Another Windows Media Player problem
 

Starting a few days ago, Windows Media Player started showing 15 minute videos as only 40 seconds or so . . . I'm generalizing, but I think you get the picture - in other words, it's only playing the first part of long videos - and in the top-right part of the window, where it shows total time, it shows the shorter time. If I manually move the slide bar now and then, it will show farther and farther into the movie - but that's no way to watch video.

Anyone else having this problem?

I had it do it to me a long time ago.. But now that I look I can't find the setting. Its like a 'preview' option, it was really annoying because I thought it was a problem with my CD drive

Well, I've looked thru all of my Media Player toolbars, and I can't find any "preview" options. There seems to be no rhyme or reason as to which movies are affected this way.

Here's another question, then - can anyone recommend a free movie viewer to download?

BS Player - No, really.

Zoomplayer


Media Player Classic.

I DL'd BS Player - it does the same thing on that, too.
Thanks, though

I guess that means it's not a WMP problem.

Sometimes the file is fucked up, try and re-download it.
Also, did you try and join some files into a larger one? (avijoin/mpegjoin) I've also noticed that when using d/l accelerator (DAP) or something of the like, since it d/ls chunks at a time, that the file got corrupt by the time it was finished.

If not, try the DIVX player. Most of the time it plays what wmp won't.

Finally, there's a prog avail called gspot.

Great prog that will tell you what codec was used for video and sound, and if the file will play on any listed software. You also have the option to render the file to play in a different player of the progs choosing.

I had that problem, I found some forums detailing how to fix it. The bookmark is on my computer at home though. All I had to do was to change the extension of a file.

I find that VLC ( http://www.videolan.org/vlc/ ) can play pretty much anything you want to play. This includes bin/cue files of a VCD without burning them to disk, DVDs, etc. It doesn't play quicktime, real media, or windows media player movies though. I have never had it break on any uncorrupted file, and it handles corrupted ones with grace. The only problem is that it's pretty hard to seek with it.

Another option would be to get mplayer ( http://www.mplayerhq.hu ). It's designed for linux, but I believe there's a windows build. It's "crippled" for windows in that you can't play quicktime, real media, or windows media player movies with it, but other than that it should work great.


Edit:
I just downloaded the latest VLC, and seeking is actually usable now, so forget I said seeking was bad :)

NO SHIT?!?!

THats great! I didn't know that!

It doesn't play quicktime, real media, or windows media player movies though

hey then what the fxxx is it good for?