Solved ATI Radeon and green screen with DVR-MS files

stocktiki

New Member
Wondering if anyone has a suggestion. When importing a DVR-MS file recorded using Windows Media Center into Windows Movie Maker, in order to convert it to a more compact WMV file, a green screen shows up in the preview pane on the right-hand side. The audio works -- but only green shows.

It's strange because the DVR-MS file plays fine within Windows Media Center.
System is a Dell XPS 410 running an ATI Radeon x1600 pro with the latest Certified driver from Windows Update (8.391.0.0 dated 6/26/2007).

There is a later driver available from ATI, 8.9, but before taking the risk up upgrading the driver, wonder if there's another setting that may be causing the green screen?

Any suggestions?
 

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stocktiki-
Hey, my name's Cody and I'm working with the Windows Media Outreach Team to help answer questions folks might have about their copies of Windows Movie Maker.
I found a thread where people sounded like they were having (and solved!) an issue very similar to yours. Here's a link: Movie Maker Forums
It sounded like the main issue was having the correct codecs on your system to handle whatever file you are trying to play. One of the commenters suggested using a codec tool, which might be a good option for you. The easiest thing to do will be to use a codec tool to figure out exactly what codecs you may need to play the file.
Here are a couple of free tools that will do this for you: Gspot (GSpot Codec Information Appliance) and Sherlock (SHERLOCK - The Codec Detective - FREE Codec Check Checking Utility!) Both of these work great, and using these on your file will tell you what codecs you need to get a file running properly, without making you download anything that you don’t need.
Read through the thread and let me know if it was helpful, or if you've had any luck resolving the problem.
Thanks,
Cody
Windows Media Player Outreach Team
 

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Thank you Cody for taking the time to respond.

It turns out that the problem was the ATI Radeon driver. My system was using the ATI Radeon driver provided directly by Windows Update. After replacing that driver with the one directly downloaded from ATI's Web site, the green screen issue went away.

Windows Update is now suggesting that I install a different driver for my video card : Sapphire ATI Radeon x1600 PRO (published 10/27/2008) -- but I'm a little reluctant to break something that's not broken.

Thanks again!
 

My Computer

stocktiki-
Glad to hear you got things working smoothly again! I agree with you on the "if it ain't broke" strategy.
If it isn't a classified as a crucial system or security update, I personally would probably not worry about downloading it. If you do get to a point that you want/need to install the Windows Update recommended driver, just set up a restore point before you install it. If the green issue comes back, you can always just do a system restore.
Thanks,
Cody
Windows Media Player Outreach Team
 

My Computer

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