Windows Media Player not recognizing .MXF files after installing K-Lite Codec Basic

by TKVG Mon Jul 26, 2021 10:42 am

Hey y'all,

I am having some issues with the K-Lite Codec Pack Basic and playback support for .MXF files.

During installation, I have made sure to select and install support for the .MXF media format, but regardless of that, Windows Media Player still won't play the files. I get the "Windows Media Player cannot play the file. The Player might not support the file type or might not support the codec that was used to compress the file." error.

Something else that might be interesting, I have an MP4 file that will only play audio in Windows Media Player if K-Lite is installed. If I uninstall K-Lite, the file will play, but there is no audio. So I know that K-Lite has been installed properly and works (with other codecs).

Do y'all have any ideas?

Any help is appreciated, thank you!

Log File:

by **Admin** Mon Jul 26, 2021 7:14 pm

I suggest that you try Media Player Classic that is included with K-Lite Standard. That should work better or at least give a useful error message. WMP is unreliable.

WMP uses the Media Foundation codecs from Windows by default to play MP4 files. Best way to bypass those codecs is to rename the file to .video.

MXF can contain different video formats. I can't say whether it might be an unsupported format without file details.

by TKVG Tue Jul 27, 2021 7:29 am

Admin wrote:I suggest that you try Media Player Classic that is included with K-Lite Standard. That should work better or at least give a useful error message. WMP is unreliable.

WMP uses the Media Foundation codecs from Windows by default to play MP4 files. Best way to bypass those codecs is to rename the file to .video.

MXF can contain different video formats. I can't say whether it might be an unsupported format without file details.

Hi, thank you for your response!
Using a third party media player is out of the question. (Not a decision made by me, unfortunately).

Regarding the media file details, I downloaded the MediaInfo Tool and saved the media information of the MXF file.
I hope this provides more useful information.

There are videos on YouTube as well where people use the K-Lite Codec Basic to play MXF files. Or can there be differences in the video/audio codecs within the MXF file format? Which might cause some MXF files to not play while others do?

MediaInfo Tool:

by **Admin** Tue Jul 27, 2021 12:39 pm

Yes, MXF file can have different audio and video formats inside. Your file has MPEG-2 video.

By using WMP you get all limitations that come along with it. For example that it uses the standard codecs from Windows by default. It also has worse performance, because Windows defaults to using a 32-bit player even on 64-bit Windows.

Try this:
Codec Tweak Tool > Preferred Decoders > MPEG-2 > Use Merit

MXF format is not suitable for distribution. It is an intermediate format used during video production/editing. You will notice in the MediaInfo log that each audio channel is stored as a separate audio track. This means that audio playback will not work properly in many media players, because those typically only play one audio track.

by TKVG Fri Jul 30, 2021 10:58 am

Admin wrote:Yes, MXF file can have different audio and video formats inside. Your file has MPEG-2 video.

By using WMP you get all limitations that come along with it. For example that it uses the standard codecs from Windows by default. It also has worse performance, because Windows defaults to using a 32-bit player even on 64-bit Windows.

Try this:
Codec Tweak Tool > Preferred Decoders > MPEG-2 > Use Merit

MXF format is not suitable for distribution. It is an intermediate format used during video production/editing. You will notice in the MediaInfo log that each audio channel is stored as a separate audio track. This means that audio playback will not work properly in many media players, because those typically only play one audio track.

Much appreciated! Unfortunately changing the preferred decoder for MPEG-2 to Merit did not solve the issue. WMP still claims it cannot play the file.
I guess they'll either have to make an exception and use another media player in this case, or use another file format.

They set their choice on using WMP for everyone instead of offering an alternative (superior) media player, so unfortunately I think we'll be stuck with WMP.
Kind of funny, the people that made the choice to only use WMP completely disregarded these sorts of codec issues, didn't even think about it. So I try what I can with the tools offered.

Again, thank you for your help though!

by **Admin** Fri Jul 30, 2021 11:53 am

If you are able to upload a sample MXF file that has exact same properties, then I can try if I can make it play with WMP.

If you don't have small files, then you can cut a piece from large one with DGSplit:
http://rationalqm.us/dgsplit/dgsplit12.zip

You can upload to for example:
http://www.sendspace.com

by ale5000 Fri Jul 30, 2021 2:15 pm

In my experience most of the problems with WMP are caused by the Microsft splitters.
The default setting of KLCP doesn't ovverride that for all formats.

by **Admin** Fri Jul 30, 2021 2:19 pm

Not relevant. There is no native splitter in Windows for MXF. For DirectShow it only has splitters for AVI/MPEG/WMV.

by TKVG Tue Aug 03, 2021 10:04 am

Admin wrote:If you are able to upload a sample MXF file that has exact same properties, then I can try if I can make it play with WMP.

