'm totally confused by all this, which is quite likely!) It starts just after the *'s and finishes just before the #'s:

************************************************
Lee

01/12/2006 9:01 AM
_____________________________________________________________________________________________





I'm puzzling over this one. If the (presumably) DVD player software misregisters the mpeg codecs, and one uninstalls the DVD player software and reinstalls the DVD player software, why doesn't it again misregister the codecs?
______________________________________________________________________________________________

#########################################

thanks to Gmail for having heaps of space so I don't have to delete any of my e-mails! I get sent all the posts to my e-mail address when they are posted, so I effectively get a back up of ALL original posts! Maybe SSP Admin could consider doing this themselves, for backup purposes when things like this happen?

2/6/2006 10:16:31 AM

The current question being "If the (presumably) DVD player software misregisters the mpeg codecs, and one uninstalls the DVD player software and reinstalls the DVD player software, why doesn't it again misregister the codecs?"

Essentially what happens isn't really the DVD player software's fault.  In all honesty it's just easier to say "The DVD software misregistered, uninstall and reinstall it" that to explain everything that's going on.

At one point in the equation the codecs are registered.  Then, more software is added to the system and it too tweaks codecs.  With enough tweaking, somewhere along the lines the codecs get mixed up.  Uninstalling and reinstalling the most relavent software (the DVD player) redoes all of the codecs and corrects the problem.  The misregistration could come from something that actually does register them wrong, or it could come from too many "cooks in the kitchen" if you will. 

If the software actually does misregister the codec yes, uninstalling and reinstalling will just recreate the problem.  (As we've seen with WinDVD 7.)  But more commonly one is just "corrupted" and needs to be redone real fast. 

2/8/2006 11:44:50 AM

The really weird thing about this is that Mpegs 1 have worked fine for us.  There has been no software added to this computer or updated other than Songshow Plus.  I did update it right before Christmas.  Would that be why it happened?