Why am I NOT getting video playback, only a black screen? This is regardless of clip and some I know used to work. Have reloaded media player 9 with no effect! Any ideas?

You might need some extra codecs...have had this myself, but I cant remember where I got them.

Could be DivX, causes all sorts of probs.

Google time )

Only took my about 2 weeks but have traced ut to my video adapter, looks like windows update changed the drivers and it was running on a generic setup!!! DOH!!! Ive been pulling my hair out with this and only when I switched to the analogue port on the card did it it all click as to the problem!

If the clips are divx you would get a black screen and some sounds. Go to divx.com download page

If you get a green screen and sounds then you've got XVID. Go to xvid download page

If your still having difficulties, give us a shout!

There's a program called Gspot somewhere that will also analyse a video file and identify which codecs it uses, and if you have them installed on your system... very useful...

Link:

http://www.openwares.org/index.php?option=com_remository&Itemid=26&func=fileinfo&parent=category&filecatid=14

(Although if you can find the official site you may get a more recent copy!)

Stimps...

I agree with G-spot but WMP9 would say so if it was having problems with codecs.

The problem described would definately be attributed to a video card overlay problem. usual culprit is video acceleration has been turned down/off on the display properties menu or a problem with the video drivers

As for codecs. i use K-lite codec pack. has all the best common codecs in one nice package..

also has QT-alternative and RA-alternative. which means you dont have to install the spyware-bloatware laden quicktime and Realaudio stuff.

and media player classic is good too. its a version of WMP without the bloat.