Windows Media Player "broken" after updating to Mega Pack 14.1.5

Hi folks.

First time ever (in years) that I've had a problem with K-Lite Codec Pack.

I updated to Mega 14.1.5 yesterday only to find that the moment I tried to open a .MP4 file with Windows Media Player then Windows Media Player opens, maximises all by itself, the player controls are in the wrong place, and an error is immediately generated (something along the lines of "This program has encountered and error and needs to close") (sorry: don't have the exact error message in front of me right now).  This is a problem for me i.e. I don't have a choice (because of other software installed) but to have Windows Media Player working.

Now I managed to tie this down (without a doubt) to K-Lite:

Even after just uninstalling K-Lite the error persists.  The only way to get Windows Media Player working again was to uninstall K-Lite, uninstall Windows Media Player, uninstall my Intel video driver, then reinstall my Intel video driver and reinstall Windows Media Player.  Simply uninstalling K-Lite did not solve the problem.  Neither did simply uninstalling Windows Media Player and reinstalling.  Please trust me: I went through this routine three times yesterday in order to be sure of exactly what was causing the problem.

I have not, and cannot, install K-Lite again until I hear from support.

Regards,

Dale.

P.S.

Windows 7 Pro (with all latest Microsoft patches and updates installed).

Only affects video i.e. audio was still playing just fine with Windows Media Player.

Tried just uninstalling 14.1.5 and installing a previous version also did not fix the problem i.e. only the routine above resolved.

Also tried just uninstalling 14.1.5 and installing a previous version of "Full" and same thing i.e. only the routine above resolved.

If it still happens after an uninstall, then it is extremely unlikely that the problem is related to K-Lite.

In fact, with default settings, WMP doesn't actually use anything from K-Lite for playback of MP4 files. It uses the Media Foundation codecs from Microsoft. WMP only uses the codecs from K-Lite if you disable Media Foundation (with the Codec Tweak Tool).

It was most likely the re-install/update of the Intel driver that fixed your problem.

Hi.

Thanks for the response but nope (and I don't think you read what I wrote too carefully).

As of right now: if I install K-Lite again then the exact same thing will happen.  As I said: did this three times.  Once to get things working again and twice thereafter after again just to pin down the problem.  And this is not an updated driver (Intel) and no Windows updates had been done for a month or so prior to this happening either.  The ONLY software update that was run yesterday before this occurred was the K-Lite update (and no: I don't have ANY updates set to "automatic" on ANY software primarily for this reason).  Prior to this issue I had 14.1.0 installed and it was working fine (but I'm not about to install that again now just to prove a point) (or maybe I will come to think of it i.e. at least I know how to replicate and / or solve the problem).

Regards,

Dale.

Does it happen with every MP4 file or just specific ones? No problems with any other type of file?
Does the same problem occur if you open the file with MPC-HC or GraphStudioNext tool?

Also please copy this log here:
Codec Tweak Tool > Generate Log

Hello again.

The plot thickens (it gets very thick)!!!  LOL!!!

I downloaded and installed K-Lite 14.1.0 (this was the last version I had working before all of this).  The moment I installed: same problem.  So I started playing around.  By DISABLING Media Foundation for .MP4 files: I got WMP to play the files but then the other software that I need WMP for (not optional) stopped working.  If I then ENABLE Media Foundation: WMP will no longer play .MP4 files and the other software doesn't work either!!!  So at this point I took a chance and just reinstalled the Intel video driver.  And hey presto: everything is working again.

So from the above I can only deduce that something is out of whack between the K-Lite INSTALL and this Intel video driver INSTALL.  In other words the fix (for me is): install / update K-Lite and then reinstall the Intel video driver thereafter.  Not sure where to from here.

Log to follow.

Regards,

Dale.

Also test if simply rebooting solves the problem. I have seen it happen where the Intel driver goes into some kind of broken state after playing a certain video (with hardware acceleration).

