Problems playing Videos with WMVideo9 Encoder DMO codec in third-party software

Hi support forum,

I am trying to play WMV files in a usability testing software called Morae Manager. The video codec for these WMV files is WMVideo9 Encoder DMO.
I have been able to successfully play these videos in Morae Manager on a PC running Windows 8.1, as well as in WMP12 (12.0.19041.1110) on my Windows 10 machine (21H1).
However, when I try playing the videos in Morae Manager on my Windows 10 machine, the video just displays as black/white screen (with the audio playing correctly).
I downloaded and installed the K-Lite Codec Pack with default settings and tried again with no change in results.
I iteratively modified my K-Lite Codec Pack and tested the video in Morae Manager each time, but again with no change in results.
These were the settings I have tried so far:
1) [Default]
2) [Hardware Acceleration -> Settings for other DirectShow applications -> Use software decoding]
3) [Select Components -> Custom Selection -> LAV video decoder -> VC-1 and Windows Media Video]
4) [Select Components -> Custom Selection -> LAV video decoder -> VC-1 and Windows Media Video] & [Hardware Acceleration -> Settings for other DirectShow applications -> LAV Video - DXVA2 copy-back]
5) [Hardware Acceleration -> Settings for other DirectShow applications -> LAV Video - DXVA2 copy-back]

Are there any other K-Lite Codec Pack settings I should try, or is there a different solution altogether?

The following is a bit more contextual information:
1) I never restarted my computer after each new codec modification install. Am I supposed to for the changes to take effect?
2) This could very well be a different problem native to Morae Manager, but video codecs (decoders?) seemed like a probable culprit.
3) My technical understanding of video and audio codecs is quite limited, but I am working to build that up by reading guides and engaging in this forum. Thank you in advance for your patience with me!

Morae probably uses the default DirectShow video renderer, which is the very old VMR7 renderer. That has issues on Windows 10 with certain graphics drivers. The black screen issue is very common. WMP12 and other media players use a modern renderer, so those don't have the issue.

A solution that you can try is to switch to VMR9 as renderer. Latest version of K-Lite has an option for that. You can find it in the installer on the "Additional Tasks and Options" page.

Thank you Admin for the prompt reply.

I set VMR9 as the default decoder as you had suggested, but with no change in results (bummer, because your explanation seemed to make a lot of sense).
I did this with all the possible [Hardware Acceleration -> Settings for other DirectShow applications] options:
DXVA2 copy-back, DXVA2 native, software decoding, D3D11VA, NVIDIA CUVID.
I also tried the following with the same result:
[Select Components -> Custom Selection -> LAV video decoder -> VC-1 and Windows Media Video] AND [Select Components -> Custom Selection -> LAV splitter] with other DirectShow applications set to software decoding.
Unchecked optimize preferred decoder settings.

Another thought I had was that I am running ActiveX 12 on my Windows 10 machine, but my Windows 8.1 (which works with the Morae Manager video player) seems to be running ActiveX 11. Morae Manager documentation suggests it requires ActiveX 9.0c or newer. I've read a few of forums with mixed opinions on whether ActiveX 12 is fully backwards-compatible with ActiveX 9.0c. Could I possibly modify by ActiveX version from 12 to 11, or does this have no bearing on the problem I'm encountering?

Thanks again for your time.

A test you should do is open two instances of Morae and play a video in both at same time. Does second instance have working video? If yes, that would be confirmation of the problem I described.

If both instances fail, then test if playing another video formats, such as MP4, does work correctly.

DirectX is not the problem. Windows 10 supports DX9/10/11/12.

Which GPU does your system have?