Having Video Problems?

The problem may be with your computer...       

Symptoms:

 When you play the video: 

1. You hear the sounds - but do not see any  image
2. You hear the sound and see a sound visualization instead of the image
3. Or, Nothing happens at all

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Likely Problem:

This is probably a codec issue.  What that means in plain English, is that I am using Microsoft's latest version of Movie Maker 2  (MM2) to create the movies.  MM2 uses the newer version 9 codecs when making the finished videos.

For playback on PC's running Windows Operating Systems other than NT,  your computer must have version 7 or higher of the Windows Media Player.  When version 7 or above trys to play newer videos it will automatically get the needed (newer) codec from the Microsoft online database.   This should not be an issue; but it may be a problem for some computers.

For people on Macs and Windows NT the newer version 9 codec is not yet available (as of July 2003).

There is a wealth of good information at the website of a Movie Maker Guru, Papa John.   Go to his website www.papajohn.org  and go to the pages titled "Saving Movies... General". 

Just so you know, after hours of searching Microsoft's website and sending emails to MS Support, it was Papa John that explained to me what was going on here !  He also replied to me in less than 8 hours....

So, what can you do:

• In General,  if nothing is happening:
  • Refresh or reload the page that contains the video
  • The video should self-start; but, click the video players start button if you see no activity
    • No percent downloaded is being shown
    • Or.  the % of buffering being completed is not increasing, etc.
  • If that doesn't work -- follow the suggestions below

   

• Windows Users (other than NT):
  • Users of Windows should update your Windows Media Player to a more current version.  Version 7 or higher is required.
  • If you already have Version 7 or higher and it doesn't play the videos (.MMV files) make sure that your Windows Media Player has the needed (newer) codec from the Microsoft online database.
  • The easiest solution for most of us is to simply load the most recent Windows Media Player.  You can do that for free by going to the Microsoft website.
     

To Get Windows Media Player Click Here >>        
 

• The disadvantages of loading the latest version are:

  • The time to download and install  WMP 10 or 11

  • these Players are larger than older versions

My Thanks to PapaJohn

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