|
To fix this for Windows XP: reinstall the player.
SatelliteTVforPC 2007 does not do this anymore, but that doesn't really help you if you had installed SatelliteTVforPC 2006, sorry. =\
* Vista-only: If you have an Intel 945/946/965 express chipset, get their updated drivers - that should fix up some potential crashes and video glitchings. If you have igdumd32.dll on your system, please look for those drivers, which came out April 2007.
* Vista-only: If your sound card is crackling or having audio glitching (especially towards the end of tracks!), right-click on the Speaker icon in the system tray, select Playback Devices, right-click Speakers in that new dialog, go to Properties, then go to Enhancements - choose "Disable All Enhancements" and you should be fixed up. If this does fix you up, check with your sound card vendor - they should not be having this problem. I believe Dell/Sigmatel do have a driver update here that should fix you up. If you're using an X-Fi and this is happening, disable "Sound Blaster Enhancements" under Control
Panel and Properties for the X-Fi.
* Vista-only: Some systems have "DisableProtectedAudioDG" set to 0x1 under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Audio , which will break some audio playback. Reset that to 0x0 and Urge files should work again. (This can lead to error 0xc00d11b1 if set wrong.)
* Vista-only: You may not be able to install Urge onto some Sony Vista machines. These machines had broken junction points. You can either reinstall Vista to fix this or you can use the junction tool as detailed here.
* If you're using a non-US locale format for your Date, the Recently Added feature won't work right (it likely won't show any content). Either go to the Regional and Language Options control panel, click Customize, click Date and use a MM/DD/YYYY form OR make your own "Recently Added" playlist.
* If you are using WMP11 on Media Center 2005, you should install the October Rollup (KB925766) here.
* To get a tally of the number of songs and their time from within the library, select them. That tally will show up in the chrome briefly. Or hover the mouse over the "Now Doing" region, which is the region above the playlist. If you're building a playlist in the rightmost library pane, you may need to push Stop in order to get the time to show up.
* To start the player in Now Playing, update your WMP shortcut to be "wmplayer.exe /Task:NowPlaying"
* The white corner dots that can appear aren't removable - either switch to Classic Menus or resize the player (which only fixes it until player restart).
* v11 setup issues are covered here.
* There likely will not be a Windows Media Player 11 Enterprise Deployment Pack. You're welcome. You can get this if you ask your Microsoft contact nicely. This may be more officially published at some future point.
* You can uninstall the WMP11 through the Add/Remove Programs control panel. If you have run old versions of CCleaner (they have fixed this in current builds), those will destroy WMP's ability to uninstall. If you have run CCleaner or otherwise find that uninstall fails, you should still be able to use the System Restore point that WMP created in order to roll back to your previous player version. If you have run CCleaner and System Restore does not work, contact Product Support - steps to do so are available under WMP's Help menu.
* The MMS protocol was deprecated many years ago (v9), and with WMP11 MMS URLs will only work if the server has MMS over HTTP support turned on (preferably for both "Enable HTTP distribution for Windows Media Station service" and "Enable HTTP streaming for Windows Media Unicast
service". (KB article.)
MMS is only used as a rollover protocol in WMP11.
* Roxio Drag to Disc and Sonic DLA lock the optical drives to appear as hard drives. This blocks WMP from burning to disc. Turn them off if you want to burn with WMP.
* Archaic MS visualizations are not supported.
* If your remote content viewer doesn't see WMP's shared library, remove and readd the sync relationship.
* The Network Sharing Service needs the Universal Plug and Play Device Host, HTTP SSL, and SSDP Discovery services to be functional/running in order to work.
* If you have an iPod and want to use it with WMP, stuff like XPlay and MusicBridge is your friend.
* Vista-only: If you want to use the 64bit version of WMP as the default player on Vista 64-bit, run "unregmp2.exe /SwapTo:64" from an ELEVATED (admin) cmd.exe prompt and then set registry value HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Paths\wmplayer.exe, "Path" to be "%Programfiles%\Windows Media Player". To undo that, reset the "Path" value and then run "unregmp2.exe /SwapTo:32" from an elevated cmd.exe prompt.
* If you're using a super-minimum XPe image, it's not going to work with WMP since WMP requires the crypto service. You would need to rebuild your target image to include the crypto service/infrastructure.
* If you're using a Linksys BEFSR41 router, you'll need to enable Multicast in the router's security setttings. Otherwise that will block the Windows Media Connect / Network Sharing Service from working.
* If you want v11 to queue on double-clicks in the library, set HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\MediaPlayer\Preferences, value name "LibraryDoubleClickQueueV11" to the REG_DWORD value 0x1.
Windows Media Player 10 Questions
A surprisingly great list of the further updates available to WMP10 is available here.
The Napster icon shows up because the MSNMusic service (which used to show a butterfly there) was shut down (more information here). You've always had an icon there - it's the icon of your default installed service, and just represents an icon, and nothing else. No software was randomly installed. If you don't like the icon, change your default service to something else. You don't need to install or use that service either - it's just an icon. WMP10 and 11 always display some icon there.
If you have problems installing or starting up the player, this section deals with all known issues.
If you're having video problems after the latest WMP update and have an nVidia card, go to WMP's Tools:Options:Devices:Performances and uncheck "Use High Quality Mode".
Don't install the WM v9 codec pack on top of WMP10. It doesn't make any sense to do that, and it may break WMA playback for DRM files. Reinstall the v10 player if you install the v9 codec pack by mistake. Symptoms of this problem are a 1) "Module not found" error when playing DRM content, and 2) wmploc.dll being version 10.0.0.3802 or later while wmadmod.dll and/or wmvdmod.dll is only version 10.0.0.3646.
A feature you probably didn't notice: click on the time display in the player - you can now have the player show Current Time:Total Time, as was requested (since normally it just shows Current Time). =)
You must have a music service available in order to use the Info Center feature.
If you get a double library listing (which is just a visual defect), just switch away and then switch back to the Library pane.
If you're on Windows XPSP2 and wish to rollback from WMP10, you will want to check the "Show Updates" button in the Add/Remove Programs control panel, as WMP10 is a system update. It is not possible to install WMP9 on top of WMP10 and you wouldn't want to.
The Nero Fast CD Burning Plug-in does not work in WMP10 at this time. You would likely want to remove that.
The old Radio Tuner is under WMP10's Guide button, then click Radio on that page, then Radio Tuner.
Lyrics can be viewed in WMP10 using View:Captions. You may need to enable Captions using WMP's Tools:Options:Security's "Show local captions when present".
The WMP10 Energy Bliss visualization shows Album Art only if the art is in a separate file and only if it is assigned the name "Folder.jpg" or "AlbumArtSmall.jpg". It will also display album art assigned filename "AlbumArt_WMID_Large.jpg" or "AlbumArt_WMID_Small.jpg", but since the average user doesn't understand how to get the WMID, we'll ignore that. You'll get WMID Album Art for the file if you use "Find Album Info" on the track within the library.
If you get an error that "The current web page is trying to open a site in your Trusted Zone" when opening WMP, go to Internet Explorer's Tools:Internet Options:Security settings and remove "napster.com" from your Trusted Sites list
If you're synching DRM content to a portable device, get the update (mssscp.dll 10.0.0.3649) so that TransferCount decrements correctly
Windows Media Player 9 Series Player Questions
The following is a quick list of ways to make sure your Windows Media Player 9 Series install is working right:
The final release of the player (9.0.0.2980) is available here. A nice list of further updates can be found here.
If you are having video flicker during playback, this will fix your nVidia video card up.
If you are having audio distortion during the playback of MP3 files, rename the file "ctmp3.acm" on your system (to "ctmp3.bak" or something like that). This is a Creative PlayCenter MP3 decoder that the Player isn't fully compatible with.
If you have the pirated software "Nimo" or "Tsunami" installed, you are likely crashing. "Nimo" and "Tsunami" are TERRIBLE packages and should be removed. If for some reason that's not possible (?), make sure you remove "mmswitch.ax" from Morgan Multimedia.
If you are getting a class not registered error during playback of some AVI files, this likely means that you have an old broken version of the DivX codec. installed. If you update to their recent build, you should be okay.
If local URL flips (ScriptCommands) do not work, this is a security Feature. Only HTTP or HTTPS URLs work within Windows Media Script Commands at this point. The solution to this limitation is that for local system presentations you will need to handle the URL flips with JavaScript or the like within the web page hosting the player control.
If crossfading (a Windows XP feature) does not work for MP3 files, you likely have a pirated MP3 encoder installed to your system. This codec will NOT crossfade. If you're using WMP9, you can rename the file "l3codeca.acm" (and/or l3codecp.acm) on your system (to "l3codeca.bak" or such) and then reinstall the player and things should work fine at that point. If you're using WMP10, you would need to run "regsvr32.exe l3codeca.acm". However, that won't work if you've pirated the FhG codec: doing so will pretty much leave you broken and out of luck. Don't pirate software.
If MP3 encoding does not work and you're using the Intervideo MP3 Encode pack, you'll need to download an updated version from their web site to get it to work with the 9 Series player.
WMP will reject playback of MP3 files that have headers it does not understand. Read here to get an update to WMP that helps it understand more of your MP3 files.
If you're having networking problems, look here.
Make sure your DirectX, video card, and audio card drivers are up to date either via Windows Update or your card manufacturer's web site. You'd be surprised at how much difference good drivers make. Also, these steps should also help.
If you're having CD burning problems, see here.
If WMP is launching at the start-up of your system, this is likely because 3rd party trojan spamware has infected your system. "iedll.exe" for some reasons registers WMP to launch on system start-up - possibly to cover it's own tracks? Regardless, get and run the (free) LavaSoft AdAware anti-spyware software (or SpyBot anti-spy software, or the dedicated CoolWebSearch/iedll.exe killer program), which will clean up iedll.exe. Then you will want to go to "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run" in regedit.exe.
There you will likely find a value name entitled "loader" (OR MAYBE SOMETHING ELSE - malicious software did this to your machine, so they try to hide themselves). If this has the data value pointing to wmplayer.exe, delete this registry value. If AFTER CLEANING YOUR SYSTEM OF SPYWARE you still are having this problem, you should be able to use MSConfig to figure out where WMP is being loaded at, and turn it off.
Additionally, please note:
If the 9 Series installer reports failure, this is likely not a critical failure. A partial failure in a subcomponent that appears to have no affect on player performance is likely the cause. If you simply run "wmplayer.exe" directly at this point, the player should likely work fine. I'm looking into this.
Albums/Artists no longer show up in the playlist selection drop down in order to improve performance. If you want them back in that list, right-click on the playlist selection drop down list and select the options you want.
Supposedly DesktopX and ObjectBar's "TrayServer" (as well as "Desktop Manager" and some aspect of WindowBlinds) will block the Windows Media Player 9 Series' toolbar from working correctly. You may need to disable or remove that software for the player toolbar to work.
If you get the error message "Media Player ActiveX Control was not installed. Program can't continue. Please get Media Player control from Microsoft.com" from a CD you're trying to run, I'd be really curious to know what CD that was. It's buggy, and I'd like to contact the vendor and ask them to fix it...
Uninstall/rollback issues are addressed here.
The released hot fixes for the 9 Series Player can be found here at Microsoft, or Carsten maintains a nice list of them here.
Internet Connectivity Questions
Q: WMP thinks I'm always offline (or returns error 0xc00d1126 or 0xC00D11B3).
A: First, run the Internet Connection Wizard (Start:Run "icwconn1.exe") - especially if you have a cable or DSL connection.
If you're running a firewall, read this for configuration information.
Also, some sites require cookies for the content to play, so disabling cookies may disable WMP's ability to play a file.
Note that ZoneAlarm (Pro) will usually neatly disable WMP from working, so either give WMP permissions within Zone Alarm (per Dave Roth: set Zone Alarm to Medium security, or go into the Firewall settings page and hit the "Custom" settings button, enable the "Allow outgoing TCP ports" option, then specify "554, 1755" as the selected ports), or uninstall Zone Alarm if you want things to work.
Norton Internet Security and other Internet firewall/security devices can also accidentally block WMP.
