Issue with Windows Explorer Display & MKV/MP4

I am using Windows XP Home Edition SP3 32-bit on a Del Dimension 3000.

Now I know that Matroska is not native to Windows XP SP3 but no matter what Codecs or Packs I have installed I cannot resolve the issue of displaying Duration in Windows Explorer. It's simple to do in Windows 7 SP1 32-bit with K-Lit but NOT in Windows XP Home Edition SP3 32-bit. I have tried everything I could find with no luck.

Can anyone assist me in addressing this issue?

Additional Note: I have no concern for Thumbnail Previews. I just want to make Time Duration display like avi and other native filetypes do in Windows Explorer on a Windows XP Home Edition SP3.

Thanks in Advance,
PJA

The Icaros PropertyHandler plugin that is included in the codec pack provides that functionality. That plugin requires Microsoft .NET 4, which you can get through Windows Update (as an optional update).

Both are installed and still nothing. I have K-Lite Mega Codec Pack and .NET Framework 4 Extended installed. What am I missing? I can't even find the Icaros PropertyHandler plugin. I just want to display Duration in Windows Explorer for MKV and MP4 files.

I forgot that the Icaros PropertyHandler only works on Vista and newer. What you have right now is the Thumbnail plugin.

I might have an alternative solution for you in a little while.

Here is a plugin that works on XP:
http://www.sendspace.com/file/yjk6e3
Run the .bat file to enable it. It requires using Haali as splitter for .mkv

Admin wrote:Here is a plugin that works on XP:
http://www.sendspace.com/file/yjk6e3
Run the .bat file to enable it. It requires using Haali as splitter for .mkv

I have the latest Mega version installed to date. How do I make Haali the splitter for mkv?

Sorry for the delay.

Never mind, I figured it out. Thanks so much. Now it all works great.

HI Admin. I was wondering if you could upload the file for me again? I had to wipe my Hard drive and reinstall. I thought I had a copy of this file you made for me but I cannot find it. Thanks in advance.

Thank you very much. I wil make sure not to lose it this time.

This no longer works with the very latest release of mega codec pack. If I revert back to the prior release it works though. Can you please help? I really need MP4 & MKV to display duration in windows explorer like before.

It should work the same as in previous versions. Are you sure Haali splitter is enabled? You can enable it with Codec Tweak Tool if necessary.

Admin wrote:It should work the same as in previous versions. Are you sure Haali splitter is enabled? You can enable it with Codec Tweak Tool if necessary.

It is enabled. It was the first thing I checked and did. It is not working with the newest version. I do not know why. I uninstalled and reverted to K-Lite_Codec_Pack_1060_Mega and klcp_update_1064_20140804 all is fine. K-Lite_Codec_Pack_1065_Mega however will not. I even downloaded it from more than one source thinking maybe I got a bad download. Still the same issue.

I found the solution. You need to also enable the Haali MP4 splitter. I don't know why that is needed for showing MKV properties, but it starts to work here when I do that. You can still set LAV Splitter as preferred, the only requirement is that Haali is enabled.

How odd. I guess that will do it then. I wonder why that happened? BTW, Thanks.

It's been a long time since I made this post. I still have the file you gave me but it causes my windows explorer to constantly crash in Windows XP. Is there any other way to do this for mkv and mp4 files so that Duration and dimensions show up in Windows explorer like avi does?

The only stable way to get that functionality is to update to Windows 7 (or newer).

Admin wrote:The only stable way to get that functionality is to update to Windows 7 (or newer).

I wish I could. Can't afford a new PC and my PC won't run Windows 7 properly. I would be content with more stable than what I have now though. Any ideas?

MediaInfo has a shell extension for Explorer.
http://sourceforge.net/projects/mediainfo/

It only displays in status bar or hovering over the file. I use it now. I just to get the display in sorting options.

I found another shell extension called MatroskaProp, but judging from the screenshots, that also only works from the context menu.

What kind of CPU do you have? Any PC capable of playing MKV files should be able to run Windows 7. If you have too little RAM, then you could perhaps add/replace the memory. That is very cheap. I have seen prices as low as $10 for 2 GB of DDR2 RAM.

Dell Dimension 3000 Intel Pentium 4 CPU Single Core 2.80GHz, 2GB Ram. My computer is maxed. Windows 7 simply won't run on it properly. I have tried multiple times. Even slimmed it down and wasted $50 on a NVIDIA GeForce 6200 Graphics Card. Even with a powerful PSU it's just too slow and boxed down. The Graphics card causes BSODs as well. It's not fully compatible with my system under Win 7.

That system should be able to run Windows 7 smoothly.

There are some tips that I can give to improve its performance:
1) Use an install disk that already has all updates integrated. You should be able to find that on popular torrent sites.
2) It may run slow for a while after installation due to stuff like the Windows Indexing Service. Right-click on your c:\ drive (and other drives), go to Properties, and uncheck the indexing option.
3) Disable the Indexing Service completely. Also Windows Search if you don't need it. Here is a good tutorial that helps you decide which Windows services you can safely disable:
http://www.blackviper.com/service-configurations/black-vipers-windows-7-service-pack-1-service-configurations/
4) Control Panel > System & Security > System > Advanced System Settings > Performance > Adjust for best performance
This will turn off all graphical eye candy. This should help a lot, certainly when using a low-end graphics card.
5) Turn off automatic updates. Just manually check for updates every 2nd Tuesday of the month. That is the day on which MS releases security updates.

Sorry but been down this road a long time ago. It's simply not a viable option and justly so. I bought my PC in 2004. It was solely designed for Windows XP. It's bloated, unstable and slow regardless what adjustments are made in Vista or 7. Since this is not going anywhere I will say thanks anyways and move on else where. Thanks for your time just the same though.