Blank video when playing mpg/mpeg files

avi's are playing normally on the other hand. I'm on win 10 and latest kodec pack.

Which player?

xnview classic latest version.

Try this:
Codec Tweak Tool > Preferred Decoders > MPEG-1/MPEG-2 > Use Merit (or LAV Video)

that seems to have worked. THANK YOU!
But I think I've noticed the same problem with SOME of the avi files. Should I do similar configuration change for avi?

The codec pack contains a tool called MediaInfo. That can show you what kind of video format your files contain. It should be in the menu when you right-click on a file in Explorer.

If you tell me the video format, I can suggest which setting might help.

Did your mpeg files contain MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 video?

Video
ID : 0
Format : MPEG-4 Visual
Codec ID : MP42
Codec ID/Info : Microsoft MPEG-4 v2 (pre-standard)
Codec ID/Hint : Microsoft

is at least one example where extention is avi. video doesnt play but audio does.

Codec Tweak Tool > MS Codec Tweak > Disable Mpeg43 decoder DMO

sorry, but seems like i got another one
Format : AVI
Format/Info : Audio Video Interleave
Format : MPEG-4 Visual
Codec ID : DIV3
Codec ID/Hint : DivX 3 Low

Try with 14.8.6:
http://codecguide.com/klcp_beta.htm

It has some new options in Codec Tweak Tool.

Lost video on these file types a few months back but fixed it then by doing a fresh install of K-lite and MPC-HC. Lost the ability to play these same file types again about a month ago but a clean install of the latest codecs and the K-lite distribution of MPC didn't fix it this time. I'm been on Windows 10 Pro version 1909 the entire time with Microsoft doing lots of patches over the year.

Used filter tweak to choose Merit and then LAV for the MPEGs but still not able to see those when testing each change. I have kept audio files associated with WMP all the years I've used MPC but would give that up if that might be be complicating MPC 64 bit video. I use Chrome for browsing still so I'm not concerned about breaking HTML5 in Edge or IE if that helps get me back to a player and codec happy dance.

One file that isn't working:
Format : MPEG-PS
File size : 953 MiB
Overall bit rate mode : Variable

Format : MPEG Video
Format version : Version 2

The preferred decoder and Media Foundation tweaks are not relevant for MPC-HC, those are for WMP.

One setting that you can try is:
MPC-HC options > Internal Filters > uncheck the MPEG PS source filter

If you have installed MPC-HC separately, then I advice to uninstall it and use the version that is included with K-Lite. That way you have the latest and best version.