If Netscape is set as your primary browser, that can bamboozle WMP7/WMP8's connection sniffing code. You may have better results with Internet Explorer set as your primary browser. This is fixed as of Windows Media Player 9 Series.
If and only if none of these options work for you, there is a final option: go to the WMP's Tools:Options menu dialog and click "Connect to the Internet". This option, present in v9 or newer, should work in every case where there actually is a working non-blocked connection to the Internet. If ForceOnline doesn't work, then the question is why your specified/detected connectivity settings aren't work.
If you're having further issues, it is time for you to contact Product Support so that they can figure out a real and better solution for you. Note that networking continues to improve with each version of Windows and each version of Windows Media Player, so a newer version of Windows or Windows Media Player would be more likely to understand your connection - or your browser's settings for that connection.
Q: I'm getting the error "Object doesn't support this property or method" (or "res://wmploc.dll/Offline_MediaGuide.htm") when trying to view the Media Guide.
A: The following steps should fix it up. Note that you'll want to retry the Media Guide after each step, since I believe not all of these steps are necessary.
Go into IE's Tools:Internet Options:Advanced menu dialog and enable Active Scripting for the Internet security zone (if you're comfortable with that. Otherwise, don't use the Media Guide since it uses Scripting...).
Run the network setup wizard (icwconn1.exe) again.
In WMP9's Tools:Options menu dialog, check the box that says Connect to the Internet.
Go to IE's Tools:Internet Options:Programs menu dialog, check "Internet Explorer should check to see whether it is the default browser." Quit IE and restart, and if it prompts to become the default browser, let it.
Go to IE's Tools:Internet Options:Programs menu dialog and click the "Reset Web Settings..." button. (You can uncheck the "Also Reset Home Page" option on the pop-up dialog).
Q: On Windows XP, I get the message "(something) is attempting to change or view this computer's Internet Connection Protection settings. To give (something) permission to edit these settings for as long as the program is open, click YES." when trying to stream content.
A: If you're seeing this while using Internet Connection Sharing, upgrade to Windows XP SP1. If you're seeing this while using the Internet Connection Firewall, then ... the firewall is trying to do the right thing for you. It supposedly does not respect the "Do not show this dialog again" checkbox, which would be a bug in their software, TMK. Other than that, this should just be WMP trying to enable streaming through your firewall. (Alternative firewall solutions likely would not have this issue.)
Q: On Win9x, when I try to configure my Internet connection using the Internet Connection Wizard, I get the error message: "Access Denied: You are restricted from running the Internet Connection Wizard. Contact your Network Administrator for more information." How do I fix this?
A: See this page for how to fix this. Supposedly EarthLink's customizations to IE5 cause this issue, but I've only heard that once.
Q: Why can I not access the "Network" tab in the player's Tools:Options menu?
A: The Microsoft KB article on fixing this sort of corruption is here.
On NT-based systems, Jason said that renaming the "Windows Media" folder under the hidden directory
"c:\documents and settings\%USERNAME%\local settings\application data\microsoft"
got his "Network" tab working again (these files are found at
"%appdata%\local\microsoft\windows media"
on Vista). (It appears the bad file may be WMSDKNS.dtd under the "Windows Media" folder in that directory.)
In some cases, running "regsvr32 c:\windows\system32\wmnetmgr.dll" may fix this up.
In other cases - your system is likely an OS that has been reinstalled in some fashion. For some reason, half of your networking should be pointing to the current profile (c:\documents and settings\user.blah) and half to the old profile (c:\documents and settings\user).
I do not know how to fix that short of creating a new user profile. This should be a bug in NT networking that is fixed in Windows XPSP2.
(Mike says: "I created a new user (tempuser), then logged in as that user - to create a new profile.
Logged out, back in as administrator.
Used the Setting button under User Profiles (under the System Properties Advanced tab).
Then copied the original user's profile, the one I had the problem with, to the new user.
I logged in as the new user, and I could open the network tab in the media player.")
Scott says that you may be able to clean these up by using Account Management (the "Advanced" settings tab under My Computer properties, then click "Settings" under "User Profiles") and delete the old accounts and/or delete the "Account Unknown" entries.
David says that on his system his "wmsdkns.xml" file (under c:\documents and settings\%USER%\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Windows Media\10.0) was corrupted, and that deleting that got his system working.
On Win9x based systems, this can be caused by either the "Program Files" or the user name containing non-ASCII characters. In this condition, streaming would be completely broken.
Q: I get a crash in icmp.dll running WMP or WinAMP...
A: For WinAMP, I'm not sure what to tell you. For WMP, install the offline "Force Online" fix. In general, you're having networking problems... the offline fix just potentially works around it.
Q: WMP only plays audio from video files played back from the Internet.
A: Either turn off Internet Connection Sharing or manually specify the speed of your connection in the WMP Tools:Options:Performance settings. (If WMP is detecting an incorrect line speed, the Windows Media Server may helpfully try to thin out the stream coming into your computer, which means that you'll lose quality and possibly the video. Manually specifying the connection speed will prevent this from happening accidentally.) As a final possibility, you may be missing a codec.
Q: Why does WMP always try to go on-line when I open it? / Why does WMP access the Internet when I start a local media file?
A: Uncheck the "Always dial my connection" setting for your dial-up connection. If you're concerned about privacy in this regard, please review the Privacy Policy available under WMP's Help menu. If that doesn't assuage your fears, WMP9 and newer further includes full privacy options so you can turn off anything that you feel may invade your privacy.
If you're still getting connection attempts with WMP9, get this update. Or just click WMP's File:Work Offline option.
Q: Why is playback choppy for certain clips even though I have a high speed connection?
A: If your line speed is being detected correctly (see next question), you may have BlackIce Defender installed, which for at least two people was causing big performance problems for streaming video. I am not aware of a resolution for this other than removing BlackIce, but the newest version of BlackIce seems to fix this, so updating to a newer version should be the first option tried.
Interestingly, the buggy old SoundBlaster Live reportedly can also cause choppy playback.
Q: WMP misdetects my line speed/connection speed. How do I fix this?
A: Go to Tools:Options:Performance and manually specify your connection speed. Or if you're using WMP6, you'd want to do this.
Q: Why am I getting a "Fatal exception error OE in VxD Logger (03)"? (logger.vxd)
Q: Why am I getting a blue screen playing back content from the Internet?
A: This appears to be the result of a conflict between certain DSL modems used in conjunction with certain secondary modems. Multiple reports I've had on this suggested that removal of the US Robotics 56k internal modem (v90) cleared up the issue. This support article also addresses the UniModem / Logger crashes.
Q: Why does WMP temporarily pause when playing back clips online?
A: Paraphrasing Zeb: In some cases firewalls will block UDP traffic, which is required for "real-time" streaming playback. In those cases, WMP will be forced to use HTTP/TCP, which will cause us to buffer/pause in times of network congestion. Notably Connection Sharing (ICS) and Personal Firewall cause WMP to use TCP/IP instead of UDP. If you go to View:Statistics:Advanced, you can see what your actual bandwidth is, vs what is needed.
You may find that unchecking the UDP protocol in WMP's options may clear this up too.
Q: What port should be open on my intranet to allow users to connect to Windows Media content?
A: Port 1087. See the article about WM networking and firewalls here.
WMP Installation Questions
Q: How do I reinstall WMP on Vista?
A: Sorry, there's no way to reinstall an OS subcomponent in Vista. Your only options are to do a System Restore or to reinstall Vista. If you manually attempt to re-register WMP, you will at the least break progressive download and will probably break the taskbar player too. Sorry.
If that really makes you desperately unhappy, reinstall Vista. If that for some reason is not possible, you can try this very much related fix. If that does not work and you are an expert user who is OK with potentially making the problem worse, set a System Restore point and try this unsupported 32bit-only fix. If even that doesn't work AND you are on a 32bit system installed to the C:\ drive, this even more unsupported 32bit C-drive-only fix may help.
Note that all of the advice in this paragraph flies against Windows component design. Officially, you should be reinstalling Vista if you want to reinstall the player.
Most people also don't really understand what a corrupted component is versus other forms of corruption. The most common non-component corruption would be MediaLibrary corruption, networking cache corruption, and DRM cache corruption (each link goes to an associated fix). Those areas could not be fixed via component reinstall - they would have to be dealt with directly via the fixes mentioned.
Q: Why do I only see the Burn tab in the player on Vista?
A: If you install SatelliteTVforPC 2006 anywhere, it will install and register a private copy of "wmp.dll" version 10 onto the system. This is really bad. You will then need to reinstall the player in order to fix the issue. (If you're only seeing the Burn tab in the player, you're pretty much guaranteed that you've hit this issue.)
Because it is not possible to reinstall the player on Windows Vista, your best option is to reinstall Vista itself on top of itself. If you are on a 32bit Vista system, you can tentatively either follow this supported fix or use this unsupported fix to get you back to the right state, but this is not supported, no warranties are implied, and it is ONLY intended to fix you up if you have installed SatelliteTVforPC 2006 by accident.
If you have this problem due to ANY other software, please please speak up about what other bad software might be doing this.
If you have this problem due to SatelliteTVforPC 2006, PLEASE tell the people you got it from that that product has been pulled from market and they should not be selling/distributing it any longer.
Q: I get the message "wmp.dll version xx.x.x.xxxx expected, but version yy.y.y.yyyy is present" (or this same basic message occurs for wmploc.dll or wmplayer.exe)
A: On Windows Vista: Reboot your system. Then open cmd.exe as an administrator and then run "c:\windows\system32\unregmp2.exe /UpdateWMP" to fix this.
On all other Windows systems: Reboot your system and then run "c:\windows\inf\unregmp2.exe /UpdateWMP" to fix this.
Q: Why do I get the error message "This version of Windows Media Technologies is incompatible with this version of Windows" when I try to install Media Player?
A: If you still have the Windows Media Format 11 runtime listed in the system's Add/Remove Programs control panel, this behavior is by design. You must first uninstall the Windows Media Format 11 runtime before you can install Windows Media Player 10.
Q: Why doesn't my CD headphone jack let me hear audio when I use WMP to play a CD?
A: The headphone jack is only live during analog playback. In order to make this work, you'd need to switch WMP to use Analog Playback instead of digital playback: you can change this in WMP's Tools:Options:Devices settings for that drive (this is under Tools:Options:CD Audio on older versions of WMP). Or plug your headphones into the soundcard's output plug.
Q: Why won't WMP support digital playback on my CD-ROM drive?
A: First, you'd need DMA/digital audio extraction turned on.
Second, WMP tests the quality of the digital read. If the CD-ROM is giving a dirty read - spewing too many errors into the data feed - WMP will reject digital playback on that drive.
Some players are more accepting of bad reads, but continuing to read digitally from a dirty source can result in very nasty errors, and as such WMP plays it safe and disallows digital reads from dirty source CD-ROM drives. You may simply have a bad drive.
Also, see the following question...
Q: Why won't WMP support digital playback on my CD-ROM drive if I change its drive letter?
A: Brief investigation seems to indicate that this is a bug in Win9x when multiple CD-ROM drives are installed. Let Windows decide the drive letter and you'll be fine. Alternatively, Barry Watzman sez that Adaptec Easy CD Creator, Music Match Jukebox (which rips to WMA), and Audio Grabber all support digital ripping in this configuration. [Supposedly DAEMON Tools also causes digital playback to fail, because it also changes the CD-ROM drive letter.]
Q: WM Player 9 Series's HDCD playback doesn't work on my drive.
A: On some cards HDCD will not work if hardware acceleration is turned off.
Q: Why is WMP the only app that plays CDs correctly on my box?
A: Your analog CD playback is probably broken. Usually this is because the tiny little wire that connects the back of the CD-ROM drive to the motherboard has fallen out. They're really fragile that way.
Q: How do I make CDs AutoPlay / not AutoPlay (aka AutoStart)?
A: See this web page for details on how to do this for every OS but Windows 2000.
To disable auto-play of CD's in Windows 2000, do the following:
1. Go to the start menu
2. Open a new Microsoft Management Console by running "mmc" (without the
quotation marks) at a command line.
