no picture

[acura1988 0]

there are avi files i played have sounds but no pictures, however it shows if i play on other player.

any ideas?

[greywizard 11]

What codec do they use?

[acura1988 0]

MPEG4

[greywizard 11]

MPEG4 is not a codec per se, but a compression format defined in a standard comprising several parts. And as far as the great majority of video files out there (which implement it) are concerned, it's mostly encountered in two of its flavors:

• MPEG4 - Part 2 ASP (Advanced Simple Profile) which is implemented in the famous: DivX, XviD, 3ivX, libavcodec and others;
  
• MPEG4 - Part 10 also known as H.264 or AVC (Advanced Video Coding) which is implemented by codecs such as CoreAVC, x264, MainConcept and many others.
  

So, which one are you trying to play?

[The UnUsual Suspect 570]

There is a free program you can use to detect the type of video your attempting to play called "gspot", or if you want a simple fix, you can install a good codec pack. I use K-Lite codec pack (full). It's free and contains all the codecs needed to play every type of video I've ever used. Just keep in mind that installing conflicting codecs can make your system unstable, so don't go changing the default settings unless you know what your doing. also don't install multiple codec packs.

[greywizard 11]

@TUUS: But MPC Star already contains ffdshow internally, which decodes most formats out there; installing an external codec pack seems redundant here.

My guess it that the decoding for the codec type this files uses is disabled in ffdshow. That's why I was asking for codec type.

[acura1988 0]

im trying to play is

MPEG4 (H264)

[acura1988 0]

how do i check if the codec really disabled in ffdshow and how to enable it?

[kluelos 17]

The codec pack you installed should have some sort of settings utility that came with it.

[The UnUsual Suspect 570]

Most .avi files are Divx or Xvid, which use h263/x263 codec. Video encoded with h264/x264 are usually .mkv, .mp4 or .mov. Are you sure it's an .avi file?

I suggest you examine it with gspot and report the results.

[greywizard 11]

@acura1988: You can access the ffdshow video configuration page through the menu of MPCStar in the Start menu of Windows.

There check on the Codecs page of ffdshow and make sure that h.264 playback is enabled in ffdshow.

[acura1988 0]

ok i have checked that it is not disabled and i am still unable to play the file with picture

any other ideas?

[kluelos 17]

When you are playing a file in MPCStar, look at the file info (under the FILE menu).

MPCStar will tell you all about what it's doing, there -- what streams it detected, how encoded, what it's using to handle them, and other things. You may be able to get a handle on what the problem is from that information.

[acura1988 0]

problem solved, thx

[The UnUsual Suspect 570]

problem solved, thx

This is not a proper response for this forum. Our forum isn't here to only help you, it's here for other users as well, to learn how to solve similar problems, so simply saying it's solved without explaining exactly how you solved it, is somewhat rude and it doesn't help anyone reading this topic.

Please post exactly how you solved it, other wise this topic will be of no use to anyone.