COMPUTER QUESTION

[W2PFY]

I trying to help out someone with a computer problem. When ever he plays back this video he gets thousands of little arrows pointing in all directions on the picture on the monitor. please look at the link below and let me know what you think it is.  Thanks Terry

http://picasaweb.google.com/WW2PFY/ArrowPicS

[KD6VXI]

Is it just that video?

Where did the video come from.  Video files can now contain malware.  Could be something is trying to invade his computer.

Could be something as simple as the wrong codec, or an OLDER version of a codec that needs to be updated. 

Usually video files work.  When they don't, the first thing I do is check it with a 'known good' video file.  Windows has many .avi's in its directory that you can do this with.

Kinda hard to tell, could be a few things, but the ones above are what I'd start with.


--Shane

[W2PFY]

Thanks for the reply Shane, It's only this video and it's in a HD format. All the rest of his videos are fine. This one worked initially  on Media player classic and on WMP but then started screwing up. We re-installed Media Player Classic and the codecs and it happened from the start with the arrows after the new software was installed. These were the XP codecs, maybe I'll try the K lite codecs.  This is where I'm at 

[W1AEX]

Hi Terry,

I would tend to agree with Shane regarding this being a codec issue. One way to possibly sidestep the issue is to use the free VLC player, which is completely self-contained in its own directory. It does not mess with any system settings or any media player settings. It requires no codec packs to handle pretty much anything that is out there. In fact, it is so portable that you can install it on a USB flash drive and it will still work. The only files I have seen that would not play in VLC were usually damaged badly. You can even play a partial video file that is archived in a rar file just by dragging and dropping the archive onto VLC. I have had good luck using it with HDTV content. It's available free for multiple platforms, but since you are discussing a media player issue the windows version can be found here:

http://www.videolan.org/vlc/download-windows.html

A brief overview of VLC features can be found here:

http://www.videolan.org/

[KD6VXI]

Hi Terry,

I would tend to agree with Shane regarding this being a codec issue. One way to possibly sidestep the issue is to use the free VLC player, which is completely self-contained in its own directory. It does not mess with any system settings or any media player settings. In fact, it is so portable that you can install it on a USB flash drive and it will still work. The only files I have seen that would not play in VLC were usually damaged badly. You can even play a partial video file that is archived in a rar file just by dragging and dropping the archive onto VLC. I have had good luck using it with HDTV content. It's available free for multiple platforms, but since you are discussing a media player issue:

http://www.videolan.org/vlc/download-windows.html

A brief overview of VLC features can be found here:

http://www.videolan.org/

VLC is a great player, and something else you can do is this:

When you get it installed (if doing the thumbdrive / dumbdrive thing), configure it.  Once that's done, WRITE PROTECT THE FLASHDRIVE!

No more virii installs from that point.

--Shane
(Ex IT Engineer and Security Consultant)

[KF1Z]

I think he must be using Windows Media Player 11.

And or has an HDMI cable plugged in.


Those are codec movement pointers.....



Terry, find out if it's  media player 11.

[W2PFY]

Yes, it is WMP 11 Bruce. Lots of help and new directions found so far.

so what do you think Bruce?

[KF1Z]

Your friend has the "ffdshow" codec installed. (I bet)

He is seeing "motion vector" pointers.

The solution,,,,,

Under "all programs" in the start menu, find the ffdshow menu, click on "video decoder configration"

up pops a window....

On the left hand side, there's a bunch of check-boxes...
go down the list until you see one that says "visualizations"
I'll bet it has a check in the box.

UNCHECK it.
(actually NONE of those boxes should be checked)
should be good to go.

If that doesn't do it.... there's other places to look,
But try that first.

[W2PFY]

Your were right on the money Bruce. My brother unchecked  it and presto, the problem went away    I would like to thank everyone for their help.

My brother & I both downloaded the VLC player. That's a great player.   

[W2PFY]

Just buy a Mac

I like Burger King better.