3. On the Console menu, click Add/Remove Snap-in.
4. Click Add to display the installed snap-ins.
5. After pressing "add" look for the Group Policy snap-in and click ADD
6. Click Finish
7. Click Close
8. Click OK
9. Expand the Local Computer Policy to the following: "\Computer Configuration\Administrative templates\System"
10. Double-click on Disable Autoplay
11. Choose Enabled
12. Apply the change
13. Press OK
Note: If you just want to change to a different player for AutoPlay, either go to WMP's Tools:Options:Formats/File Types menu and unselect AudioCD, or go to My Computer:Tools:Folder Options:File Types, and change Audio CD to open with your favorite CD Player.
In Windows XP, you can update the AutoPlay tasks by:
1. Open My Computer
2. Right-click on the drive in question and select "Properties"
3. Go to the "AutoPlay" tab and select what AutoPlay action you would like
Stephen points out that on Windows XP, you can also turn AutoInsert Notification on or off. AutoInsert Notification is what tells software that there is a new CD in the drive (vs AutoPlay, which is What Do We Do With It). To change the AutoInsert Notification (which I recommend you always leave ON)-
===
1. Click Start, click Run, type "regedit" (without the quotation marks) in the Open box, and then press ENTER.
2. Locate and click the following registry key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\CDRom
3. To enable automatically running CD-ROMs, change the Autorun value to 1.
To disable automatically running CD-ROMs, change the Autorun value to 0 (zero).
4. Restart your computer.
===
If AutoPlay options are not visible on Windows XP, per Doug Knox-
Go to Start, Run and enter SERVICES.MSC
Scroll down to Shell Hardware Detection. Ensure that this service is Started and set to Automatic.
If that's set, check the Group Policy Editor - run "gpedit.msc", go to Local Computer Policy:Computer Configuration:Administrative Templates:System and make sure the "Turn off Autoplay" policy is set to "Not Configured".
If you're still having problems, find the TweakUI power toy and use that - that has some extra little AutoPlay options.
Vance points out that you can simply hold down the left shift key for 5-10 seconds after you insert the CD to disable AutoPlay temporarily.
Q: Why is the CD Audio playlist not refreshing when I insert a new CD? It only refreshes when I restart WMP...
Q: Why does the player not recognize a new CD when I put it in? It only refreshes when I restart WMP.
A: You've turned off AutoInsert Notification, which WMP uses to detect the newly inserted disc. Turning AutoPlay back on should fix this. (I believe both SoundBlaster and VMWare turn this off... if that's what happened to you, you should contact their support and ask 'em not to do this...)
CD Ripping (recording from) Questions
Q: How do I stop WMP from automatically ripping my audio CDs?
A: If you have already unchecked "Rip CD when inserted" on WMP's Tools:Options:Rip Music and it's still ripping, then go to Windows Explorer. Right-click on the CD/DVD drive in question. Select Properties. Select the AutoPlay tab. On that tab, pick the Music CD dropdown item, and change the "Action to Perform" to anything other than "Rip CD". (Thanks to Neil for this.)
Q: What's the benefit of CD Digital Recording?
A: WMP can do this faster than real-time and you don't pick up any noise from other audio sources on your sound mixer.
Q: Why isn't there any audio in the tracks I ripped from my CDs using analog ripping? I don't like silent files...
A: Either you have DMA *on* in Device Manager or your CD (or DVD) drive's analog audio cable is not connected. [On Win9x, DMA is set on the Properties:Settings dialog tab of your CD-ROM drive in Device Manager. On WinNT (2000/XP), this is set under Device Manager:IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers:Primary IDE Channel:Advanced Settings.] Within WMP, the "Analog" (vs. Digital) setting is in WMP's Tools:Options:Devices menu option, in the Properties for the CD device in question.
If you're getting background noise, mute the Line In and Microphone input in your system's volume settings.
If none of this helps - your best options are to either try an upgrade to Windows XP (better CD handling and drivers are found there) or to try a different CD-ROM drive.
DRM (Digital Rights Management) Questions
Q: I get the message "Windows Media Player cannot play the protected file because a security upgrade is required. Do you want to download the security upgrade?", but nothing happens.
A:
If you are using WMP11, you should be able to view your "Indiv Version" under WMP's Help:About:Technical Support Information menu dialog. This should be 2.8.0.1 or later. If it is not, you can run (exactly, case-sensitive):
On XP: %SystemRoot%\inf\unregmp2.exe /PerformIndiv
On Vista: %SystemRoot%\system32\unregmp2.exe /PerformIndiv
from the Start menu's "Run" prompt. Then start WMP and try the content again.
If that still does not work (or you are using an earlier version of WMP), your DRM cache is likely corrupted. You can possibly fix this via resetting your DRM store (step one is probably not relevant to you). This will lose any established licenses, though, which you would then need to reacquire from your license/content provider. You would then need to attempt to Individualize again, either through the web page or unregmp2.
Because this is destructive, if you cannot Individualize (the problem here), you are far better off contacting actual support.
Q: How do I fix a crash in "Indiv01.key"?
A: Follow these steps.
Q: Why can I only play files I rip back on the computer I ripped them to, and not on another computer on the network (for example)?
A: This limitation is because of the DRM applied to the file, which licensed the file solely for your usage on that computer. To turn DRM off for all content you create in the future, go to WMP7's Tools:Options:CD Audio and uncheck "Enable Personal Rights Management" (this is under Tools:Options:Copy Music, "Protect Content" under newer versions of WMP), which will result in DRM-free content for all content ripped from that point forward.
Generally, I'd simply recommend turning DRM off - going to WMP's Tools:Options:Copy Music and unchecking "Protect Music" - and then rerecording the CDs in question with DRM turned off. After all, even if you recovered the files, they'd *still* be DRMd, and there seems to be no reason for that.
Q: I can no longer access my DRM'd (protected) content...
A: If you backed up your licenses, restore your licenses. If not - or if your license store is corrupt - then you'll want/need to reencode the content. Regardless, I'd recommend reencoding the files with DRM turned *off* - see above for how to turn it off.
Q: I'm getting error 0xc00d11d6, 0xc00d2751 or 0xc00d2754 trying to play back my DRM'd content.
A: Look here for 0xc00d2751 or here for 0xc00d2754.
Q: Why isn't my content transcoded when I transfer it to my portable device?
A: The file you are trying to copy to your portable device may be protected. A protected file is a digital media file that is secured with a license to prevent illegal distribution.
When transferring to a portable device, the Player cannot convert protected content to other encoding formats (for example, from WMA to MP3) or to other bit rates (for example, from 128 kilobits per second (Kbps) to 64 Kbps). When transferring to a portable device, the Player can only convert unprotected content to other formats and bit rates.
Please also note that if you had hacked the WMP10 installer in order to install it onto Windows Server 2003, DRM may be broken on that machine until you format it, even after the upgrade to Windows Server 2003 SP1.
CD Burning (recording to) Questions
Q: I want to record an audio CD using the WMAs I created.
A: WMP7 or WM Player 9 Series will install the Roxio (Adaptec) CD-Burning Plug-in (provided your system doesn't have incompatibility issues with it). You can record to CD using WMP's File:Copy To CD option. If you want more full-fledged copying, go buy EZCD Creator Deluxe, which records from WMA, supports yer choice of DAO/TAO (gapless burning), does CD Label creation, and all the other fancy stuff. I personally found that EZCD Creator Deluxe is much more reliable than the plug-in (and therefore worth the $$), but your mileage may vary.
Also note that as of Nero 5.5, Nero also supports burning (non-copy protected) WMA files to disc via the WMA plug-in. And they have published a Fast CD-Burning Plug-In which integrates with WMP so you can burn CDs.
You will not be able to use audio plug-ins to affect how a CD is burned, meaning that you can not use the crossfading plug-in to burn a crossfaded CD. The CD will be normalized/leveled by default (if the files contain normalization/leveling information), but you can turn that off via TweakMP.
Per Kathy: In Media Player on Windows XP, you can also use WMP's "Copy to CD or Device" tab to burn CDs. If you're having problems with this and have up-to-date firmware for your burner (check your CD burner vendor's web site for that), there is an update available at Windows Update which may be of help.
Furthermore, this is the actual Error Code Number to Error Description mapping table, which is also referenced with a little more data here - but note that MSDN's reference does not have the error code number.
Make sure you check out the actual Microsoft article on CD creation problems.
Finally, Kathy's Steps Towards Happy Burning are (that helps fix stuff like 0x8004020E (invalid alignment), 0x80040227 (filter in wrong state) and whatnot):
Roxio's Drag to Disk or Sonic's "DLA" will interfere with burning - you may need to turn that off if you're using it - right-click on the drive and choose "Disable drag to disk for this drive"
Run "regsvr32 wmp.dll" (only on XP, do not do this on Vista). Once that completes, restart the player and check to see if burning is now functional. This can fix the "Interface not registered" error.
Check for your drive on http://www.microsoft.com/hcl. If it's not listed as a compatible burner for Windows XP, it may not work correctly. You may want to make sure (if this is Windows XP) that the drive is enabled for burning. Per the Windows XP Release Notes: "To verify that your CD recorder drive is recognized, open My Computer, and in the Devices with Removable Storage area, right-click the drive, and then click Properties.
If your CD recorder is recognized, you will see a Recording tab.
If you are having problems copying to CDs and your CD recorder is recognized in My Computer, verify that the Enable CD recording on this drive check box is selected in the Properties dialog box for that drive." If there is no Recording tab, it's possible that the drive is not recognized by XP as a burner.
Make sure you have all burner-related updates from Windows Update. There's another burning update here - I'm not sure if that's on Windows Update.
Set your burn speed lower on your drive. You can do this by
right-clicking on the drive in Explorer, clicking Properties and lowering the speed on the Recording tab.
Try different media. Sometimes, the quality of media is just not good.
Try to burn some different songs - sometimes data gets corrupted.
The "IMAPI burn service" must be enabled [Under the system's Administrative Tools:Computer Management:Services and Applications:Services].
Try uninstalling and reinstalling the driver for the CD burner.
Make sure you're using CD-Rs, not CD-RWs (CD-RWs don't work on most consumer players).
Also, you'll note that for all folders set as folder type "Music" (via folder Properties on the Customize tab) that have actual music in them (WMA/MP3/WAV) will have a "Burn Audio CD" folder task available.
Sometimes, while burning data CDs within Windows Explorer will work, burning Audio CDs in Windows Media Player will fail. Only one track may be burned before it stops and Windows Media Player says “will not fit” on the remaining tracks. Windows Media Player is simply reporting that the rest of the tracks will not fit on the completed CD because it has already been closed after burning one track.
Because audio CDs need to be compatible with a wide range of consumer CD players, there is a greater likelihood that audio burns will fail due to buffer underruns. Closing some running programs and lowering drive speed may help. More about buffer under runs and what to do about them can be read here: http://www.cdrfaq.org/faq04.html#S4-1.
In some cases, WMP may be stuck "inspecting" when you're trying to burn a CD. This either indicate that a file in the burn list can't be found (the location can't be resolved) OR that WMP is busy trying to provide Volume Leveling information. In the first case, you should attempt to verify that the files in the burn list exist by playing them. In the second case, you can either wait or uncheck "Apply volume leveling" under WMP's Tools:Options:Burn menu.
Finally- there's an article on how to burn CDs on Windows XP here and another one here ("Windows XP CD Burning Secrets").
If none of that works and you really really want to burn CDs from within WMP instead of using a different application, you may want to try the Nero Fast CD-Burning Plug-in for Windows Media Player 9 Series instead.
If that STILL doesn't work, you would have to use 3rd party burning software such as Nero or Roxio in order to burn your CDs.
Q: What if I want to burn a data CD?
A: Using WMP9 or WMP10 on Windows XP, go to the "Copy to CD or Device" menu tab. With your blank CD-RW in the burning driver, select "Data CD" from the drop-down tab on the right.
Or you can use the Windows XP shell interface for to burn a data CD. Or perhaps use Nero or Adaptec or another utility that will burn data CDs.
MP8 for Windows XP doesn't support burning data CDs.
