No more VCD in WMP9

[Wijono]

I am using WMP9 on my PC running Win98SE, the Version is 9.00.00.3344.

I have implemented MDGX's 98SEMP10.EXE.

I don't know why, suddenly only "Audio CD" is available under the Play Menu, not the usual "DVD, VCD or CD Audio", i.e., the DVD, VCD parts are gone, as such I cannot play VCD anymore. What could have caused it, and how can I bring it back?

[noguru]

I don't know. DVD play with win98 and WMP9 is not possible anyway, and as I understand 98SEMP10 does not fix that.

But I think you can still play your VCD's in WMP if you really want. Just open de aviseq.dat files on the CD in WMP9 and they will play. This is the only way it can be done with my WMP9 "out of the box".

[MDGx]

As far as I can tell 98SEMP10 doesn't affect the playback of any media formats, including VCD, SVCD, DVD.

If you somehow lost the ability to play VCDs and/or DVDs, you need to reinstall the decoder/software/player/etc you already have installed in the past, or look for newer or better one(s).

Also, you need to have DirectX 9.0c already installed:

http://www.mdgx.com/dx.htm#DX9

And don't forget to update your video controller drivers to current version.

To my knowledge in order to play VCDs/SVCDs in Windows 98/98 SE/ME you need to install a dedicated decoder and eventually a 3rd party player, like Zoom Player [standard is free]:

http://www.inmatrix.com/files/zoomplayer_download.shtml

or Media Player Classic (MPC) [free GPL]:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/guliverkli/

WMP9 or other versions [except WMP 9/10 in WinXP/2003] cannot play DVDs or VCDs in Win98/ME without installing a dedicated decoder.

I don't have experience with VCDs/SVCDs, never used any.

And I gave up a long time ago trying to play DVDs using the primitive DVDPLAY.EXE [Win98/98 SE built-in DVD player]:

http://www.mdgx.com/newtip16.htm#FDP

More info about VCD playback:

http://www.filmcentre.co.uk/dvd_2.html

http://www.pcphotovideo.com/svcd.htm

http://www.homedvdcopy.com/easydvdrip/help/faq.htm

SVCD codec:

http://www.divxmovies.com/software/

http://download.divxmovies.com/mpeg2codec_installer.zip

Codecs:

http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=77391

http://www.free-codecs.com/download/Codec_Pack_All_in_1.htm

http://www.inmatrix.com/zplayer/formats/mpeg2.shtml

VCD/SVCD -> DVD/MPEG conversion tools/encoders:

http://www.mpegx.com/list.php?type=download

Hope this helps.

[Wijono]

Thanks for the comprehensive information from MDGX.

I must have mixed up with WMP9 in WinXP, where we have "DVD, VCD or CD Audio" under the Play menu.

As said by noguru, I can play VCD by clicking "File" -> "Open" and select the file "AVSEQ01.DAT" in the folder "MPEGAV", WMP9 can play VCD quite nicely, where we can even adjust the Brightness, Contrast etc.

BTW, I have tried the Zoom Player Standard recommended by MDGX, quite nice, but the Brightness and Contrast controls under the "Controls" -> "Color Controls" seem to be not effective, maybe I did it wrongly? Didn't I?

[MDGx]

Color controls depend upon installed video drivers, DirectX version, video settings etc.

WMP is actually looking for those functions [APIs] in the video drivers.

And unfortunately all video controllers and drivers are different.

Try also MPC [free GPL]:

http://www.mdgx.com/toy.htm#MED

http://sourceforge.net/projects/guliverkli/

HTH

[Wijono]

I am still curious, why the Brightness control of the Zoom Player does not work at ALL!!

It is mentioned that it should work if the hardware supports it.

I believe my hardware supports the brightness control, it is an Intel® 82810E Graphics Controller. In the control panel, under the Intel Graphic Controller Properties, I have no problem whatsoever in setting the Gamma, Brightness and Contrast. Furthermore, DirectX 9c is installed in my system. Also when I play Windows Media Player 9, it is possible to change the brightness too!!

What could be wrong then that the Brightness control of the Zoom Player does not work??? Any clue how to fix it???

BTW, I tested the Zoom Player under WinXP with Intel® 82845G Graphics Controller, the brightness control is also not working here....

[RainyShadow]

Try changing the video output settings in Zoom Player. Some players require the video output set to specific format in order to control the brightness, gamma, etc. ( enable/disable VMR, enable/disable overlay mixer, etc.)

[Wijono]

Thanks for the information from RainyShadow.

Meanwhile I found following information from the Inmatrix website:

The downside of the "Standard Renderer" is that it doesn't support proper Aspect Ratio controls, Hardware Color Controls (Hue/Saturation/Brightness/Contrast/Gamma) are inaccessible.

The "Overlay Mixer" Renderer still using the Video Overlay technology, this renderer allows access to Hardware Color Controls (Hue/Saturation/Brightness/Contrast/Gamma) to cards that support color controls in hardware. Some cards may support only a subset of the color control features (only Brightness for example).

So I exclude "Standard Renderer", and experimenting under WinXP with other following renderers:

Overlay Mixer

VMR7

VMR9 Windowed

VMR9 Windowless

Unfortunately with all those renderer, I still cannot adjust the brightness.

Does it mean that Intel® 82845G Graphics Controller does not support color controls?

But how come that under Control Panel or in Windows Media Player 9 I can adjust the brightness?

I really am puzzled!!

[RainyShadow]

There may be some hardware-specific bug in Zoom Player. Or just some option you overlooked.

Other way of adjusting is through codec settings (not all codecs have this), try playing some video and look in properties of the currenty used video codec.

For example i use ffdshow as decoder for most formats, it has built-in options for color control (although i preffer player controls).

Also check in the codec settings that the video output options (if available) match those in the player.

You may also try all this on Win98 too, as driver options sometimes differ between XP and 98.

[EDIT]

I just tried Zoom Player on my Intel830 based notebook. No luck, color settings don't work using player controls. But i was able to change gamma, etc. using ffdshow color controls.

Edited June 22, 2006 by RainyShadow

[Wijono]

Thank you RainyShadow for your effort to help.

As I mentioned earlier, I can adjust brightness, contrast and gamma setting from the control panel, under the Intel Graphic Controller Properties. But then I need to leave Zoom Player in order to do that, inconvenient.

What I would like to see is adjusting those parameters directly from within Zoom Player, as it is possible from Windows Media Player.

I hope the developers will one day be able to solve that problem in the next version of Zoom Player.