Vista - Another question re: playing .avi on Windows Media Player

I don't know what version of WMP I'm using (don't know how to find that out)
but it came with Vista Home Basic. I get only sound not video when I try to
download an .avi file from the internet.

1) One person mentioned going to Tools-Options-Performance and the moving
'Video Acceleration' to the middle. I couldn't find Tools-Options on WMP but
did find a Performance tab but it did not have anything where I could move
'Video Acceleration to the middle'. Where is this feature on what, I guess,
is the newer WMP on Vista?

CODEC
2) http://fileforum.betanews.com/detail...e/1159994557/1
I would like to just make an adjustment in WMP rather than download a codec
but if I must, does this sound like it could fix my problem? I didn't like
the last comment, "Registry Improvements - UNINSTALL OLD VERSION". I don't
want it to do anything strange in the registry. Will it work for me?

Sorry for a long post but I wanted to cover all bases.
Thank you for your help,

Studebaker

Media Player on Vista is version 11. Not sure about the no video problem,
but open Media Player and click the Now Playing drop down menu and then
click More Options to see that dialog box. You can also simply press the ALT
key to see the old toolbar menu with File, Edit, Tools, etc.

--

Ronnie Vernon
Microsoft MVP
Windows Shell/User


"Studebaker" <Studebaker@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:129D14C4-B5C6-4D19-998A-B2C6B7E316FB@microsoft.com...
>I don't know what version of WMP I'm using (don't know how to find that
>out)
> but it came with Vista Home Basic. I get only sound not video when I try
> to
> download an .avi file from the internet.
>
> 1) One person mentioned going to Tools-Options-Performance and the moving
> 'Video Acceleration' to the middle. I couldn't find Tools-Options on WMP
> but
> did find a Performance tab but it did not have anything where I could move
> 'Video Acceleration to the middle'. Where is this feature on what, I
> guess,
> is the newer WMP on Vista?
>
> CODEC
> 2) http://fileforum.betanews.com/detail...e/1159994557/1
> I would like to just make an adjustment in WMP rather than download a
> codec
> but if I must, does this sound like it could fix my problem? I didn't like
> the last comment, "Registry Improvements - UNINSTALL OLD VERSION". I don't
> want it to do anything strange in the registry. Will it work for me?
>
> Sorry for a long post but I wanted to cover all bases.
> Thank you for your help,
>
> Studebaker

Nearly all programs have an About item on the Help menu to tell you the
version.

One possible cause is that you don't have the video codec needed. AVI files
can have different formats inside them. You have to wonder about people that
make files that Windows can't play standard - they choose to do this.
"Ronnie Vernon MVP" <rv@invalid.org> wrote in message
news:B4AE0E6D-81B3-4B11-8669-424DFCF81C3B@microsoft.com...
> Media Player on Vista is version 11. Not sure about the no video problem,
> but open Media Player and click the Now Playing drop down menu and then
> click More Options to see that dialog box. You can also simply press the
> ALT key to see the old toolbar menu with File, Edit, Tools, etc.
>
> --
>
> Ronnie Vernon
> Microsoft MVP
> Windows Shell/User
>
>
> "Studebaker" <Studebaker@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:129D14C4-B5C6-4D19-998A-B2C6B7E316FB@microsoft.com...
>>I don't know what version of WMP I'm using (don't know how to find that
>>out)
>> but it came with Vista Home Basic. I get only sound not video when I try
>> to
>> download an .avi file from the internet.
>>
>> 1) One person mentioned going to Tools-Options-Performance and the moving
>> 'Video Acceleration' to the middle. I couldn't find Tools-Options on WMP
>> but
>> did find a Performance tab but it did not have anything where I could
>> move
>> 'Video Acceleration to the middle'. Where is this feature on what, I
>> guess,
>> is the newer WMP on Vista?
>>
>> CODEC
>> 2) http://fileforum.betanews.com/detail...e/1159994557/1
>> I would like to just make an adjustment in WMP rather than download a
>> codec
>> but if I must, does this sound like it could fix my problem? I didn't
>> like
>> the last comment, "Registry Improvements - UNINSTALL OLD VERSION". I
>> don't
>> want it to do anything strange in the registry. Will it work for me?
>>
>> Sorry for a long post but I wanted to cover all bases.
>> Thank you for your help,
>>
>> Studebaker
>