One thing to note is that the Windows XP shell doesn't Finalize burned data CDs until the disc is absolutely full, so if your data CD player doesn't accept non-finalized CDs (as my Pioneer DEH-P940MP car CD player won't [and reportedly the Blaupunkt deck won't either]), you will most likely really want to use a 3rd party CD burning applications to burn the CD, and make sure you finalize the CD if your player won't accept it otherwise. Note that data CD players that don't accept non-finalized CDs are on their way out, so newer / more advanced players should accept non-finalized CDs just fine (as the Aiwa deck does). Some CD playback devices will also not accept CD-RWs, so you may need to burn with CD-Rs instead. And some REALLLLY old CD players simply won't accept anything other than commercially pressed CDs. :\
Q: How can I print playlists, CD labels, or the contents of my Media Library?
A:
Ries wrote a Media Library Exporter and Importer that imports the Media Library into Access *and back*. :) Also, his Playlist Copier lets you copy the playlist to the clipboard, which is mighty useful for printing playlists. :)
I personally use the CD Label Creator included with the Windows XP Plus! pack. It's pretty simple (definitely not the powerful Photoshop-esque tool some people use), only prints out playlists, but is quick and does a nice job for the minimal time you'll invest in building the label.
If you're just looking to export your library, Media Info Exporter (by MS) exports the library to Excel, Word, HTML or XML directly.
If on the other hand you want a more full-fledged ability to print out the files you have on your system, Galley recommends Media Jukebox.
Gary recommends eMusic Tag Editor.
Shurosoft's SongWriter plug-in lets you update your web site with your current music selection. :)
Q: I have accidently deleted my AutoPlaylist WPL files. Whoops! How do I restore them?
A: They should be on your system in a subdirectory under the- "C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents\My Music\Sample Playlists" directory (AKA "c:\documents and settings\all users\shared documents\shared music\sample playlists").
Alternatively, you could search your system for "Fresh tracks -- yet to be played.wpl"... where that is, the other WPLs will be.
If that doesn't make you happy, go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Mediaplayer\Setup and delete the registry value "PlaylistsVersion" and then run the Windows Media Player and use its Help:Check for Update menu option to get the WPLs put back on your system.
Q: I have Adaptec EZCD Creator 3.5 installed on Windows 2000 and...
A: According to Adaptec, this is very bad. Uninstall Adaptec 3.5. If you really want to keep Adaptec 3.5 on W2K, only install WMP from the normal download site. If you do install the Adaptec CD-Burning Plug-in on top of Adaptec EZCD Creator 3.5, your system will not boot. Your system will not start until you use DOS to get rid of c:\winnt\system32\drivers\cdralw2k.sys and c:\winnt\system32\drivers\cdr4_2k.sys . The 7.0.0.1956 release of WMP7 prevents you from getting into this situation by blocking install of Adaptec if any incompatible software is found.
Q: I get error 0xc00d1176 - "A CD recorder (burner) was not detected".
Q: WMP's CD Burning option doesn't recognize my drive.
A:
For Windows XP users: Note that error 0xC00D1176 on Windows XP - "A CD recorder (burner) was not detected. Connect a CD recorder, and try copying again." - is basically the same thing - Windows XP/WMP is finding that your current CD burner is either not supported or not installed correctly. Per the Windows XP release notes:
"If your CD recorder (burner) drive is not recognized as a recording drive in My Computer, Windows Media Player cannot be used to create audio CDs. To verify that your CD recorder drive is recognized, open My Computer, and in the Devices with Removable Storage area, right-click the drive, and then click Properties. If your CD recorder is recognized, you will see a Recording tab.
If you are having problems copying to CDs and your CD recorder is recognized in My Computer, verify that the Enable CD recording on this drive check box is selected in the Properties dialog box for that drive."
For further information, read here.
If the system recognizes the drive as one that can burn CDs, it'll have a "Recording" tab for it under the Properties for that drive on WMP's Tools:Options:Devices menu dialog. If it does not have a "Recording" tab there, the system does not recognize that drive as supporting burning.
MPEG/DVD playback Questions
Q: Why does WMP crash/hang playing MPEG files on my box?
A: You're likely having video card driver problems. Turn down the video hardware acceleration (in WMP's View:Options:Performance menu dialog).
Q: Why can't I get video, seek in MPEGs or other MPEG related playback problems?
Q: Why am I getting ERROR_INVALID_FUNCTION - 0x80070001 trying to play back MPEG files?
A: WMP uses DirectShow for MPEG playback, and a number of third party applications install MPEG DirectShow filters that override the MPEG filter WMP normally uses.
In particular, people sometimes seem to have conflicts with Intervideo WinDVD, Ligos, Micron WinDVD, System Shock (LGVid.ax is the key file here, TMK), and Creative Encore DVD. Uninstalling that software and potentially reinstalling WMP should fix the issue. There's an article about the problems with WinDVD here.
If you need to turn off a 3rd party MPEG codec and don't know how to uninstall it, the Radlight tool is what you need then. Or the DirectShow Filter Manager should work.
In some cases, the video card driver's video overlay may not be working properly follow the steps here to work around that driver bug.
Note that mcspmpeg.ax is a MainConcept MPEG file installed by a number of MPEG editing tools. It can cause crashing errors in playback. Most notably it's been known to make it so that you can't click on an Internet link to an MPEG and have it work right.
Either renaming the files mcspmpeg.ax AND mcdsmpeg.ax on your system or running "regsvr32 /u %path%\mcdsmpeg.ax" and "regsvr32 /u %path%\mcspmpeg.ax" or contacting MainConcept should help fix this up. Note that these two files may be installed in multiple places all over your system, so you'd need to make sure you search for them if you're having problems with them.
I also found that the XingMPEG Player overrode a number of registry settings that WMP set, so once you install the XingMPEG Player, ASF won't embed properly in PowerPoint any more, for example.
Also, if you get a crash in "encwdm.ax" when using WMP, run
regsvr32 /u encwdm.ax
which will break the Creative Encore DVD player but will stop crashing WMP. Run:
regsvr32 encwdm.ax
to reverse this status.
If you get a crash in "mplapx.dll" (or "cpuinf32.dll") (Ligos MPEG decoder files), this is an either an issue with ULead or DVDIt. [1/3/02 Update: Sabine points out that ULead's Tech Support pages are broken right now - this may be another way to find the update, but ... you should probably contact ULead.] I've heard multiple reports now that the Ligos software as used by some video editing and other software is really really bad for WMP and nearly impossible to remove, so either stay the heck away from it or contact the Ligos company directly so that they can get this fixed up. :\
Finally, if you really are still baffled and want to figure out which MPEG decoder is being loaded, you'd need to install the (huge) DirectX SDK and use GraphEdt.exe. Build a graph based upon the file in question - that should show you which filter is being loaded, and which you would likely want to remove.
Q: Why doesn't my MPEG file play in full? At a certain point in the file, video playback (or playback entirely) stops.
A: There's been an upsurge of crappy quality files on the Internet in the past years. Your MPEG is joined together poorly. You will need to run it through an MPEG editor to get it working correctly. Or you can use something like TMPGEnc Tools and try to simply reconstruct the file header, which may fix this up.
Q: Why is there an obnoxious humming sound coming through my speakers when I play back DVDs with WMP?
A: Go to the system's Volume Control and mute the "CD Player" mixer line - it's trying to produce audio for you, but shouldn't be.
Q: Why does pressing "Stop" result in error "Not Implemented" when playing back an MPEG with WMP?
A: Not sure. It'd be due to a bad third party MPEG or DVD filter - I'm not sure which one yet.
Q: I get the message "This version testing date has expired." when trying to play back an MPEG file using WMP. How do I fix this?
A: Uninstall the shareware MPEG player you've installed. You may need to reinstall WMP in reinstall mode to fix this. If you could, let me know what shareware player you were using so maybe v.next can account for this better. Right now my understanding is that this is either: Creative Playcenter, Intervideo WinDVD (confirmed at least in six instances), or SoftPC/DVD Encoder (confirmed twice).
Q: How do I get rid of the "Cannot Create Overlays" message I get during DVD playback?
A: Go into the Display settings and turn down either your Screen Resolution or Color Quality - the video card driver isn't supporting your current settings fully.
Q: I'm trying to play back MPEG2 or Video CD (VCD or SVCD) or DVD content on my box and it doesn't work.
A: Your box probably doesn't have an MPEG2 decoder. There's DVD Decoder packs available currently for use with Windows Media Player on Windows XP or Windows Vista.
If you have more than one MPEG2 decoder on the system, any arbitrary decoder may be being used for playback. To determine what DVD decoders are installed on your machine, run "dvdupgrd.exe /detect" (from the Windows Start:Run menu prompt) and that will list out the installed decoders. To set what decoder to use, get the Windows XP Video Decoder Checkup Utility (or the Vista Media Center Decoder utility ).
I have personally had troubles due to the nVidia decoders (nvauddec.ax and nvviddec.ax), so had to unregister those in order to get playback to work correctly.
Q: How do I access multiple MPEG audio channels in my karaoke (karoake) or "multiple language" Video CD?
A: You can set these options in Windows Media Player 9 Series' Play:Audio and Language Tracks menu options. WMP7 and WMP8 simply play back Audio Channel One and will not allow you to switch which channel is used. You will need to use "mplayer2.exe" (WMP6 - this is already on your box) for now if you wish to use specific audio channels. While playing back the file within WMP6, go to the File:Properties menu option and from there you will be able to access the MPEG Audio decoder property page which will let you select which audio channel to use.
Codec Questions
Q: What codec do I need to play this file?
A: Open the file in WMP's Now Playing view. Once playback begins or partially fails, you will either get a pop-up error or the file will turn red in the Now Playing list. (If you don't get an error, right-click on the file in that Now Playing list and select Error Details.) On this error message, click Web Help. That information should tell you what codec you will need to obtain. Please note that the Microsoft codec list is more robust than any other source, so this is a really good starting point.
If that does NOT help, FIRST STEP: VideoInspector should help you determine what codec you need. Alternatively, opening up the file in "mplayer.exe" (on Win9x) or "mplay32.exe" (on WinNT, 2000, or XP) usually tells you what video codec is missing. This player will pop up something of the nature:
"Video not available, cannot find 'vids:XXXX' decompressor."
The XXXX sequence here is the "fourCC" (four Character Code) identifier for the codec.
SECOND STEP: This is a good place to find codecs once you know what you need, such as if you know the fourCC. The official Microsoft site for this information is currently here.
If what you're missing is a Microsoft system codec that you've accidentially uninstalled, this page may help.
Note that you are probably not the only one who's having trouble playing that piece of content: getting the content provider to either reencode with a more popular or non-pirated codec may save hundreds of other users the same pain you experienced. Or at least have the vendor link to the relevant codec...
Finally, if none of that helps, make sure your connection bitrate is set, as if the connection bitrate is set or detected too low, the Windows Media Server communicating to you may 'thin' out the video so that the file can stream to you successfully given your detected connection bitrate.
Q: My content needs an MJPG (MJPEG) decoder. Where can I find one?
A: DirectX 8, DirectX 9, and Windows XP all include a MJPEG decoder.
If this doesn't work for you, there's also the PICVideo Motion JPEG codec. Other companies probably make 'em too.
The Canon digital cameras (and most other digital cameras) produce MJPEG AVIs, so if you are having problems playing the output files the camera produces, installing DirectX 8 or 9 should fix the issue.
Q: My AVI files uses the Indeo codec...
A: Reencode the content. Intel sold Indeo to Ligos, who to my knowledge stopped development on it and started charging for it. Old broken versions are what's out there, so it's going to be a bad experience to keep using this. Don't bother: get the content provider to reencode the content to a supported codec, thus solving the problem for everyone.
Q: What does it mean if I get the error - "The audio codec identified by the format tag 55 is required to play this file."?
A: That means that your MP3 decoder has been broken by something that you've done to your system. The easiest way to fix this should be to find the file l3codeca.acm on your system, rename that file to l3codeca.bak, then go to WMP's Help:Check for Updates and run that so WMP can replace the l3codeca.acm MP3 decoder WMP uses.
Please note that the following list was the starting point - I've actually assembled the full list of all ~800 codecs out there that I've found, and that list will probably be published at Microsoft later this year (2006).
