flv plays on desktop but not laptop
 

I have WinAmp 5.552 loaded on both my Dell desktop and Dell laptop. I have downloaded .flv files from YouTube to both. I have copied said files between both. Everything plays on my desktop. Some files will not play on my laptop (even though they played on my desktop). In at least one case, the file played on my laptop and then would not play later.

When I attempt to play some flv files on the laptop, I see the control panel and the file name. Nothing else. No video. No sound.

Other flv files (probably the majority) play OK.

All preferences, options, settings, etc. appear to be the same on both machines. I use Winamp Modern on both machines. I have added K-Lite 4.7.0 to both machines.

All flv files play correctly with VLC media player 0.9.8a.

The obvious solution is to use VLC but I sort of like WinAmp and would prefer a single player.

What is going on here?

Winamp has no native support for H.263/264 in Winamp with FLV files because licensing is very expensive. Now, have you installed Winamp Essentials on both?

http://www.winamp.com/plugins/details/150126

I have not installed Winamp Essentials on either machine. Do you think this will solve the problem on my laptop?

Well, for Winamp to be able to play youtube flv's encoded with the h.263 video codec, you'd need to have done one of two things:

Either 1) Install the "Extra Codecs for the FLV Decoder" item from the Essentials Pack, which places f263.w5s in the Winamp\System folder for in_flv.dll to use

Or 2) Remove in_flv.dll and follow the instructions here to get the DirectShow Decoder to handle flv files instead:
http://forums.winamp.com/showthread....85#post2013385

I downloaded the Essentials Pack, but did not see the "Extra Codecs for the FLV Decoder" item. So in installed the entire Pack.

No change.

I have a particular .flv file that I use to test (although this is not the only file that will not play). As I said, it plays on my desktop but not the laptop.

Could this be a processor related problem?

I do not like the VLC media player 0.9.8a interface but it is beginning to look better all the time.

It's actually listed as "Nullsoft Fash Decoder v1.1 (h)" under the "Media File Support" section on the "Choose Components" page of the EP installer.

The descriotion given on mouseover is "Provides playback support for additional FLV codecs", and all it does is place f263.w5s in your Winamp\System folder.

You probably didn't need to install everything else in the EP, heh.

If f263.w5s doesn't provide support, then chances are said FLV wasn't encoded with any of the h.263/4 or vp6 video codecs.

You would then need to try the alternate DirectShow playback method instead, as in method #2 in my previous post.

If there's still no playback after that, then you'll need to either provide a link to one of these problem FLV files, or send me one of them....

Ok, f263.w5s is (now) on my laptop but the file still will not play. I copied the file to a different directory on my desktop and it plays. I copied the original file on my desktop to my laptop. It still does not play.

FYI:
Desktop - XP Professional w/SP3
Intel processor
no f263.w5s
plays fine

Laptop - XP Home w/SP3
AMD processor
has f263.w5s
refuses to play (video or audio)

File from YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8__EwAT8VM
(The Ventures Live: Wipe Out)

Thank you your help/interest. My curiosity is aroused.

I'll wait of the DirectShow playback method for the moment.

Hmm, that particular flv is crashing Winamp for me.
(Crash in in_mp3.dll)

Which is weird, because I've got some other flv's encoded with the exact same codecs (h263 video & mpeg-2 layer 3 audio) which play perfectly fine.

It plays fine using the DirectShow method though....

So it's not just me. :-)

I guess I'll have to look at the DirectShow playback method.

I just have to ask, what operating system and processor do you have? It works on my desktop and with VLC media player 0.9.8a on my laptop.

If f263.w5s isn't present then Winamp/in_flv will not be able to play ANY h263-encoded flv's.
Therefore this suggests that you're already using the DirectShow method on your desktop pc, yes?

If you'd provided a List Of Plugins for both comp's, then we would have known for sure...

I tested on a WinXP Home desktop pc, by the way.

How do I know if I'm using the DirectShow method? I'm not aware of setting it up.

Also, your first instruction is "Remove in_flv.dll". However, in_flv.dll is on my laptop.

I'm looking into how to generate a list of plugins.

Thank you for sticking with me.

Is FLV in the Extension List in the DirectShow Decoder config (on the desktop pc)?

(again, a List Of Plugins would have shown us this info - see previous post for link)

It's taken me an hour to get to this point. AOL sucks.

I made screen dumps of my listed plug-ins and heve given up trying to attach or send themattached them.

Again, both my desktop and laptop lists are identical.

The instructions for how to generate a List Of Plugins (not screenshots) can be found here:
http://forums.winamp.com/showthread....161361#plugins

Plug-ins are attached.

Thank you.

Yes, you've got FLV associated with in_dshow on both computers.

This can only mean that the FLV Splitter and ffdshow (or other) decoder are both installed on the Desktop,
but one or both of them aren't installed on the Laptop.

As stated before, I've compared files on both the desktop and laptop. They are the same.

Since you eliminated the difference in OS, I'm leaning toward the difference in processor.

I really appreciate your time and effort but it appears there is a flaw in WinAmp.

Since VLC Media Player works fine under all conditions I've encountered, and appears to have a better picture quality, I'll live with the interface and use it a my default player.

Again, thank you.

Steve

Well, maybe you could attach your dxdiag logs for both comp's then?
http://forums.winamp.com/showthread....d=161361#video

It's all guesswork without having all the necessary information.

Let's see if both the DirectShow FLV Splitter & Filter are installed on both comps.

It's nothing to do with the OS or processor.