Windows Media Player Problem

[MeThOd3909]

Just the other day this strange thing has been happening. When I view video files in windows media player, the time of the video changes from the real time into some lower random number. For example, if one video had a run time of 1 minute and 24 seconds, the video will play for about 4 seconds and the run time will change to about 8 seconds. The video will play untill the bar reaches the end at the number it changed to but the video will run untill its real time. I have no idea what to do and this effects my editing because the videos cut out and mess everything up. Any suggestions or solutions? Thanks.

[go2doug1]

I have never heard of this error before but here are some GUESSES that may help you:

1) Open Windows Media Player and choose Tools, then Options.

2) On the Performance tab, make sure "Use default buffering" is selected.

3) On the Privacy tab, make sure "Set clock on devices automatically" is selected.

If the problem persists, try reinstalling Windows Media Player. This should reset all the settings to their default.

[veshing]

Sometimes the answer is to ignore the problem...  You could try using free third party media players instead.  My favorite are VLC player found at http://www.videolan.org/vlc/ and Media player classic found at http://tinyurl.com/24pdk (links to sourceforge).  Hope that helped.

[Tadracket]

Are these videos you create or download? Do they work OK then they don't? I have downloaded several videos that say 2 minutes to play then once the bar runs out, they keep going and going.

[MeThOd3909]

Nothing seems to be working. All of the settings are set to default and I tried reinstalling. The videos that this is happening to are the ones I record with Pinnacle Studios.

[Dell4700]

You may have encoded the files with a codec that is unreadable by your player.  This could be due to using a strange format, a corrupt codec or a bad encoding application process (including hardware).

It can also be caused by a bad player.

If your player otherwise works (with other files & types), then I would suspect your encoding process is the problem.

- try reinstalling your application software & codecs
- try another format
- try another application
- make sure you have the processing power to create these files (speed, memory, etc.).

I assume you have created these files successfully in the past.  If so, have you made any system changes that may account for processing problems (memory, drives, OS, etc.)?

Dell

[MeThOd3909]

After I captured some video I found out that the MPEG format runs normally but the AVI format doesn't. I took the AVI file and put it into the recycling bin, took it out, and it played normally. What is going on?

[Dell4700]

Hmmm...good question!

Obviously something is different or changed.  First it doesn't work, then it does.

Some possibilities:

- long file names or placement of the files can have an effect on playback, especially if the file is buried deep in some subfolder.  Some OS have limitations on address length (255, I believe) including the file name.  If this is a possibility with your file(s), try shorter names or move them closer to your root drive.

- conflicting codec(s) or applications.  Try playback without other applications started or running (no more than one player or application).

- open the file from the player vs opening the player with the file (or vice versa).  This can sometimes solve several possible problems (codec(s), addressing, etc.)

I'll see if I can find other possibilities.

Dell

[MeThOd3909]

I guess we were both right about one thing. It was the subfolder it was in that made it not play right. I simply moved them into another folder and they play perfectly. Thanks a bunch guys!