So then this guy called <.> said something like:

> Nearly all programs have an About item on the Help menu to tell you the
> version.
>
> One possible cause is that you don't have the video codec needed. AVI
> files can have different formats inside them. You have to wonder about
> people that make files that Windows can't play standard - they choose to
> do this.

WMP won't play avi's (an MS format) encoded with mpeg2 or mpeg4 out of the
box. That's a bit slack IMHO. It only seems to handle mpeg1 without adding
codecs (which isn't a big deal to add) but you can hardly blame the people
encoding the avi's if they are using mpeg4/xvid...

--
Tim Fairchild - Queensland Australia
Mandriva Linux release 2007.0 (Official) for x86_64
Linux 2.6.20.3 x86_64 AMD Athlon(tm) 64 Processor 2800+
NVRM version: NVIDIA UNIX x86_64 Kernel Module 1.0-9746

Ultimate certainly has MPEG-2.
"Tim Fairchild" <usenet@bcs4me.com> wrote in message
news:45f7ddd9$0$14425$c3e8da3@news.astraweb.com...
> So then this guy called <.> said something like:
>
>> Nearly all programs have an About item on the Help menu to tell you the
>> version.
>>
>> One possible cause is that you don't have the video codec needed. AVI
>> files can have different formats inside them. You have to wonder about
>> people that make files that Windows can't play standard - they choose to
>> do this.
>
> WMP won't play avi's (an MS format) encoded with mpeg2 or mpeg4 out of the
> box. That's a bit slack IMHO. It only seems to handle mpeg1 without adding
> codecs (which isn't a big deal to add) but you can hardly blame the people
> encoding the avi's if they are using mpeg4/xvid...
>
> --
> Tim Fairchild - Queensland Australia
> Mandriva Linux release 2007.0 (Official) for x86_64
> Linux 2.6.20.3 x86_64 AMD Athlon(tm) 64 Processor 2800+
> NVRM version: NVIDIA UNIX x86_64 Kernel Module 1.0-9746
>

So then this guy called <.> said something like:

> Ultimate certainly has MPEG-2.

Yeah, there are plenty of packs with mpeg2 and mpeg4. No problem.

> "Tim Fairchild" <usenet@bcs4me.com> wrote in message
> news:45f7ddd9$0$14425$c3e8da3@news.astraweb.com...
>> So then this guy called <.> said something like:
>>
>>> Nearly all programs have an About item on the Help menu to tell you the
>>> version.
>>>
>>> One possible cause is that you don't have the video codec needed. AVI
>>> files can have different formats inside them. You have to wonder about
>>> people that make files that Windows can't play standard - they choose to
>>> do this.
>>
>> WMP won't play avi's (an MS format) encoded with mpeg2 or mpeg4 out of
>> the box. That's a bit slack IMHO. It only seems to handle mpeg1 without
>> adding codecs (which isn't a big deal to add) but you can hardly blame
>> the people encoding the avi's if they are using mpeg4/xvid...
>>
>> --
>> Tim Fairchild - Queensland Australia
>> Mandriva Linux release 2007.0 (Official) for x86_64
>> Linux 2.6.20.3 x86_64 AMD Athlon(tm) 64 Processor 2800+
>> NVRM version: NVIDIA UNIX x86_64 Kernel Module 1.0-9746
>>

--
Tim Fairchild - Queensland Australia
Mandriva Linux release 2007.0 (Official) for x86_64
Linux 2.6.20.3 x86_64 AMD Athlon(tm) 64 Processor 2800+
NVRM version: NVIDIA UNIX x86_64 Kernel Module 1.0-9746