I am running Windows XP and when I try to play a vcd using any media playing program, I can hear the audio but there is just a black box, no picture. Any ideas are welcome. I think it is probably a codec problem but I can't seem to find the correct ones.

-- Jason Van Schagen (jvanschagen@yahoo.com), January 02, 2003

Answers

You need to downlaod the laters divx codex...

-- Cyberomni (cyberomni@cyberomni.com), January 02, 2003.

I downloaded the divx 5.0.2 codecs and it still has the same result. I downloaded a sample divx movie and tried to play it in the Divx Alpha player that installs with the codec and it does the same thing. It resizes the window to fit the movie so it is loading something and plays the audio but the screen is just black.

-- Jason Van Schagen (jvanschagen@yahoo.com), January 02, 2003.

Sometimes the simplist things are over looked. Is the program installed properly? Re-installing program may help. There might be a glitch in the original installation and re-installing may hcorrect that?

-- somebody (dontemailme@hotmail.com), January 02, 2003.

I have figured out that if I take my laptop out of it's docking station the video plays just fine. Is that a driver issue with the docking station?

-- Jason Van Schagen (jvanschagen@yahoo.com), January 03, 2003.

Just a guess as I don't have much experience with laptops. When it's in the docking station it's probably trying to send the video to an external monitor, not the screen. Anyway, the suggestions to load the DivX codecs won't help as it's NOT a DivX issue when you play VCD. Maybe there is some setup option where you can prevent the laptop from sending video to an external monitor when it's in the docking station.

-- Root (root@yahoo.moc), January 03, 2003.

Have you tried downloading either windvd or the Divx Playa... with the latest codecs you downloaded you should be able to play most formats.........

-- Martin G (mufc100@hotmail.com), January 09, 2003.

am running Windows XP and when I try to play a vcd using any media playing program, I can hear the audio but there is just a black box, no picture. Any ideas are welcome. I think it is probably a codec problem but I can't seem to find the correct ones

-- christos tziovanni (destinyschild20@hotmail.com), February 07, 2003.

I have the same problem. When my laptop has an external monitor connected, the external screen shows a blank box where the movie should be playing, while audio works fine. Same for DVDs.

But if I open the laptop screen, the movie plays there just fine. I thought that possibly the OS prevents movies and DVDs to be shown on an external monitor in a drastic copyright protection measure to ensure that the video content is not being used for a public viewing. It's just a suspicion but it makes me totally furious.

Chaz

-- Chaz (charles.randles@ukgateway.net), March 01, 2003.

I'M NEW 2 ALL THIS COMPUTER WORLD SO I'M ABIT STUCK ON HOW 2 GET 2 DIVX CODEX.

-- JUDGE187 (BIGPIMPIN2012@YAHOO.COM), May 04, 2003.

http://www.divx.com/divx/

-- ukmshine (gary@uk6.net), May 20, 2003.

I had an identical problem. Solved it by simply reducing the resolution from 32 to 16 bit.

-- Eric (withheld@secret.com), June 24, 2003.

I have an identical problem. Tried reducing the resolution from 32 to 16 bit. didn't work, any other ideas?

-- bling (blingblong@hotmail.com), July 15, 2003.

The display that you are viewing the movie on must be configured to be the primary display. Right click on the desktop and select properties. Click on the settings tab. Click on the advanced button. Click on the Displays tab. Below the picture of the display you want to use, there are two buttons, one with circles and one with squares. The one with circles must be pressed for movies to work.

Only one primary display can be configures, so the movie can only play in one place.

-- JT (sigpoggy@hotmail.com), August 09, 2003.

JT, you are a *genius*. I've looked for this answer for 1/2 a year. I even tried to reinstall the system :(. When I changed the display to be the primary ("The one with the circles") Problem *solved*.

ThanX JT.

-- YG (yarongue@walla.co.il), August 10, 2003.

I had the same problem. You can also press Fn [F5] and select the external monitor as your primary device from there. This has the same effect.

Rgds

-- Phil van Bergen (vanbergen.p@emssatcom.co.uk), August 18, 2003.

I just went through the same thing, what I found was that I had unchecked something that caused the problem. I did the following Hit the Start button and selected Run. I typed in wmplayer to start the Windows Media Player. Once it was loaded I hit the "Tools" button and selected "Options" at the bottom of the menu. I looked at the "Network" tab because all 4 options should be checked and switched on. Damn they were. Next further down in the options screen is a "Configure" button, about half way down and to the right. I hit that and found that I had turned of the "Don not use proxy server" setting. I understand that when that is off, the player will play sound but will not load the picture. This restored my video for all the videos I had on the player.

-- Jerry Austin (johnpatrick2@msn.com), December 13, 2003.