FormatTag hex formattag Audio Codec that supports it
49 GSM Audio
50 MSN Audio
66 0x42 G.723 (NetMeeting's version, I think)
69 0x45 G.726
85 0x55 MPEG Layer III (FhG)
98 Voxware MetaSound
105 Voxware MetaSound
112 Lernout and Hauspie (bad registration)
116 0x74 Voxware MetaVoice
117 0x75 Voxware MetaSound
273 G.723 (the Vivo version?)
304 ACELP Sipro
352 WMA Standard (v1)
353 WMA Standard (v2-v9)
354 WMA 9 Series Professional
355 WMA 9 Series Lossless
2000 AC3 (decoder here, I guess)
4356 Lernout and Hauspie (bad registration)
6172 Voxware MetaVoice
Note that I'm listing formattags here as integers, not hexadecimal. The player error messages may refer to them by hex values - 0x55 is 85 decimal. The Voxware ones are a mess - I may have them incorrect, since MetaSound, MetaVoice, and Siren all are a blur in my head right now.
Q: How do I get WMP6 and earlier to play back WMV and the other new ASF file types? (For example, on Windows 95 or Windows NT 4.)
A: The Codec download page is what you want. This is the codec redist for WMP (or offline computers or Intranets or CD-ROM distribution or etc.) updated with the new codecs ( WMV7, WMV8, WMV9, WMA8, WMA9 Standard ).
You will need to obtain a license if you want to redistribute this to others.
Q: What does it take for codec download to succeed?
A: Codec download is ONLY supported for a limited set of Microsoft-produced codecs. It requires:
Internet Explorer 3.02 or later
Internet access at time of content playback
Medium Internet security settings
the codec to be available on the server (non-Microsoft codecs are not available on the server)
AngelPotion or other badly broken codecs not to be installed. AngelPotion will generally disable codec download. See the next ? for answers about badly broken codecs and how they affect codec download.
Additionally, on NT-based systems (Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows .Net, etc.), the user will need Admin privileges for most codec downloads.
Q: Why does WMP always try to download a codec when I play back a file?
A: If you're having this issue with MP3 files, it's likely that you have the FhG Professional codec, intentionally or otherwise. The FhG Professional codec does not support Windows Media Player's preroll attempt, and thus causes WMP to think it needs to download a codec. The fix for this would be to either rename "l3codeca.acm" or "l3codecp.acm" on your system (to something like "l3codeca.bak"). Then WMP might do one more codec download, but then it shouldn't happen again.
Note that Windows Media Player 9 Series will not do a codec download for this case, but will instead break cross-fading and other benefits of how WMP uses pre-rolling.
If that's not the issue: Presumably a third party DirectShow filter has badly misregistered itself, claiming that it can support decompression of data that it in actuality can not. Generally if you can't isolate and remove whichever bad application did this, you'll need to destroy and rebuild your DirectShow filter database. This explains how to rebuild the DirectShow filter database. The DirectShow Filter Manager should also let you figure this out more easily....
Note that in many cases it will still be possible to play back the content after codec download regardless of codec download success, because at that point WMP will look again at available codecs that say they support the applicable file, but this time ignoring the misregistered filter that wasn't able to play the file. Sadly, there's no way to persist this "distrust" of that codec - you really need to figure out what the bad codec is and uninstall it.
If you can identify which codec is misregistered on your system, let the vendor know so they can fix the issue.
If you want to try to sort out what codec/filter is getting in the way (which can be tough), the best tool for this I'm currently aware of is the oddly named GSpot Codec Tool. In turn you can use the DxMan tool to get rid of those bad codecs/filters, or (as Jong points out) FilMerit, DSFMgr, or Radlight to adjust downward the merit for the bad filters. The last suggestion is only for expert users, though.
Q: I get a message saying that my security settings don't allow for the codec downloaded to be installed... how do I fix this?
A: Codec download requires IE 3.02 (or newer) to be on the box to have adequate cryptography in order to be able to trust downloaded packages. Then after this point it needs to check the IE security settings, which are under Internet Options:Security within IE. Specifically, you need to be able to download signed ActiveX controls for codec dQ: What are the most common causes of crashes in WMP?
A: Surprisingly, bad third party code. WMP allows third parties to plug in, and not all play well/healthily. If you have "mmswitch.ax" or "neroburnplugin.dll" on your system, you should remove those- those don't work with WMP. If you have "ffdshow.ax", "divxdec.ax", "xvidcore.dll", "igdumd32.dll", or "sockspy.dll" (BitDefender Anti-Virus) on your system, you should make sure you have the latest versions of those, as earlier versions may causes crashes. These files alone account for most crashing problems with WMP.
Q: Can you give me the e-mail address of someone who can help me with (blank)?
A: Sorry, this is not possible.
Q: I found a bug. What do I do?
A: Take it to Product Support. That's really about the best and perhaps only effective(?) conduit I know of for handling bugs. Sorry: there's big scale issues here that come into play. Remember that your bug would get mixed in with another's persons confusion and so forth.
Q: Hey, who are you?
A: I've been a developer on the Windows Media team for the past ten years (started full-time back in August 96). I think the product rocks, so I like to a: help people have an easier time in a very complex field, and b: learn what we can work on to make the product better.
I've lately decided that the newsgroups are pretty acerbic at times, and decided to walk away so that those involved can better formulate a constructive and positive user experience. Obviously this is UseNet, so that's of course not possible, but I will hope. But as far as I'm concerned: it's just mental stress and a ave known security vulnerabilities
FFDShow - still in beta, make sure you're using a mostly stable version such as 1.0.5.1659 or later
AngelPotion - generally the worst hack codec ever written, corrupts playback
AC3Filter - old versions break mono playback in the player, use 1.46 or later
MPEGSplitter.ax - buggy third party MPEG splitter - crashes on a divide by zero error
Ligos MPEG codecs (such as lmpgspl.ax) - should not be installed to Vista
old versions of Nero - old versions are often pirated in packs, often have issues
Indeo Audio Codec (iac25_32.ax) - crashes when queried about MPEG2 support, do not use on Vista, breaks DVDMaker
Ace Mega Codec Packs (installs MMSwitch, Voxware, DivX 5.2, old FFDShow, Indeo Audio Codec, and 3ivx)
AVI Codec pack (installs 3ivX)
BgPop Codec Pack (installs old broken InterVideo, Cyberlink, Ligos)
BoliGego Codec (2nd worst pack: installs AngelPotion, MMSwitch, and 3ivx)
Codec Pack All in 1 (installs MMSwitch)
Codec Pack de ELISOFT (installs old buggy FFDShow, old buggy AC3Filter, old buggy DivX, 3ivX, MMSwitch)
Defiler (uses an old buggy FFDShow version)
DelDecPack (uses an old buggy FFDShow version)
DivX Total Pack (installs MMSwitch)
DJBCP Codec Pack (install MMSwitch)
dTomoyo's Unified Codec Pack
Gordian Knot (installs MMSwitch)
K-Lite Codec Pack - anything older than 3.6.2 is Very Bad (such as installing Voxware, MMSwitch, Indeo, etc)
current K-Lite Mega Codec Pack (installs Indeo Audio Codec to Vista)
Matroska (uses an old buggy FFDShow version)
MUSK codec pack (installs MMSwitch and 3ivx)
Nimo Codec Pack (installs MMSwitch and 3ivx)
Nimo Codec Pack lite (installs MMSwitch)
RazorBB Codec Pack (installs Voxware, registers Indeo Audio on Vista)
Satsuki (uses an old buggy FFDSHow version)
SLD Codec Pack (installs MMSwitch, 3ivx, breaks WMP's crossfading and File Open filters)
The Codecs (installs MMSwitch)
The Codecs Lite (uses an old buggy FFDShow version)
Storm Codec Pack (installs Voxware and 3ivx)
Tsunami Codec Pack (worst pack: installs AngelPotion, MMSwitch, oldest FFDShow, old DivX, old AC3 filter, old Intervideo, old Cyberlink, and old Ligos)
Tzim's Codec Pack (uses an old buggy FFDShow version)
Windows Essential Codec Pack (installs 3ivx)
Also bear in mind that any content file requiring some random codec to be installed is going to necessitate every other user trying to play the file to install the above packages. As such, it may be more time effective to get the content vendor to reencode the file from the content source using more legitimate mainstream codecs that will not negatively impact users' systems.
No one should ever install Morgan Multimedia Stream Switcher ('mmswitch.ax'). No one should ever install Voxware MetaSound or MetaVoice. And don't ever install common / shared files to your own private path. It's dumb and that's called "DLLHell".
As of this writing (Sept 2008), many codec packs use private install pathing. This is just dumb. If a security update is released, there's no way to reliably get that or apply it. Installing the old version via any codec pack accidentally would then break you again.
Codec packs are bad software put together by amateurs whose mistakes will damage your system's stability. We're all amateurs, but I'm extremely interested in keeping your system stable. Most codec pack vendors have shown little integrity or competence: it's a real challenge to keep up with exactly how they've decided to mess up your system today. "Codec packs" are the most pathetic bug-riddled software concept I have ever seen, bar none. This is disgusting software. No competent professional should ever be recommending one. No knowledgable amateur should ever be recommending one. Users suffer because they exist, and they affect the system at such an internal level that most users never really understand why they've started to see weird bad behavior.
I cannot overstate how incredibly incompetent codec packs are. These are the single worst thing that has ever happened to Windows multimedia ever. It was one thing for, say, Morgan Multimedia to write a bad crashing piece of software: it's entirely another for incompetent jerks to fob millions of copies of that off to user's systems where it then will proceed to randomly corrupt memory and crash.
The most popular question is then:
Q: Well How Should I Get Codecs?
A: Get the specific codecs you need as you need them (THIS IS THE BEST AND ONLY SMART CHOICE) thus ensuring you get the latest most stable most secure version of that codec.
If you're feeling daring, you can try to use a "good" codec pack such as CCCP. See here for how to find out what codec you need. Note that I've seen CCCP do bad things now too, so I do not feel any codec pack is safe any longer. Making users your guinea pigs sucks no matter who is doing it.
Q: Every time I try to play my AVI file with WMP I get the message "Not enough storage is available to complete this operation."
A: The file you are trying to play is corrupt. You'll need to get a correctly encoded version of the file in order to play it. [Some players may be able to still play this file, but it is corrupt and you will have trouble with it in various applications - reencoding it now is the best option since now the source material is probably still around so you don't get locked out of it at some date in the future.]
Q: Why do I get the message "The operation cannot be performed because the pins are not connected." when I try to play back a file with WMP?
A: See this information.
Audio Questions
Q: I'm having sound problems (muffledness, echoes, errors, speed issues, etc).
Q: I'm getting error 0x80040256 trying to play back content...
Q: I'm having audio/video synch problems...
A: Check for sound card driver updates, both from your vendor and from Windows Update (also make sure you have the latest DirectX there). You will also want to make sure that you have the correct speaker output selected under WMP's Tools:Options:Devices:Speakers. If you have an old version of FFDShow Tryouts or AC3Filter installed, uninstall those - they like to mess with playback.
If you're on Vista, you will likely benefit from going to the Sounds control panel (under Hardware and Sounds), double-clicking on 'Speakers' and then turning off any Enhancements or System Effects.
If that doesn't help, go to "Control Panel"-->"Multimedia"-->"Audio"-->"Advanced Properties" (this is the "Sound and Multimedia" control panel on Win2k) and turn down Hardware Acceleration. The Microsoft article on trouble-shooting audio can be found here.
If you're still having issues, you can switch to use WaveOut for audio rendering which may fix the issue for you (*Please note that you may need to reboot for this fix to take effect!*). If it doesn't, you must run this to switch back to using DirectSound.
Also, this and this page contains some good generic audio trouble-shooting info. [NOTE: In all cases, we're just working around bugs in your audio card driver. WMP uses a more advanced API than most other players use, which is why often WMP will be the only player to suffer from the sound card bugginess.]
Note that if the problem is SOLELY isolated out to MP3 files - for example, the pitch shifts after the first couple seconds of MP3 playback - then you would need to rename the file "ctmp3.acm" on your system (to "ctmp3.bak" or something like that). This is a Creative PlayCenter MP3 decoder that the Player isn't fully compatible with. Renaming it allows WMP to use the FhG MP3 decoder that the player *is* compatible with.
