MDGx = 98SE2XP Killer Replacements

[Spock]

Installed MDGx = 98SE2XP Killer Replacements which successfully upgraded to WMP 9. I also upgraded the pther files which MDGx lists under "Extremely Important".

PROBLEM! some mp3 files won't play. Get message codec 55 missing. But it //IS// installed. I also tried:

regsvr32.exe l3codeca.acm

and got a 'success'.

But some (not all) mp3s //still// won't play. They ALL play fine under the older mp2 (v6.4), but SOME of the mp3s will not play under the new WMP. Anyone any ideas? .wmv files play ok and it seems otherwise fine.

[MDGx]

Some MP3 files are encoded using newer codecs/APIs, and the standard Windows MP3 codecs [like L3CODEC

*.ACM] may not be able to play/decode them.

You need a tool which can detect the exact codec used for a particular MP3, and then use an appropriate tool [decoder, player] to play back/decode/etc it.

I don't play/download/encode/decode MP3s, so I don't know of any such tools.

But when in doubt, there's always Google:

www.google.com

Hope this helps.

[Spock]

What I don't understand, though, is why the older media player (v6.4) and a freeware mp3 player plays all the mp3s, but not the Killer Upgrade.

Would there be a way to force WMP to use a different codec (say the one which the older media player (v6.4) uses?

[MDGx]

Sure, you can use any decoder/encoder to play MP3s.

Just regsvr32 the old one from WMP 6.4.

Examples:

%windir%\system\regsvr32 %windir%\system\l3codeca.acm

or:

%windir%\system\regsvr32 %windir%\system\l3codecp.acm

or:

%windir%\system\regsvr32 %windir%\system\l3codecx.acm

or:

%windir%\system\regsvr32 %windir%\system\L3CODECX.AX

depending on which codec(s) you have available.

I have all of the above in %windir%\system .

The last one you regsvr32-ed will take over.

HTH

[Spock]

Thanks for the advice, especially for the fact that the last codec to be registered will be the functional one. If you could assist one last time I'd be right chuffed

I have about 16 codecs in windows\system folder. Since ALL mp3s play fine under mplayer2 (v6.4), i guess if I knew which codec mplayer2 uses and registered that, then the Killer Upgrade player would similarly play ALL. Is that correct?

If so, how do I determine which codec (apart from elimination)? TIA and many thanks for all your contributions.

[eidenk]

The acm codecs don't play mp3 files in Windows Media Player. They only allow to encode in mp3 format into the wav and avi containers. They also allow to playback such files of course. They work just like the video codecs and require to be properly registered/unregistered to be specified under/deleted from the Drivers32 section of the system.ini file which I am almost certain regsvr32 does not do.

As for the ax files, they are directshow filters, meant to provide mp3 (in the case of those we speak about) playback support in Windows Media Player. You can't do encoding with them AFAIK. Those need only regsvr32 to be registered/unregistered as MDGX explains.

The filters that mplayer2 uses will be the one used also by wmp 7, 8 9 or 10 or any of their hacks as they are all just only front ends for the directshow multimedia playback runtime.

For that reason, I find quite bizarre that one front end would not play the content of some mp3 files whereas the other does play them all.

Anyway you must try what MDGX said with regards to axs.

If it doesn't solve the problem you could also try the lame directshow filter instead of the fraunhoffer ones for playback of mp3s in your hacked windows media player.

http://www.free-codecs.com/download/LAME_D...Show_Filter.htm

Edited August 30, 2006 by eidenk

[Spock]

Thanks for this detailed information.

FWIW the mp3 files that will not play with Killer Replacement WMP are all fairly low bit rate encoded; e.g. 160 kbit/s. I agree with you that it is curious but a fact nonetheless that they will not play on latest media player but do on the old (v6.4) one. (A google search on "codec 55" proves that I'm not the only one getting the same error message).

I've also found a codec upgrade package for the old v6.4 mp2. i installed it and found that I can now get video (.wmv), played using the old v.6.4 one - lack of that was the reason I went for the Killer Upgrade. So I'll probably Ghost back and forget about the upgrade which basically is not giving me, at any rate, any benefit.

Upgrade codec package for MP2 v6.4 which I'd certainly recommend for win98SE users is a M$ executable: "wmp6codcs.exe" v8.0.0.4487

[eidenk]

I've also found a codec upgrade package for the old v6.4 mp2. i installed it and found that I can now get video (.wmv), played using the old v.6.4 one - lack of that was the reason I went for the Killer Upgrade. So I'll probably Ghost back and forget about the upgrade which basically is not giving me, at any rate, any benefit.

Upgrade codec package for MP2 v6.4 which I'd certainly recommend for win98SE users is a M$ executable: "wmp6codcs.exe" v8.0.0.4487

IMO you also need the Windows Media Format runtime 9.

[Eck]

Yes, the WM9 runtime is needed but that should have been installed into the system when Spock installed WMP9. I think that's part of that install.

Then he also needs the WMP10 codec update for the WMP9 player on Windows 9x. That's another Microsoft update. MDGx has the direct link on the Windows Media Updates page of his site.

I just got done setting up 98SE here, and for the first time used the newer 9x to XP and WMP10 to 9x stuff. I still have to copy my mp3's from my cdr's so I'll see what plays in WMP when I do that. Mine are all rips from my commercial cd's using AudioGrabber with the Lame 3.96 and 3.96.1 encoder at 192 joint stereo.

I'll probably be doing this tomorrow (takes about 2 1/2 hours to copy them over).

I installed WMP7.1 without the Adaptec burn plugin, WM7 Bonus Pack, WM7Encoder, WMP 9, the WMP 9 codec's for the 6.4 player, 98SE2XP (once I had 98SE2ME already installed), the WMP10 to 9x thing, the WMP10 codecs for WMP 9 on 98SE, and the security updates.

Let's see if they'll play.

[Eck]

As I stated in the Window Media Player 10 on 98 thread in the Service Pack forum, when using this newer WMP11 codec WMP9 needed to download the older, original codec to play mp3's. It also did not appear in Audio Compression Codecs listed in Multimedia Properties.

I thing you may have set WMP to not download codecs automatically and that's why your mp3's didn't play.

Something appears to be wrong with how the WMP11 version of the mp3 codec set's up.

If you download the codec installer and use that, it will then appear in add/remove so you can uninstall it without removing the entire 98SEMP10 package. Then download and install the WMP10 version of the codec. This installs and registers itself properly.

So, now my mp3's are playing properly without the player needing to download the older WMP9 codec. It's using the WMP10 one for playback and rip.

I have noticed the MSN Music Plugin is now installed. I'm not sure if this was part of 98SEMP10 or MSN Messenger 7. I do know that WMP is now erroring every so often and needs to restart. I've been also reapplying the plugin in options so it runs. Maybe I shouldn't be bothering with that. Perhaps that thing only works properly on XP. I never use it for anything anyway.

So I don't know whether it's some of these newer files making the player crash or rather that MSN plugin thing.

I'll see if it works right without the plugin. Maybe it errors when trying to do something it can't do on 9x.

Edit - Allright! No crashing when the MSN Music plugin is kept off. Everything works now. Still just using the WMP10 version mp3 codec but there's nothing wrong with that.

Edited September 6, 2006 by Eck

[MDGx]

This old 98SE2XP, 98SEMP10 + 98MP10 forum is now closed.

Please post all comments/questions about 98MP10 [which replaces both 98SE2XP + 98SEMP10] in the new, dedicated 98MP10 forum:

http://www.msfn.org/board/?showtopic=89934

Enjoy.