If you don't have small files, then you can cut a piece from large one with DGSplit:
http://rationalqm.us/dgsplit/dgsplit12.zip

You can upload to for example:
http://www.sendspace.com

I will upload a file in a bit, can I pm you the link?

by **Admin** Tue Aug 03, 2021 12:07 pm

This works for me:
Codec Tweak Tool > Preferred Decoders (32-bit) > MPEG-2 > Use Merit

During installation of the codec pack, on the "Select Additional Tasks and Options" page, make sure that the "Register supported file formats" option for WMP is enabled. Otherwise it will also fail to play. In my case without any error messages.

Let me know if that option wasn't enabled by default (and you didn't disable it yourself).

by TKVG Tue Aug 03, 2021 1:09 pm

Admin wrote:This works for me:
Codec Tweak Tool > Preferred Decoders (32-bit) > MPEG-2 > Use Merit

During installation of the codec pack, on the "Select Additional Tasks and Options" page, make sure that the "Register supported file formats" option for WMP is enabled. Otherwise it will also fail to play. In my case without any error messages.

Let me know if that option wasn't enabled by default (and you didn't disable it yourself).

Checked both options, Use Merit and the "Register supported file formats" option. Unfortunately both are enabled and it is not working for me.
Sounds like there might be something else on my device that is messing things up.

I'm using Windows 20H2 19042.1083, if that's any help.

I did get a 'warning' that mentioned that the MXF file is not a recognized file format by Windows Media Player or something.
But I imagine that has no effect or anything on the problem I am currently facing.

The selected file has an extension (.MXF) that is not recognized by Windows Media Player, but the Player may still be able to play it. Because the extension is unknown by the Player, you should be sure that the file comes from a trustworthy source.

Do you want the Player to try to play this content?

[] Don't ask me again for this extension (.MXF).

Yes No

Could there be any Windows Media Player related policies that have to be enabled/disabled for WMP to work properly with K-Lite that you know of? Might be outside the scope of this forum though.

EDIT:::
Windows Media Player version: 12.0.19041.1082

by **Admin** Tue Aug 03, 2021 10:55 pm

You shouldn't have gotten that warning message. The "register supported file formats" option should normally prevent that from showing.

Check the registry for this entry:

Code:: Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Multimedia\WMPlayer\Extensions\.mxf] "PerceivedType"="video" "Permissions"=dword:0000000f "Runtime"=dword:00000007

by TKVG Wed Aug 04, 2021 7:22 am

Admin wrote:You shouldn't have gotten that warning message. The "register supported file formats" option should normally prevent that from showing.

Check the registry for this entry:
Code:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Multimedia\WMPlayer\Extensions\.mxf] "PerceivedType"="video" "Permissions"=dword:0000000f "Runtime"=dword:00000007

My .mxf reg entries match that.

Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Multimedia\WMPlayer\Extensions\.mxf
(Default)
video
0000000f
00000007

by **Admin** Wed Aug 04, 2021 11:53 pm

Then I don't know what is wrong.

Codec Tweak Tool > Generate Log
Does that show any entries that do not belong to Windows/K-Lite?

by TKVG Thu Aug 05, 2021 6:51 am

Admin wrote:Then I don't know what is wrong.

Codec Tweak Tool > Generate Log
Does that show any entries that do not belong to Windows/K-Lite?

I don't think so.
Well, there is one thing I noticed in the logs.

The following:

Code:: ##### Decoder Settings ##### LAV Video: H264=DXVA2CB HEVC=DXVA2CB VP9=DXVA2CB VC1=0 MPEG2=1 MPEG4=1 WMV3=0

I have installed K-Lite on my personal PC, same exact version, same exact settings.
The log file on my personal pc contains:

Code:: H264=1 HEVC=1 VP9=1 VC1=0 MPEG2=1 MPEG4=1 WMV3=0

Not sure if that means anything? I know H264, HEVC (H265?) and VP9 are types of encodings, but not sure what DXVA2CB means. I'm guessing it's also an encoder?

by **Admin** Fri Aug 06, 2021 12:39 pm

DXVA2CB is the hardware acceleration setting in LAV Video Decoder. It is not relevant to your problem.

Does your personal PC have the same issue?

by TKVG Fri Aug 06, 2021 12:44 pm

Admin wrote:DXVA2CB is the hardware acceleration setting in LAV Video Decoder. It is not relevant to your problem.

Does your personal PC have the same issue?

Ah alright.

No, it works on my personal PC. I can play the MXF video in WMP after installing K-Lite Codec Pack Basic (16.2.5), I used the same installation settings as well. (Didn't have to change to Use Merit either).

There has to be something on my laptop that conflicts with K-Lite or something.

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