If your sound just sounds overblown/overdriven, turn off WMP's EQ or lower the settings - the EQ does preamping too, which can mess with some sound cards.
If it sounds like it's a karaoke machine, then you may have a karaoke mode on the speakers that you might want to turn off.
Note also that Total Recorder installs a virtual sound card driver, which can cause problems as well. Switch back to your normal sound card driver and you should be okay again.
Q: Why do I only get two speaker sound out of my surround digital speakers?
A: Per Sumedh: Go into WMP's Tools:Options:Devices. Select speakers and click on Properties. *Uncheck* the checkbox that says "Use 24-bit audio for audio CDs". Click OK twice to get back to the player. Close and reopen the player.
Q: Why does my computer reboot during audio playback from the net (or stutter repeatedly during regular audio playback)?
A: Either you have a IRQ conflict (check Device Manager!) or your sound card's DirectSound support may be busted. If you don't have an IRQ conflict, go here for more help.
Q: My audio gets distorted when I scroll or move the mouse or otherwise have lots of video movement onscreen. How do I fix this?
A: Your video processing is interfering. Right-click on the desktop, choose Properties. Click Settings. Click Advanced. Click Troubleshoot. Adjust the Hardware acceleration and you should be fine.
Also, Stuart recommends unchecking "Use Smooth Scrolling" in Internet Explorer's Tools:Internet Options:Advanced menu options.
Finally, George says that he fixed this by turning off "Show window contents while dragging".
Q: How do I make WMP louder?
A: WMP uses both the main volume control and the Wave volume control. WinAMP, for example, adjusts the Wave volume control and thus affects WMP. You would need to click on the speaker icon by the clock on the Start Bar (this area is called the system tray) and adjust the Wave volume control. Also affecting WMP's sound output will be WMP's "View:Now Playing Tools" menu's Graphic Equalizer (which can provide an additional boost by maxing the mixer lines), the "View:Now Playing Tools" menu's SRS WowSound, and the Windows XP Plus! pack's "Speaker Correction". Finally, in some cases, the DirectSound support from your sound card may be quieter than the waveOut support, in which case you can switch to use waveOut and recapture that extra volume.
[For Windows XP, the Volume Control is not shown by default. Go to the Start Menu, scroll up to Settings, open the Control Panel Folder. Then click on "Sounds and Audio Devices", and set the volume here and/or click the "Place volume icon on the taskbar".]
Q: Why does WMP 'crackle' off and on after about 30 seconds into playing my Windows Media file?
A: Some MP3 files converted to ASF using the V4 Encoder can contain more audio in the file than is indicated by the file's internal timestamps. This leads to synchronization problems - leading to the crackling. The fix would be to reconvert the file with the V7 encoder, which will not cause this effect.
Q: Why does WMP show the wrong time for Variable Bitrate (VBR) MP3 files?
A: [From Zeb] 'It is due to whether or not the TLEN (Total Length) field was set appropriately in
the ID3v2 version 3 or higher tag when the file was encoded/ripped.
If it is set properly, the length shows fine.
If it is not, WMP will sample the bit rate of the first few frames and determine the length that way (and with VBR files, it can be inaccurate because of the nature of VBR).
Most new encoders which support VBR MP3 encoding accurately write the TLEN
(the latest version of MusicMatch for example).'
Q: Why doesn't WMP produce audio for certain VBR MP3 files?
A: It's a bug in the FhG-supplied MP3 decoder WMP uses where it can't handle certain VBR files. There'd have to be an updated FhG decoder for this to be fixed.
Video Questions
Q: I'm having video problems (such as green or pink lines on the video, choppy video, player hangs when playing video, and et cetera).
Q: Why am I getting video flickering?
Q: Why am I not getting video in fullscreen for WMV files?
A: Check for video card driver updates from your vendor, and/or DirectX updates from WindowsUpdate.
If that doesn't help, turn down your hardware acceleration.
If you're using WMP11 on Vista, either double-check for driver updates (directly from your video card vendor as well) or try turning off "Use video smoothing" in WMP's Tools:Options:Performance menu. Also, if your system has an Intel Express Chipset, be sure to get the driver updates from Intel (which will fix crashes, glitching, and no video showing up.)
If you're using WMP7 or newer: Open WMP's Tools:Options:Performance:Advanced menu dialog. First try turning off overlays, and then if that does not help, turn off the Video Mixing Renderer.
If you're using WMP6 (mplayer2.exe): Open WMP's View:Options menu dialog. You'll see a slider there for "Hardware acceleration". Turning this down to None often works around whatever driver bug is creating your issue (and sometimes turning it up helps too).
Some people have also pointed out that unchecking "Start player in Media Guide" in WMP's Tools:Options menu dialog gets a video issue resolved, oddly enough.
If NetMeeting Remote Desktop Sharing is turned on, that can also cause performance problems.
Note that on Windows .Net Server, video hardware acceleration is turned off by default (since it's not beneficial to server performance). Thus video performance will suck. If you want to be using a .Net Server box as a player box(?), you'd need to turn system wide video hardware acceleration up. You can do this via right clicking on the desktop, choose Properties:Settings:Advanced:Troubleshooting and move the acceleration slider all the way to the right. You will also want to turn on DirectDraw - go to the Windows Start button, then at the Run prompt, enter 'Dxdiag'. Click on Display. Click on Enable DirectDraw if present.
If you're having problems staying in full screen mode, you should verify that your screen saver isn't knocking you out of full screen, and check whether turning off WMP's Tools:Options:Performance:Advanced : Enable Full Screen Mode Switch helps.
The full screen controls (on Windows XP and newer) will go away once you stop moving the mouse and the mouse cursor is not hovering over the controls. If you want 'em to go away faster, either uncheck WMP's Tools:Options:Performance:Advanced "Display full-screen controls" or get the TweakMP Power toy from WMPlugins.com and use that to tweak the settings as you would like 'em.
Q: Why don't the Video Settings Enhancement work?
A: They do not work for DVD playback ever - I believe the Help file mentions this. If they're not working for other file types, run "regsvr32 wmp.dll" to fix that up.
Q: Why is my video "zoomed" in so that I can't see the whole picture? I only see a small portion of it?
A: The latest nVidia drivers support a "Zoom" setting. Presumably this is turned on on your machine. Turn it off and things should work fine. On Windows XP, this is under the Display control panel, under the Settings tab in the Advanced button, then go to the Video Overlay settings.
Q: Why does video immediately go to full-screen mode no matter what?
A: You have the Clone setting set under your NVidia drivers NView settings. Turn that off and you should be happier.
Q: Why does WMP9 show my files using the "wrong"/incorrect/stretched height/width?
A: The old renderer ignored the aspect ratio setting in the files - the Video Mixing Renderer (VMR) pays attention to it and sends it down to the system... which then may do the wrong thing for some NTSC/PAL ratios.
What you'd want to do is go to WMP's Tools:Options:Performance:Advanced menu option and uncheck "Use Video mixing renderer". This will cause your performance to suffer, though.
You can contact Product Support and get an actual fix for this issue here.
Q: Why does WMP crash in the middle of setup?
A: You're running old NVidia (or ATI) drivers: either get newer ones, completely turn down video hardware acceleration system-wide for the duration of the install, or reinstall the ones you have.
Q: Video doesn't show up unless I maximize the window, clip the window (put another window in front it, etc....).
A: You need to turn down video hardware acceleration: your video card driver is buggy.
Q: Why does WMP display a visualization instead of the video for my file?
A: You're either missing a codec, or the codec isn't working. This should be helpful.
Q: How do I get video to show up in the player on my second monitor (dual monitor / multi-monitor)?
A: Turn off NetMeeting's Remote Desktop Sharing.
Q: How do I get the player to go full-screen on my second monitor?
A: If it only ever goes full-screen on the primary monitor - just go to the Windows' Start:Settings:Control Panel:Display's Settings tab and make the secondary monitor your primary monitor.
Visualization Questions
Q: Where can I find more visualizations?
A: The following sites offer WMP visualization plug-ins:
WMPlugins.com.
Windows Media visualization download site.
Windows Media Player Bonus Pack, complete with new vizzes.
Lucian's Dancing Stick Figures. Very cool.
GOOM! (alternate source at GOOM!, but it's harder to find the binaries there)
G-Force 2.5 viz. Pretty trippy and cool.
Glass3D's Animator 2.0 visualization.
WildTangent. Tons of 3d eye candy vizzes. Looks like they've stopped shipping this.
Napier's Bones vizzes. Supposedly extra responsive/extra syncronized visualizations.
TwistedPixel viz. Presettable 3d coolness.
Polyphone Software.
PixelTrip. Cool 3d looking viz.
Thank You Mr. Hood. A disco floor-ish 3d viz.
MusicTech. Technical vizzes.
Pioneer Japan visualizations. Looks just like a Pioneer CD deck. This probably won't install on your system - I had to extract the files out using WinZIP, then install the skin and register the viz.
RabidHamster new r4 stand-alone viz (+ extra scenes).
Additionally, SyntheSoft offers an app that can make WinAMP vizzes work with WMP (by hosting the AVS within an external window). Interesting and works well, but pegs my CPU.
If you want to build your own visualizations, this should be a good starting place.
Q: How do I get WMP's visualization to visualize the line-in of my sound card? Say a live performance?
A: Get Ianier Munoz's Line In plug-in for WMP. This is one of my favorite plug-ins for WMP. There's also the Whitecap plug-in, which I haven't tried.
Q: Why don't visualizations show up?
A: Make sure the "View:Now Playing Tools:Show Visualizations" menu option is checked in WMP. Note that visualizations do not work for MIDI. Additionally, visualizations for analog CD playback only work within Windows XP , and are not supported in WMP7.
Q: When I use Plenoptic in fullscreen mode, it doesn't work. Ambience works fine...
A: According to the guy who wrote Plenoptic, this only occurs on the ATI Mach 64 video card, and is due to a problem in the card's DirectDraw support. Turning off DirectDraw acceleration using DxDiag.exe (part of DirectX 7 and newer) might make this work, but he was never able to get this card to work. Some other cards may not support Plenoptic in various fullscreen resolutions: changing the resolution may help fix this. Generally Plenoptic will work for any card that isn't giving us back bad data on the capabilities that card supports.
Q: I'm getting visualizations in place of video...
A: This should help.
Q: How do I turn off visualizations?
A: Using WM Player 9 Series or newer, right-click on the visualization and choose "No Visualization" when in Full Mode. In Skin mode, you would need to use the Null visualization.
In skin mode, you can use a Null visualization: install that and you'll have a Null visualization that doesn't do anything.
If you're not using WM Player 9 Series: Make sure the "View:Now Playing Tools:Show Visualizations" menu option is not checked in WMP. If it is checked, uncheck it.
In Media Player on Windows XP, you can also use the Album Art visualization in Full Mode.
The Null Visualization has become part of the Windows Media Player Power Toys nowadays.
Skins
Q: Where can I find cool skins for WMP?
A: There are over 700 skins I've downloaded myself - if you look around, you'll usually find something interesting. Here's the sites where I know you can find WMP skins, ordered by the date that I ran across them. I've used strikeout to mark the sites that apparently no longer have the skins on the site: the skins might still be there (if the site is), but I couldn't find them any longer.
Sites you can submit and download skins at:
sites higher on list are updated more frequently
WinCustomize,
Windows Media Plugins.com,
DeviantArt (a particular highlight is JafoWMP - the site is hard to sort through, but has a bunch of good skins),
Customize.org's skin collection,
Romanda's skins,
Howard University skin contest (some good stuff),
Angell's Heaven's skin collection (a quite good collection of the various skins around the net),
The WindowsMedia site
Hong Kong Windows Media site,
Skinz.org (massively ad-laden - get something like Popup Ad Filter before going here),
DeskMod,
(Russian skin site) (has some hard to find skins),
LotsofSkins.com,
PCDesktops skins (BeOs, Mac-ish skins for WMP),
Dezina skins,
CNet,
Zach's Big Big But Unofficial List of Skins (my site - just a simple dump for now),
Various Nokia/Motorola skins. The site is hard to figure out, but there's a couple 'cute' skins that look like your favorite Nokia or Motorola product.
