Sonic CinePlayer DVD Decoder Pack v2.5 & Windows XP's Media Players

Hi,

I seem to have problems getting my recorded MPEG-2 files to play in both
Windows Media Player v6.4 and 9.0 in Windows XP Pro. SP2 (all updates).I
see Windows Media Players resize the window, connecting to a server,and
then error downloading codec. Media Player v6.4 showed the file
properties using Sonic's decoder.

I use a Technisat Air2PC-ATSC-PCI HDTV tuner card
(http://www.bbti.us/products_air2pc_atsc_pci.htm) and Technisat DVB-PC
v4.3.2 to watch and record TV shows as MPEG-2 files with AC3 audio
especially in HDTV format. I also installed Sonic CinePlayer DVD Decoder
Pack v2.5 so I could see video and audio in DVB Viewer v4.3.2.1208.

InterVideo WinDVD 6 and PowerDVD 5 had no problems playing back my
MPEG-2 recordings. Media Player Classic v6.4.8.7 and VideoLAN Client
Media Player v0.8.4 could sort of play them. They were choppy and slow.
VLC MP showed big pixels/corruptions.

Does anyone know what's wrong? I have a XFX NVIDIA GeForce 6800 video
card (128 MB; AGP) if that makes any difference. Thank you in advance.
--
"When I was five years old, I saw an insect that had been eaten by ants
and of which nothing remained except the shell. Through the holes in its
anatomy one could see the sky. Every time I wish to attain purity I look
at the sky through flesh." --Salvadore Dali
/\___/\
/ /\ /\ \ Phillip (Ant) @ http://antfarm.ma.cx (Personal Web Site)
| |o o| | Ant's Quality Foraged Links (AQFL): http://aqfl.net
\ _ / Remove ANT from e-mail address: philpi@earthlink.netANT
( ) or ANTant@zimage.com
Ant is currently not listening to any songs on his home computer.

Well, nobody has offerred anything, and I'm afraid I'm not going to be
much help. But I'll provide my thoughts nevertheless.

Intervideo and PowerDVD have their own MPEG2 decoders, and they both
handle the files OK. MPC and VLC also have builtin decoders, but they
can't handle the files. WMP9 wants to download a CODEC, implying that
it is finding the ones you have not suitable, for whatever reason.

I must assume that there is something not quite right with your files.
I'd download GSPOT and see what information I can obtain regarding the
files. Perhaps something will click. Also, it may be useful to know if
the files play properly (by any of the failing players) if copied to
your hard drive.

An interesting thing happened to me last night.

While farting around with various applications and doing file
conversions, I suddenly came upon a file I created which would not play
using the player I normally use. Same with WMP 10. I tried Media Player
Classic, and that was OK.

Using FFDSHOW I determined that the MPEG2 decoder that was being used
was the Sonic. Using MMVIEW I disabled this decoder, and voila -
everything is OK. By disabling each decoder at a time, I forced the use
of several decoders and they all played the clip (though not
necessarily equaly well). The Sonic was the only one that failed
completely to produce any results.