Errors opening media files

October 21st, 2008, 12:11 am

Hey guys!

How is everyone?

I have an interesting situation, and it has been going on for a while, but i never got around to working out the problem.

I download alot of TV series that are aired overseas (before Australia gets them.. And i have quite an organised system on my computer.. Everything has its own folder..

For example.. All my Heroes season 3 go into one folder, which is on my desktop until i have all the episodes,
But, when i try to open the folder i get the "Windows Explorer had to close because of an unexpected error" message.. and then explorer restarts.

It happens to my Californication folder, and some other movie folders or whatnot that i have.. And also, my Media player doesnt want to play these files either, it has to "Close" so i end up using my VLC player for all movies.

So i start thinking its something with the media files.. But my music works fine in Media player.. So, im not sure what the problem could be..

Maybe some kind of Windows update that prohibits me watching downloaded media..?? But i dont really think that is possible...?
I even tried scanning all the folders and it didnt come up with anything, and i didnt really expect it to.

If anyone has some ideas, id really appreciate it.

Thanks in advance =)

[ATNO/TW]

October 21st, 2008, 5:07 am

Have these files ever worked in Media Player? What format are the files? Do you know what codec is being used?

October 21st, 2008, 5:10 am

All the files are avi.... And other video files work.. Im not sure what codec.. How do i find out?

[ATNO/TW]

October 21st, 2008, 5:48 am

You could use GSpot
http://www.headbands.com/gspot/

Here's some good information as to why AVI's sometimes have issues
http://www.weethet.nl/english/video_whi ... _gspot.php

October 21st, 2008, 11:38 am

But, when i try to open the folder i get the "Windows Explorer had to close because of an unexpected error" message.. and then explorer restarts.


It is caused by the organization of the folder, it is in preview/thumbnail mode and is trying to create a real thumbnail. There are fixes on the internet, but an easy one to do is open my computer, change the view to list, and then go to
tools - folder options
apply this view to all folders.

Then you can go back into your folders without crashing. otherwise search google for thumbnail view crash video xp or such and there are registry fixes.

The issue comes with so many ugly codecs out there getting installed here and there and not being installed fully for windows to use them.

October 21st, 2008, 6:10 pm

Hi dyfrin,

Thanks for that.. It totally worked.. Although, i dont think i had thumbnail view.. Im pretty sure that i was using icon view... As im not a big fan of the List view unless its for music. or something that has alot of files lol.

So my question now is this... Would the video files still try to 'Preview' even when in Icon view?

Well thats actually a silly question, i might try it out myself..

As for codecs.. Anyone know what i should do about that?

October 21st, 2008, 6:22 pm

Ok, i was wrong.... It still does the 'explorer needs to close' crap.. it just takes it slightly longer to register that there is an issue somewhere.

So frustrating.. =(

Im not sure how to work with codecs so ill need some help with them if someone knows what i have to do... ?

October 21st, 2008, 8:21 pm

the problem i think you have not copy it correctly.. rip the Video file.. theres also a certain tools to rip the file..

October 21st, 2008, 11:25 pm

i never 'copied' the files.. they download straight to my desktop.

[ATNO/TW]

October 22nd, 2008, 3:24 am

sexcbubz wrote:

Im not sure how to work with codecs so ill need some help with them if someone knows what i have to do... ?

Did you run that utility I posted earlier to find out what codec is being used? The first link is the download, the second some basic instruction on how to use it and what you're looking at. If you identify the codec being used, you can try to find it and download it and install it on your computer.

For example, if the videos are encoded in DivX and you don't have DivX installed you can download it from http://www.divx.com/ or if it uses xvid you can download it from here http://www.xvid.org/ , etc.


codec is a semi- acronym for encode/decode. The person that creates the video is the encoder and they essentially choose which codec to use to encode with. Remember there are both video and audio codecs and either could be screwing up your playback. In order to decode the videos, you have to have the same codec. When encoding you are compressing the audio and video into a manageable format. Decoding decompresses the video so your graphics and audio cards can play back the material on your computer. That's codec in a nutshell. You can learn more if you want with some simple google searches.

October 22nd, 2008, 3:33 am

Ok, i downloaded that program, i think i got the list of codecs... Found the program a tad confusing..
And i have no idea what im supposed to be looking for, so heres a screenshot of my codecs.... (i think lol)

October 22nd, 2008, 3:47 am

ATNO/TW wrote:

codec is a semi- acronym for encode/decode. The person that creates the video is the encoder and they essentially choose which codec to use to encode with. Remember there are both video and audio codecs and either could be screwing up your playback. In order to decode the videos, you have to have the same codec. When encoding you are compressing the audio and video into a manageable format. Decoding decompresses the video so your graphics and audio cards can play back the material on your computer. That's codec in a nutshell. You can learn more if you want with some simple google searches.

I know what a codec is and what its used for, i just dont know much more about them. I just know that thats what we need to listen/view media. I havent had too much experience using them so i never read up or studied on it... And now days i dont have as much free time on my hands to do so... =(

[ATNO/TW]

October 22nd, 2008, 6:25 am

Well, what you posted is the list of codecs. The green are the decorders. What you want to do is use File>Open and open one of the files that won't play in Windows Media Player. When you do in the top right of the Video section the program will tell you what codec is being used, and most likely it will indicate that it's not installed. Then find the codec on the internet, download and install it and theoretically you should be good to go.

I have noticed that the program isn't 100% accurate. For example, I have a couple videos I encoded on a different computer. It tells me I don't have the codec installed on this one but it plays the video anyway. The codec it indicated as missing is Microsoft Video 1 as the name but lists it as CRAM and tells me not installed. I do in fact have Microsoft Video 1 installed but it is installed as the MSVC codec.

Problem I've had is codecs can be a little funky, and you kind of have to be careful what you install because some can really mess things up and cause things that were working not to. I'd also caution you to be careful if you decide to install codec packages. If you do, install the default codecs only. For example the K-LITE package is a pretty good one, but I made the mistake once of just selecting all of them and it took me the dickens of a time to get my system back to normal.

Here's the link for it if you're interested
http://www.codecguide.com/about_mega.htm

Another reliable pack is Microsofts
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/deta ... laylang=en

I would suggest trying microsoft's first. There's been very few AVI's I haven't been able to play using that pack.

October 22nd, 2008, 9:09 am

Hmm, its probably because the folder already was in the other mode and created the thumbs.db.

First of all do a search on thumbs.db include hidden/system and delete them all (they are cached "previews" of what each folder holds).

Then to remove media[avi/mpeg/etc] preview, open run:

Code: [ Download ] [ Select ]

regsvr32 /u shmedia.dll

See if that solves ends the crashing.

Later to readd media preview, open run:
regsvr32 shmedia.dll

To fix it there are at least 10 different things I tried and it finally worked on the vista side.

Mostly it included: uninstalling all codec packs, and reinstalling them (and different ones).

Then got a mac, and didn't have that issue lol.

October 22nd, 2008, 8:26 pm

Ok, im getting confused.. Would this be a thumbnail problem or a codec problem? Or both?