Window media Player always loses some file types, even though I check them ALL!

[rivbyte]

Can you tell me that since I have Winamp (plays CD's automatically when inserted) All File types are enabled in options>preferences>file types, but will not play this MOV file.

Pinnacle Studio MovieBoard12 WILL play .mov files sent to me from a friends iPhone ( size 4.7MB, or 4908KB) Maybe a AAC subfile.

NERO Showtime will not play this file either.

BUT when I try to open this .MOV file in Microsoft Windows Media player, as many times as Igo into TOOLS>OPTIONS>FILE TYPES> SELECT ALL, for some strange reason, the following file types always get automatically unchecked,such as these...

1) Music CD

2) Windows Video File (AVI)

3) Windows Audio File (WAV)

4) MP3 Audio File (MP3)

5) MIDI file

I noticed every time I check these 5 boxes they are dark grayed with a check mark,except for these five above,which always get unchecked,every time I look into file types in Windows Media Player.

When I have all of these media players onboard, does it limit the VIDEO/AUDIO playback of all these file types to only one media player at one time,or should I be able to use all of these for Audio, and video playback? Thanks!

 

[MrColin]

AFAIK what that dialogue does is change the registry settings in "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts\<.file-extension>" and that has two subkeys "OpenWithList" and "OpenWithProgids" Check that those all point to WMP. Another simple way to change the file extensions' default open program is to right click on a file, say blah.avi, select properties ant then click the "change" button. This will change the default program for the current user.

If you find that it keeps getting changed back to some other program, that other program may have a mechanism to prevent it from having the association changed, check that out in that program's options.

Also, make sure you dont have a policy blocking the change of these associations in some security software, ie Commodo Firewall does this in some cases it set to do so.

Lastly, and most painfully, you may need to install the appropriate codecs for WMP, IMHO WMP should only be used for playing media encoded with the latest windows media proprietary BS DRM-encumbered encoding scheme, and even then only after it fails to play in a superior media player. This is likely the problem as not all applications share the same codecs on your system. You'll need to check whatever documentation for the various applications to see where the heck they keep those, and how to add them.

Although it lacks the glossy candy-glass default skin of many other players, VLC is the player to use for video IMHO. It plays everything except the windowsmedia files mentioned above, but it does play most wmv files. Is winamp even supported anymore? I thought the project was dying somehow. If not use that for mp3s.

You might like to check out the k-lite codec pack, it should be able to add a zillion codecs to your WMP if you really want to go that route, and unlike many installable codec packs on the net, it has no trojans, assuming you get the real one.