If you want to design skins,
you can find the WMP SDK on-line here (and also for download here). Additionally, the Windows Media Player 7 Handbook and the Windows Media Player for Windows XP Handbook both have information on how to make skins. (Amazon.com link provided for reference- you can get or browse these at many other places.) There's a user-written tutorial here that's a good basic start. This tutorial covers skinning the Smartphone 2002 WMP.
Q: Why do I get an "Unspecified XML Parse Error" (0x8007007B) trying to switch to Compact mode?
A: You need to first select a skin to use in the Skin Chooser before you can use Compact mode. :)
Q: Why am I unable to switch to Compact Mode?
A: You have a bad skin set as your current skin. Go to the Skins view within WMP7 and select a different skin to use. This should be fixed in WM Player 9 Series.
Q: How do I find out about creating skins for Windows Media Player?
A: Check out the Windows Media Player SDK (on the Internet), the Windows Media Player Handbook (available at bookstores), and/or - if you're good at XML/JScript - open up a skin you already have on disk with WinZip and figure it out by that example.
Q: How do I create a Windows Media Download (.wmd) or Border (borders) file?
A: See the nice MSDN article or the documentation. There's also some on-line examples here.
Q: I'm using the WinAMP Skin Importer from the WMPlugins and I get an error about a missing file - how do I fix this?
A: For v1 skins like that you'll need baseskin.zip on your system. See here for a link to baseskin.zip.
Note that there is also a WinAMP to WMP PocketPC skin importer, I believe.
Q: Where can I find cool skins for WMP for WinCE?
A: Here's some skins, the official MS page on CE Skins, skins here. The WMP for WinCE Skins SDK is here.
Toys and whatnot for WMP
Q: Why isn't the taskbar player functional?
A: The Windows Media Player toolbar in some cases may not show up or the buttons may not be responsive. If you have rebooted and this problem persists, run "regsvr32.exe "c:\program files\windows media player\wmpband.dll"" and "regsvr32.exe c:\windows\system32\wmp.dll". Then restart your system, and the deskband player should now work.
Q: Can I change the timeout for the pop-up (toast) window in the taskbar player?
A: You can do this in v11 by creating a REG_DWORD value named "DeskbandFlyoutTimeout" under HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\MediaPlayer\Preferences . If you set it to 0x0, it'll never show up. If you set it to 0xFFFFFFFF it'll always show up. Anything in between it'll show up for that many milliseconds. The normal setting is I believe 3000ms. If that value is not present, the default is used.
Q: How can I get the player to let me sync to devices at bitrates not already listed in the player's UI?
A: If you're an expert user: Open regedit, go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER, Software\Microsoft\MediaPlayer\Preferences. You can create DWORD values under here with the names "WMDMPreferredAudioBitrateValue1", "WMDMPreferredAudioBitrateValue2", "WMDMPreferredAudioBitrateValue3", or "WMDMPreferredAudioBitrateValue4". Those map out to the bps used for the sync, so 320kbps would be 320000. You only need to replace whichever of the four values you want to replace - if you don't create a registry value with that name, WMP will just use the default sync bitrate settings.
Q: Where do I get the PowerToys?
A: They're part of the Media Player for Windows XP Bonus Pack: at this URL. [For reference: the Tray Control is "mpxptray.exe" when installed, and is available in the "Windows Media Player Bonus Pack For Window XP" Start menu folder.]
More Toys are now available at WMPlugins.com. :)
If you're a MSN Messenger user, you can use the plug-ins at Messenger Plus! to get Messenger showing your currently playing WMP tracks. (This is the WMPlus for Messenger, which has also got a page at Neowin.net.
Igx89 wrote this plug-in that does a number of things, most notably allowing you to 'bookmark' where you are so that when you restart the player, the file picks up where you last left off. :)
If you're looking for the Windows Media Player 7.0 Bonus Pack, you can still find it here at CNet.
Q: How do I autosync podcasts in WMP?
This article covers it.
There's various podcasting plug-ins for WMP here. Juice and Creative's Zencast are what I've heard the most about.
Q: Why aren't my changes to file lyrics written back to the file in WMP9?
A: Lyrics entered into the file in the player's InfoCenter view are not storied in the file (v9 player bug, fixed in v10). To work around this, you would cut and paste the lyrics from the InfoCenter view into the file, using the player's Advanced Tag Editor or other lyric-entering tool.
I would highly recommend the LyricsAMP plug-in to automatically help you retrieve lyrics for your files when using WMP (other alternatives).
Q: How do I put an icon for WMP in the System Tray?
A: On Windows XP: There's a "Windows Media Player Tray Control" Power Toy in the Windows Media Bonus Pack for Windows XP.
WMP Manager also lets you control WMP from the system tray, and has more functionality than the Tray Control Power Toy.
WM Player 9 Series also installs a "WMP Toolbar" that you can turn on by right-clicking on the Start menu bar, choose "Toolbars", and turning "Windows Media Player" on. Note that Stardock's "TrayServer.exe" blocks WM Player 9 Series from being able to dock.
Elsewhere, use TrayIt!, a freeware app. WMP doesn't natively support minimization to the Tray, but TrayIt! works for any app. (I've briefly verified it works on Windows XP using the Classic style menu bars. Matthew points out that TrayIt! doesn't seem to like the puffy style menu bars: in that case you'd need to use the Windows Media Player Tray Control Power Toy.)
Q: How do I control WMP via infra-red remote control?
A: Evation.com Infrared Kit does this.
Also, StreamZap offers both infra-red and regular remote control support for WMP.
Some people are also fans of ATI's Remote Wonder, which is RF but not IR - which gives you much much increased range.
If you're trying to remotely control WMP from a different computer, the PlayerPal plug-in should be what you'd want.
Q: Can I make the player transparent?
A: With this or PowerMenu, yes. Some video cards really freak out with transparency, though, which is why it's not a Product Feature at this point. :\
Q: How do I remove dead entries (for files that don't exist) from the Media Library?
A: If and only if you are using WMP8, use the Media Library Management Wizard that's included in the PowerToys.
Note that the Media Library Management Wizard is not compatible with Windows Media Player 9 Series. Per Sean: "The Media Library Management Wizard has "grown up" and has most of its functionality now built into Auto Info in MP9Series. Check out Tools|Options|Media Library and check Rename and rearrange music."
There's an official MS article here about cleaning up old entries. I started writing a minor PowerToy that cleans up invalid entries - you can use this app for WMP7 to do this. Note that this powertoy is fully unsupported and was still in a preliminary stage of development when the source code got destroyed due to a hard drive failure. Please do not distribute this. If anybody wants it, have them get it from here with the warning I put here.
Q: How do I rename all of my content according to a new naming scheme?
A: Galley suggests Media Jukebox, Gary recommends eMusic Tag Editor, and Mark recommends Tag and Rename 3.0.
If for some reason you don't want to use that, there's also the Media Library Management Wizard (for use with WMP8 only), but that isn't as full-fledged nor supported.
Windows Media Player 9 Series on Windows XP has a "Rename and rearrange music using media information" under WMP's Tools:Options:Media Library menu options.
Specific Error Code Questions
Q: Where's the official WMP error code site?
A: The new good one is here, the old one is here.
Q: I'm getting 0x80030109 ("The docfile has been corrupted") playing back files from a certain web server...
A: The file is being served as the wrong MIME type by the server. First, verify that the file ends with a *lower-case* "wmv", "asf", or "wma". Second, try configuring the server properly.
If the file is on your local system at this point and you're getting this error, you must reobtain a copy of the file from the vendor, as the file is corrupt.
Q: I'm getting 0x80040111 ("ClassFactory cannot supply the requested class") when trying to play back an AVI...
A: The file was created with a 3rd party (non-Microsoft) codec, and is being played back on your system by a 3rd party decoder. Whatever codec is used by that file - this should help you figure that out is broken on your system and needs to be updated.
Q: I'm getting error 0x80040154 when trying to play content?
Q: I'm getting the message "Class Not Registered" trying to play back content ... ?
Q: I'm getting "No such interface supported" (0x80004002) when trying to play back content...
A: This error means that information needed to load the next component in the playback chain is not present.
For WMP10 or WMP9 users: try either reinstalling the player on top of itself or running "regsvr32 quartz.dll".
For Windows Media Player for XP (WMP8), try this.
For non-XP users using WMP7 or older: If you're generally getting this error (against most content and not only against AVI files), you will need to reinstall WMP7 (on top of the existing install) in Reinstall All mode (the second checkbox on the options list during install). If you only have WMP 6.4 and are NOT on Win2K or WinMe:
Download mpfull.exe (it's the download available
here as "Windows Media Player 6.4 for Win95 and Win NT4").
Shut absolutely everything down (notably IE and any multimedia application).
Rename quartz.dll and devenum.dll in the system directory (to quartz.bak and devenum.bak or such - this way you can replace them if you need to)
Install mpfull.exe
If you are on Win2K or WinMe and the reg file doesn't work, you will have to use the WMP7 installer to fix this issue. You can uninstall WMP7 afterwards, but the WMP6.4 fix will not work on Win2K or WinMe and will Be Bad (since you would be installing an older version of quartz.dll).
If you are only getting this error for specific AVI content, that means that you have a bad version of the AVI codec that that files uses. Figure out which codec that file uses and reinstall the codec from the codec vendor's web site.
Finally, running dxdiag.exe (should already be on your system) may be helpful, since it'll make sure that DirectX is working properly. In some cases a broken DirectX install has caused this error.
Q: I'm getting error 0x80040155 - "Interface not registered."
A: If you're experiencing this error with WMP9, Mike Poz says this means that you should reinstall the player on top of itself. The installer should be at "C:\Program Files\Windows Media Player\Installer" on your system already.
Q: I'm getting 0x80040209 - The operation cannot be performed because the pins are not connected.
A: This means that one of your drivers is not performing correctly. Trouble-shooting should entail:
Ensuring you have the latest version of DirectX on your system (which can be done via Windows Update)
Ensure you have the latest video card drivers, either from Windows Update or your video card provider. Certain multi-monitor scenarios will cause bad video card drivers to not work properly. The fix for this scenario is to disable "Extend my windows desktop onto this monitor" for that monitor. Which basically means you'll want to take that video card back in for a return and get a different non-buggy video card.
Ensure that you have the latest audio card drivers, either from Windows Update or from your audio card provider.
Q: I get error 0x80040227 - "Operation failed -- the filter is in the wrong state" - when trying to burn CDs.
A: Check here.
Q: I get the error 0x8004022F ("The file format is invalid.") playing back some AVI files from newsgroups. (Or 0x80040265 playing back MPG files).
A: You're trying to play back one part of a multi-part AVI file. This won't work because the AVI index will not be correct for a split file (and thus the file will be rejected by the AVI parser). You have to recombine the file and *then* play it back. Bear in mind that mplayer.exe (on Win9x) and mplay32.exe (on NT and XP) will play back these files, but it may crash since the AVI would be kinda broken at this point.
Alternatively (if the file is encoded better), the file may not contain an index chunk - but in that case DirectShow is going to reject it since it requires the normally-optional index, and it still is not going to play in WMP.
Q: I get the error 0x80040295 ("An operation failed due to a certification failure.") playing back a particular file....
A: This error is return by DirectShow when the application does not have a certification for playing back content that requires Secure Channel. This means that the DRM file that you're trying to play back cannot be authenticated for playback on your system.
Q: I get the error 80070003 ("Can't Find Path Specified.") when trying to record CDs.
A: This error in the CD Copy code path may be the result of two things. First, the CD Record path may be set wrong. To fix this, go into WMP's Tools:Options menu and respecify the path that you are copying tracks to. Even if it's set right, just reset it to the location to be sure. If that doesn't help, your Media Library may be corrupt. Usually if this is the case you would know it, as the Media Library pane would not be functioning correctly. I address how to fix this second case here.
Q: Why do I get the error 0xC00D0BB8 (or error 0xc00d1199) trying to play back a file in Windows Media Player 9 Series?
A: The MP3 you are trying to play either uses compressed ID3 headers or an unsynchronized ID3 header or otherwise has to-WMP-unintrepretable ID3v2 data, which the player does not support for security reasons.
