Some WMV files not playing

[TheMusicGeek]

Any idea why some (but not all) WMV files will not play in Hoster? They will ALL play in Windows Media Player but on certain files I get a notice that Hoster cannot play this file and I might need a codec, etc. I tried the K-Lite codec pack with no difference.

I can email someone an example if you wish.

[Roy Dennis]

Could some of them be DRM protected ?
How did you obtain the ones that aren't playing. ?

Did they play in earlier Hoster versions ?

[TheMusicGeek]

They played in earlier versions of Hoster. They are not DRM (or they wouldn't play in WMP). I have over 1000 videos so I really can't say where each and every one came from.

[ddouglass]

Originally Posted by TheMusicGeek

They played in earlier versions of Hoster. They are not DRM (or they wouldn't play in WMP). I have over 1000 videos so I really can't say where each and every one came from.

DRM means they are protected to only play in the player they were imported or downloaded to. WMV is a WMP specific file format so yes they would play in WMP. Doesn't mean Hoster shouldn't play them.
It sounds like Hoster encountered a problem reading the file and recognizing the format. The ones that don't play, do you know what the original date is of the files?
Also which K-Lite codec pack did you download? Is this for the Windows 7 64 bit computer? There is a special one for 64 bit too.

[TheMusicGeek]

I'm pretty sure there is no DRM as they will play in any computer (so far) in WMP. I don't think it is a codec issue but I downloaded the current version for 64 bit none the less.

[Roy Dennis]

Just to keep others up to date TheMusicGeek emailed me one of these files and it's the same on mine, plays in Windows media player but won't play in Hoster. It has played on one other player I have and not others. I will not have much time to play about with this tonight as I am busy on other things but will look into it more and post the results here.

Roy.

[Roy Dennis]

Conclusion.
The only thing I could find about this .wmv file that played OK in Windows media player but not in Hoster or several other programs I have that normally play these all right was the fact that it was extreemly compressed. It was a 1.43 min video and only 4.96 MB file which seems extremly compressed to me for a video. I have over 1500 video files myself of various different formats and an average 4.0 min video, the minimum size is about 30MB per file some of my MP4 videos are over 100 MB each.
I managed to convert it to another format Mpeg2 which ended up 8.36MB and it then played OK in Hoster.
So my only conclusion was that it was over compressed for Hoster or many other programs to handle. Other than that it was something specific to Windows Media Player.
If others know different then gladly post your opinion.

[admin]

Originally Posted by Roy Dennis

So my only conclusion was that it was over compressed for Hoster or many other programs to handle. Other than that it was something specific to Windows Media Player.
If others know different then gladly post your opinion.

Great work Roy!

Since we play videos with the Windows WMP (now Windows Media Format - Player), I can't explain why we don't play it. Maybe you need to download the latest WMF from Microsoft that supports this new "higher compression" format.

[Roy Dennis]

Just to add to this topic, I have found that this file is WMV2 format. I have searched Google for information on this and it seems there are a lots of folk who have trouble trying to play this format outside of Windows media player but I have not found a solution.
I attach a .txt file of Media info if anyone knows an answer.

[admin]

Excellent research Roy!

I've emailed our tech staff with this Thread to see if they can expand on it.

[Roy Dennis]

A bit more info on this that I tried without success.
When you open K-lite codec pac/Configuration/ffdshow video decoder, highlight the top codec top left in attached picture, there is a .wmv2 codec to select which is highlighted in picture, when you enable this by clicking on the disabled status you get 2 other choices, "libavcodec & wmv9" both of which I tried but it still won't play it.

If you try to load it from the video tab a message pops up saying "Windows media player can't play this file try installing codec. so you can't load it to the playlist.
But windows media player does play it.
Also tried importing it into Hoster which it completes, loaded it to the playlist which it does OK but receive another message on hitting play. "Failed(hr=0x00d07e2) in pGB->RenderFile(wFile,NULL)".
Don't know if this means anything to you but that is what I've tried.