It is possible to disable hardware acceleration in the Microsoft video decoder:
Codec Tweak Tool > Various Tweaks > uncheck Use DXVA

The codec pack doesn't do anything related to the Intel driver, except for disabling Contrast Enhancement and Skin Tone Enhancement options (because those generally actually reduce video quality and performance). But I strongly doubt that is related to your problem, as otherwise much more people would have the same problem. You can find those in the Intel settings, or search the Registry for "EnableACE" and "EnableSTE".

Hello again.

I really do appreciate your help and input.  Thanks very much.

Some further info. (just for the record I guess):

Odd that you should mention both rebooting and the Intel driver going into some kind of broken state ...  I did in fact notice that while all of this was happening: at first WMP would play the first file opened just after the reboot but would then not play anything else after that (came up with the error as described).  Eventually, though, this also stopped i.e. it would not work even after a reboot.

I'll test some more and try disabling the hardware video acceleration for the Microsoft video decoder.

At this point I guess I'm inclined to say that you were right i.e. it's not a K-Lite problem.  HOWEVER: it really does seem as though something goes awry when I install / update K-Lite.  I'm not saying that K-Lite is at fault i.e. probably the video driver.  But something goes "skew" between the two i.e. it's real easy to replicate the problem now (and has nothing to do with uninstalling and reinstalling WMP).  Basically: get everything working nice, update K-Lite, problem appears again.  Reinstall the Intel video driver and all good again (until the next K-Lite update I would imagine).  And somehow this is all also tied to that Media Foundation stuff.

Anyways.  Thanks again for your time and effort (especially given that it doesn't appear to be a K-Lite problem per se).

Look: WMP is not great let's face it.  Were it not for the fact that my MAIN piece of software (DAW workstation) only calls WMP to display video previews (no choice in the matter) then I'd have ditched it altogether and just used MPC (far superior and as I said before: first issue I've had in all the years that I've been installing K-Lite and sure wish I could say the same for other software developers!!!).

Regards,

Dale.

dpaterson wrote:I updated to Mega 14.1.5 yesterday only to find that the moment I tried to open a .MP4 file with Windows Media Player then Windows Media Player opens...

Hi, I was having the same problem as dpaterson but in Picasa 3. I didn't try Media Player. I think in my case I've tracked it down to the latest release of the NVIDIA card driver (GTX650), which was updated by the Game Ready Driver app GeForce Experience just before the problem occurred. I've now got it working by going back to the previous (March) release of the Nvidia driver.

Symptoms in Picasa 3:
New NVIDIA driver installed 28/5/18 - Picasa3 just shows a black screen with normal audio.
Updated K-LITE - latest version - still black
Went back to last K-LITE - still black
Went back to random 2017 K-LITE - still black.
Uninstalled K-LITE - Picasa worked but a bit choppy.

Installed previous Nvidia from the list shown in the Win 10 Device Manager
(No K-LITE) - video worked, bit choppy.
Installed latest K-LITE - everything works.
Tried with previous K-LITE - everything works.

Would I be correct in thinking that there's probably some discrepancy between the latest Nvidia settings and those needed in K-LITE to support it (as all the K-LITES I tried now work), rather than anything actually faulty in either?

The latest Nvidia Game Ready driver is 397.93 - I now have the one before that (391.35 from March) but I don't know if that's a Game Ready Driver or if that makes any real difference, as it works.

If anyone can work out what K-lite settings to change, if any, I can do that without any problem.

I saw some people who were having similar issues with video playback in Irfanview. Those were also NVIDIA related.

First thing to try is to disable hardware acceleration in LAV Video Decoder. It is likely that is broken (on some GPUs) with the recent drivers.

Since it worked without K-Lite installed, you can also configure Windows to use the default decoder from Microsoft.
Codec Tweak Tool > Preferred Decoders > Reset

The decoder from Microsoft normally also uses hardware acceleration, but since your playback was choppy, it may be disabled somehow, perhaps through a blacklist of driver versions.