If it has unsynchronized ID3 headers, then the Q814129 QFE will allow these files to play back.
Otherwise - if that does not work -, you would need to use a tag editing software program to eliminate the compressed ID3 information. In some cases, you will just need to remove the Comments section, in others you'll need to delete all ID3 tagging on the file. Alternatively, the file could be played in most other players.
A quick way to clean up the file is to open the file up in WinAMP 2.x, right-click on the file in the Playlist window, choose "File Info" and uncheck ID3v1 tag and ID3v2 tag, then click Update. The file should then work fine in WMP.
Alternatively, if you want to use a Tool to do this, you can use the Advanced WMA Workshop.
In some cases, people have gotten error 0xc00d1199 when they've had the wrong audio device selected under WMP's Tools:Options:Devices:Speakers:Properties. Changing that to the correct setting should fix you up.
Q: I'm getting the error message 0xc00d1057 - "A portion of the file cannot be played."
Q: I'm getting the error message 0xc00d109a - "The codec downloaded for this media does not appear to be properly signed. Installation is not possible.."
Q: I'm getting the error message 0xc00d109b - "Windows Media Player cannot play the file. One or more codecs required to play the file could not be found."
Q: I'm getting the error message 0xc00d10d1 - "One or more codecs required to open this content could not be found."
A: See here to help find the missing codec.
Q: Why do I get error 0xC00D10B3 (or 0xC00D10B5) trying to play or download tracks?
A: Either your firewall is blocking WMP from being able to connect to the Internet, or you are offline.
Q: I'm getting error 0xc00d10BD trying to play back DVDs...
A: Usually this error code should indicate that the video card driver isn't functioning properly, and that this should help fix you up. However, evidently DVD XCopy Platinum can also cause this error, so if you have that on your system, you may want to try removing that.
Q: Why do I get error 0xC00d2751 trying to play back content?
A: This error indicates that your system profile changed. KB891664 should be helpful here.
On Windows Me: Read How to Fix This. (Although now this page says to just install WMP9.)
Q: Why do I get error 0xc00d2754 ("The licenses for your media files are corrupted. Contact Microsoft product support.") trying to play back files?
A: Cesar says that this page is probably the best thing to try. If not, contact Microsoft product support so that they can work on a better fix for this!
Note that there is an article being put together to try to address this issue, so PLEASE make sure you contact product support. If you have repro steps so that we can understand how you got into this state, it would be WONDERFUL of you to post those repro steps to the "microsoft.public.windowsmedia.player" newsgroup (as well as making sure that product support has their hot little hands on the repro steps!) so that the best possible fix/article can be made.
If you're getting this error just trying to record CDs to your hard drive, turn Personal DRM off. To turn DRM off for all content you create in the future, go to WMP7's Tools:Options:CD Audio and uncheck "Enable Personal Rights Management" (this is under Tools:Options:Copy Music, "Protect Content" under newer versions of WMP), which will result in DRM-free content for all content ripped from that point forward.
If nothing else works and you feel comfortable not contacting product support and are self-assured that you can handle mussing up your system, browse to the *hidden* not visible folder "C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\DRM" and rename this folder to something like "DRM.BAK". Now create a NEW DRM folder. Your licenses have all been removed now.
Now open regedit, and browse to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\DRM. Rename this DRM key to "DRM.BAK" or similar.
Finally, go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows Media\WMSDK\General. Rename this General key to "General.bak" or similar.
At this point, all of your old licenses have been lost, but you should be finally good to go again.
If you want/wanted any other resolution to this problem, you have to contact product support. It's uncertain whether they'd be able to do anything, but they're the only people who have a chance here.
Q: Why am I getting error 0xC00D2760?
A: Your system's security catalogs don't contain up-to-date Trust certificates - you can get them at Windows Update or by updating to Internet Explorer 6 SP1.
Q: Why am I getting error 0xC00D2845 - "The security upgrade cannot be performed because the server is not available. Try again later."?
A: Still unknown to me. The relevant questions are:
What ISP are you using to connect to the Internet?
What is your connection speed?
What installed Premium content services do you have installed as listed under WMP's Premium Services pane? Napster, Movielink, etc... ?
What exact version of WMP are you using? (Check WMP's Help:About menu for this)
What exact version of Internet Explorer are you using? (Check IE's Help:About menu for this)
What exact OS version are you using? (You can check the version of kernel32.dll on your system to know this version number)
What server are you having this trouble with? (Is there a particular file or URL?)
How are you connected to the Internet? Is there a personal firewall, NAT, proxy, or are you directly connected to the Internet?
Is your system clock set correctly? It needs to be for security purposes.
Q: I'm getting error code number...
A: 0x80040216 or 0x80040256.
Q: Why am I getting an internal application error trying to launch the player?
A: If the player is properly installed (and a simple reinstall of the player on top of itself will ensure that), then the only way you can possibly get this error is if something external to the player is not functioning fully and thus is breaking the player. You probably wouldn't notice that problem with other applications as the player uses more advanced interfaces than those other applications use. In some cases, running "regsvr32 jscript.dll" has been known to fix up the issue. On Vista you will need to do this from a CMD.exe prompt run as an administrator.
That being said, if you installed a "codec pack", that's quite likely the source of your problem. Never install any codec packs unless you specifically know that the company in question is guaranteed to be reliable. Many install "mmswitch.ax", for example, which will crash the player.
If you did not install a codec pack, this is almost 99% certainly a driver issue. If "mplayer2.exe" is functioning on your system (which would ensure that the video and sound drivers are working largely correctly), then it's most likely the CD-ROM drivers. This should fix you up, then. If not, it'd be time to contact actual technical support.
This has reportedly been fixed for one user's Windows Me box with an Internet Explorer 6 repair install, but ... YMMV.
Q: Since I installed WMP7 (or Adaptec), my machine won't hibernate / shut-down / shutdown / sleep ?
A: It's an Adaptec issue. Uninstall the Adaptec plug-in. The latest Adaptec driver updates are here, but I don't believe this issue has been fully resolved yet.
Q: Why am I getting a crash in wmpcore.dll?
A: Not sure. Do NOT uninstall and then clean install, but instead *reinstall* the player (not from Windows Update - download it from the Windows Media Download Site) and choose Reinstall All mode. This is superior to uninstall/install.
Q: Why am I getting a crash in "cinemst32.dll" when starting WMP?
A: This is a crash in the Cinemaster decoder. This page has information on trouble-shooting your CineMaster decoder (also see this page for more info).
Q: Why am I getting a crash in "mmswitch.ax" when running WMP?
A: The Morgan Multimedia Stream Switcher (mmswitch.ax) is seriously broken and should never be used. Yell at Morgan Multimedia these people. "regsvr32 /u mmswitch.ax" to unregister that file, then rename or delete the file "mmswitch.ax" (to "mmswitch.ax_" or something like that) on your system to stop the crashing.
Q: Why am I getting a white timer overlaying the video playback window (displaying the frame count)?
Q: Why am I getting a message saying "Assert in ..."?
A: Presumably you have installed the *debug* version of DirectX 8 from the DirectX 8 SDK CD. Reinstall the *retail* build from this CD and these will go away.
It is not possible to run the debug version of DirectX 8 without this timer overlay. I believe that the DirectX in Windows XP does not create this timer overlay, but am not certain. [David points out that the overlay comes from quartz.dll, so replacing just this file with the retail version of the file would put you in an indeterminate state, but one in which you would no longer have the overlay.]
Q: I'm getting random crashes playing content.
A: Try updating DirectX and your drivers. If that doesn't work, turn down the hardware acceleration for your audio card and/or your video card.
Q: I get the error "ODBC driver for Microsoft Access installation problem" when trying to play a music CD. (Or "I get a crash in "msisam11.dll" or "dlimport.exe" trying to open the player."
Or "My media library keeps being corrupted."
Or "GetIUMS could not be located in the Dynamic Link Library MSDART.DLL."
Or "I can't add content to the media library...")
A: MDAC (Microsoft Data Access Components) is not working correctly on your system. Reinstall it from here [Note that this probably isn't necessary on Windows XP or newer].
If you can't reinstall MDAC or you're still getting errors after doing so, you will need to destroy the Media Library. See the next next question for how to do this...
Q: How do I have WM Player 9 Series auto-add new content to my Media Library?
A: Go to WMP's Tools:Options:Media Library menu option and choose "Monitor Folders".
Q: Why when I try to create a new playlist or add tracks, do I get an error message that says "Unspecified Error" or "Error 0x80040216" or "0x80040E37" or "Can't find drives" or "0x800C0065"?
Q: Why doesn't "Search for Media Files..." work?
Q: Why do I get a hang or a crash if I select "Get Names"?
Q: Why am I unable to add folders to my empty "Monitored Folders" list?
A: You need to rebuild the Media Library... see the next question.
Q: How do I rebuild a broken Media Library?
A:
Note that if you do need to replace your Media Library, it is most highly recommended that you update MDAC on your box so as to avoid corruption in the future. The Microsoft KB article for fixing WMP11 library corruption is here.
In WMP11 on Vista, please make sure you have this update - this will make your library more reliable. Then: the library is per user and can be found at "%LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft". Shut down IE, Media Center, WMP, and anything else running (such as the Windows Media Player Network Sharing Service). Then rename the "Media Player" folder there.
At that point WMP should work correctly again.
In WMP11 on XP, the library is per user and can be found at "%USERPROFILE%\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Media Player\CurrentDatabase_360.wmdb". In some extreme cases (such as when you can not add any folders to be scanned in the supplied dialog) you would need to shut down WMP and stop the "Window Media Player Network Sharing Service". Then you would need to rename the folder "%USERPROFILE%\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Media Player". At that point WMP should work correctly again.
In WMP10, the library is per user and can be found at "%USERPROFILE%\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Media Player\CurrentDatabase_219.wmdb". You can first try renaming the file. If that doesn't work, create a second user account. That user should have a working library in WMP. Copy that user's library over to your original user account, and you should be working fine then.
In Windows Media Player 9 Series, the library is per user and can be found at "%USERPROFILE%\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Media Player\CurrentDatabase_59R.wmdb" on a Windows XP system.
On other systems, just look for "CurrentDatabase_59R.wmdb" on the system. To rename it, just add ".bak" to the file.
If you cannot find the library: open a DOS/command prompt ("cmd.exe" on NT/XP, "command" on Win9x) and run:
cd \
dir /s /b c*.wmdb
and that'll list out all the WMP libraries on the system.
For Windows Media Player 7 or 8: Rename (or delete if you're sure) "wmplibrary_v_0_12.db" and your Media Library will be toast.
On Windows 9x it'll be found at "c:\windows", on NT (Win2000/WinXP), it'll be found at "C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Microsoft\Media Index" [This is a HIDDEN directory]. Rename this file to something such as "wmplibrary_v_0_12.bak", then open WMP and see if the corruption is fixed. If it was not, delete the new "wmplibrary_v_0_12.db" and rename the old one back.
Once the library has been nuked/replaced, you should also enter "regsvr32 wmpcore.dll" into the Windows' Start:Run prompt to reregister WMP's database schema. This is only necessary for WMP7/WMP8.
Once you have renamed/recreated the Media Library, you will need to use WMP's Tools:Search for Media option in order to restock your media library.
Symptoms of a broken library are: inability to copy CDs via WMP, inability to access the Media Library, inability to search the hard drive for media, inability to create playlists, etc.
Q: How do I back-up the Media Library?
A:
If you are using Windows Media Player 11:
Find your copy of "CurrentDatabase_360.wmdb" on the system (see here for where to find it) and make a back-up copy. This will make a back-up of the ratings and play count, which are not saved to the files themselves. All other data is written back to the file system, so if you don't care about ratings or play count, you don't need to back up the Media Library
You will also need to make a back-up of the "My Music" directory's "My Playlists" folder, which contains your playlists. But this is part of your media files, so if those should be easy to just copy.
If you wish to back up your ratings into the files themselves, get the Ratings Migration power-toy from WMPlugins.com.
Play counts are only backed up with the Media Library. If you wanted to nuke the play counts, you'd simply nuke the Media Library.
If you are using Windows Media Player 10:
Find your copy of | |
