Video playback just flashing colours

[Neilg]

Title says it all, tried playing the video in windows media player, flv player, realplayer, got the k-lite codec pack as well as the proper divx/xvid codecs (which is what the video we're trying to play is in) and whenever it tries to play, we just get flashing pink/green colours. Happens on pretty much all computers in the office, some work for a bit then stop after 5 or so video's, needing a re-start.

It's kind of annoying not being able to play back an animation when you're working on one, does anyone know what causes this/how to fix it?

On XP64, dual quad cores, nvidia 8800gtx.

[Morne]

try uninstalling K-lite and see what happens? I remember when I had K-lite installed, LELE's LWF tutorial videos played "yellow" on my PC but most other files was fine. Never really knew which codec gave problems, but after unistalling K-Lite the problem was fixed (for LELE's files) but then I couldnt play half my other video files

[Neilg]

There are only 2 computers with k-lite installed - one of them video's work on, the other one video's dont work. All the other computers without it do the same pink/green flashing.

[Shimakaze]

Well it's not that simple. direct show filters are used differently on different computers. they can cause problems in a ton of different ways.
can you post an example video?

[Neilg]

Er, tried to print screen the video playback on one of the affected computers, pasted it into photoshop and the area where the video would be is just black.

[Shimakaze]

I meant post a section of the video itself.
Or if you made it, make another one just to put online.

[Neilg]

It doesnt matter what video it is though, any avi or wmv encoded with pretty much any major codec doesnt play properly.

If you've not seen it on your end, I dont think theres any way for me to show it to you without resorting to filming my monitor and uploading that (which I cant do)

[JohnVK]

K-Lite codec pack is usually a source of problems. Installing too many codecs in itself is very problematic and can cause numerous problems with playback. More is not better in this case.

Have you tried uninstalling K-Lite and then playing videos with VLC player (http://www.videolan.org/vlc/)? VLC player plays virtually anything (take a look at the features list: http://www.videolan.org/vlc/features.html) and you don't need to install codecs because they are integrated. Might be worth the shot?

[Neilg]

Yeah, done that. There are only 2 computers with k-lite - one being mine, and mines one of the only ones that will actually play video.
The guy next to me just has VLC and nothing else, deleted ffdshow and he's never had k-lite installed. Just tried to play this - http://www.allanmckay.com/tut/waterdrop_tut.avi and no dice.

The colours are different, but I think thats random - it's the same fucked up flashing with no sound as before.


I find it very suprising that we've got 15 computers, some with different stages of video card drivers, most with different combinations of media players and codecs and nearly every one of them is doing this - yet everywhere i've looking on the internet and through forums, nobody seems to have a clue what i'm talking about
They're boxx machines too, so its not like they've been set up weird.

[JohnVK]

I do know what you're talking about I've had similar experiences where codecs where all messed up (due to tons of codec versions being installed and removed and installed and removed, etc.) or missing altogether.

What I normally do is install the following codecs in the exact order described below to prevent compatibility issues amongst them:

• DivX
• XViD
• Techsmith
• VLC Player
• Nero Showtime
• Quicktime

Between these codecs / applications I can play anything. Never had any video I was not able to play. And without the hassle (and resulting issues) of having to deal with tons of codecs too

But that's on a clean install and I never touch them afterwards! Once you (have to) go down the "codec issue solving" road you're usually fucked.


Anyway, Allans' videos use the Techsmith codec (used with the Camtasia screen capture / recording software). Do you have that installed? The file you linked to is playing fine on all of our machines. On my machines at home too.

[Neilg]

Ahh, excellent - later tonight i'm going to uninstall everything related to video playback on one of the machines and give that order a shot, i'll get an update down in the morning.

Thanks!

[JohnVK]

Cool! I hope this works out for you too. I know all too well how frustrating these codec related issues are

[Shimakaze]

• DivX
• XViD
• Techsmith
• VLC Player
• Nero Showtime
• Quicktime

I would skip DivX, install FFDShow and replace Quicktime with Quicktime Alternative.

• Xvid
• FFDShow
• Quicktime/Alternate
• Media Player Classic (or similar)

Note that if you have ffdshow you do not need to install most anything else (Xvid and Techsmith included) unless you want to encode movies in that format. DivX costs money though so it's out the window.
It could also be outdated/corrupt display drivers, or faulty system setup.
Also, use Media Player Classic rather then VLC. VLC has problems with a lot of video and is generally suckier.
http://sourceforge.net/projects/mpc-hc/

[JohnVK]

I would skip DivX, install FFDShow and replace Quicktime with Quicktime Alternative.

• Xvid
• FFDShow
• Quicktime/Alternate
• Media Player Classic (or similar)

Note that if you have ffdshow you do not need to install most anything else (Xvid and Techsmith included) unless you want to encode movies in that format. DivX costs money though so it's out the window.
It could also be outdated/corrupt display drivers, or faulty system setup.
Also, use Media Player Classic rather then VLC. VLC has problems with a lot of video and is generally suckier.
http://sourceforge.net/projects/mpc-hc/

If that works for you than that's absolutely perfect of course

But what I have described, is what works like a charm for me (and I have tried many different combinations over the years, including ffdshow). VLC is not buggy in my experience. It does a great job at playing anything we need to play. And I personally generally dislike Media Player Classic

And I don't see a reason to install Quicktime alternative. It may be a little lighter on the resources but I have not have had any difficulties with the original Quicktime (except for some issues on 64 bit OS but I can get around that). I'd rather take QT from the source so I'm always up to date and don't need to rely on the kindness of third party programmers to update their software. What if they all of a sudden stop development of that alternative codec / app altogether?

Again, what works for me doesn't necessarily work for you. And the ohther way around is also true