Winamp won't play ANY video !

[ElectricFox]

Hi !

I've used Winamp since 2005, so I know the history of Winamp. I have never managed to make it play MP4 videos on Windows 10, but I've accepted that fact. I currently have Winamp 5.666 Build 3516 installed. Until a few days ago (Christmas 2018), it played .wmv videos perfectly; then it suddenly stopped playing those Windows Media Videos and any other type of videos as well ! I tried the new Winamp 5.8 (which I had never tried before), same situation: NO videos at all.
Either plays music and visualizations beautifully, but no videos. I uninstalled them, reinstalled them, to no avail. I installed old versions (5.3, 5.5) that I found in my downloads, same problem. I reverted back to Winamp 5.666 Build 3516 ((patched), so now I'm left with Winamp not playing any video on my Windows 10 computer.

I have another laptop with Windows 7 still installed (thanks god!), and Winamp PRO(!) 5.3, which plays music, CD's, visualizations and (among others) MP4 and WMV videos beautifully...

No, this isn't a Christmas tale, this is the sad reality ! Could anyone help ? Thanks in advance. I miss my videos ! (I know I could get VLC, but don't want it).

Happy New Year to all who read this !

Stephen

[Dr.Flay]

It seems more likely that something in Win10 is the problem, as that keeps getting updates that bork things, while your Winamp install has not changed.

No experience fixing vid playback issues in Winamp, as I have never been impressed with its performance or flexibility.
No proper zoom or pan features, no frame advance or slomo, limited hardware support so runs in software emulation mode mostly, and no way to change the output surface if you card or drivers are being weird. No chapter support or any way to use secondary audio tracks.

Winamp is a massive compromise for video and was only ever added as a basic feature.
VLC is also a massive bloated compromise. it is a media streaming center with the ability to play files.
For video playback you should opt for something small and packed with all the features a player needs for videos and DVDs etc.

The Media Player Classic variants are worth considering. MPC-BE has youtube support built in, and MPC-HC can use piped data streams so can be used for watcing Twitch streams etc.
Most importantly, they will let you easily change the screen output/surface options, and override the choice of decoders. Neither Winamp or VLC will let you change the decoders used, so if the decoder is the weak link here, you are stuck.