Temp files, mpgs and Windows Media Player, need help!

Something strange happened on my system today. When I click on a video clip link on a webpage that opens in windows media player, it suddenly stopped working. I would get audio but only a frozen image. So after cleaning spyware and playing around with some settings I made an observation.

If I right clicked on the clip and downloaded it to my desktop it would play fine.

I discovered that it has something to do with deleting my temporary internet files. When I clear them and go back to the page the video clips do this freezing thing. So when it happens, if I close WMP and then click on the clip again it will play because I guess the clip got loaded into my temp files?? So I have to repeat this process for every clip on a page. And if I clean my temp files I have to do this all over again as well.

Everything was working fine until today. I've never had this problem before and I would delete my temp internet files pretty often and history and such. Oh ya and even weirder, this only happens with mpg files. All other types play fine.

It's really bugging me and I'm hoping it's just a setting that somehow got messed up. Anyone know what I'm talking about?


[edit on 9/25/2006 by librasleep]

Well, I don't know what software you have so I will list what I think is good solid..FREE...LEGAL programs.

AntiVirus:Free Avg
Free Avg Antivirus

Tempfiles/cookies removed:Ccleaner
ccleaner

AntiSpy:Adaware Se Ver 1.06
Adaware se

AntiSpy: Spybot Search and Distroy
Spybot Seasrch and Distroy

Anti Spy:Windows Defender
Windows Defender

FireWall:ZOnealarm
ZoneAlarm

I hope this helps you resolve your issues

If not post what the new results are.

I have and use all those programs except zone alarm. I have the windows firewall. I don't think it's a spyware issue. I've never seen this before today.

Video Example

Here is an example of what I am talking about. At that link I should be able to click play and WMP will open, connect and buffer and then play this clip. But it will not and I don't know why. If I right click on it and save in to my desktop it will play from there fine.

[edit on 9/25/2006 by librasleep]

This is a very strange problem indeed. And honestly I don't really know which way to go to troubleshoot it.

Here are a couple of things you can try:

1. Check out WMP's performance settings (Options > Performance Tab). Change some of the settings such as the buffer size (as well as on the Advanced Options). Just make sure that you change it back to what it should be!
2. It may be a security issue. Your security software (Windows Firewall) may be preventing direct links to MPEGs from being played because of security issues. Check out your options in your Win Firewall settings as well as settings in your other anti-spyware software (Such as Windows Defender that runs in real-time). Also check the security settings of WMP (security tab) - as well as the "Zone Settings".
3. Double check what program is assigned to open MPEGs by default. (Windows Explorer > Tools > Folder Options > File Types. Make sure WMP is the default for MPEG. For an experiment you may also want to change it to something else like Internet Explorer.
4. Updates. Were there any recent (automatic?) updates on WMP? A new update may have a bug/codec problem. If you've got an old player maybe it's time for an update with new codecs? For example the MPEG-2 decoder (also called a DVD decoder) that is required to decode and display the video in your file may not be installed on your computer. (Maybe it was, but accidentally got uninstalled?)
5. I know if you are trying to play a file that was encoded using the DivX video codec and you do not have that codec installed on your computer, you will likely hear the audio portion of the file, but you won't see the video.
6. Did you recently install new Player Software or Codecs such as DivXNetworks Nimo, Tsunami, and K-Lite codec packs, the SoftRom.Net ACE Mega, and the All in 1 codec packs? Some of these are incompatible with Win.M.Player.

That's all I've got for you Librasleep. Curious to see if someone else got a more accurate solution...

I downloaded Firefox and it will open mpeg video clips with media player while my IE 7 still will not.

[edit on 9/26/2006 by librasleep]

Hmm a shot in the dark here,but download and install ace mega codec pack,its possible that a codec got corrupted?

Ace Mega Codec

Did you associate streaming video with Windows Media Player?

Originally posted by kinglizard
Did you associate streaming video with Windows Media Player?

How do I do this. I opened WMP and checked files types and there is no box for "streaming video", but everything is checked. Is there some other why to associate that type of file? Thanks.

reply to post by librasleep

librasleep--I just encountered this very same problem for the first time. I'm suprised it happened to you so long ago. I hope you're still on this board...I'd like to know if you (or anyone else) ever found a solution! I've been looking for the magic bullet for this problem and so far have come up with nothing. Please help!