Gray lines in Windows Media Player

[ZevDawg]

Using WMP 11 here (Vista Home) in full screen.  I get gray-ish lines where the widescreen bars are every now and again (the bars just fill with it - so it's not just a few random pixelated lines doing it either)... if I'm not paying attention to it, it's barely noticeable.  However, it seems that these lightly shaded lines tend to flicker off and on every now and again.  It's beginning to annoy me.  There's nothing wrong with my graphics card, and I doubt this is Window's way of notifying me of anything.

[Kesarra]

I use Windows Media Player Classic, if at all. Mostly I just stick with VLC. I don't use any other WMP because they are all full of bloat and tend to phone home.

[Aaeden]

Heh. Is it with all movies, or just with specific ones? It's either the fact that there's something wrong with a codec on your system, or the fact that the specific movie or movies are having issues. The few references I've seen to the issue have provided no answers, but it is probably a bug of some kind.

I personally would suggest you use something like VLC, if you're able to.

Besides, Vista's only been out for how long now? Better part of a year? There are still oodles of bugs to work out.

[ZevDawg]

I use Windows Media Player Classic, if at all. Mostly I just stick with VLC. I don't use any other WMP because they are all full of bloat and tend to phone home.

VLC - does that support 5.1 audio?  I do use it occasionally for divx and .flv files.

Heh. Is it with all movies, or just with specific ones? It's either the fact that there's something wrong with a codec on your system, or the fact that the specific movie or movies are having issues. The few references I've seen to the issue have provided no answers, but it is probably a bug of some kind.

I personally would suggest you use something like VLC, if you're able to.

Besides, Vista's only been out for how long now? Better part of a year? There are still oodles of bugs to work out.

All movies are doing this...  It's odd; I'm running SP2 even *shrugs*.  Every thing's up to date here.  And I'm not DL'ing anything off the internets that would have any effect on it.

[Aaeden]

One of the issues is that, for the most part, WMP11 was designed with Vista in mind, so service pack 2 or not, WMP11 is very recent software, still prone to be buggy. You actually can't install WMP11 without service pack 2, so I'm not worried about whether you have it or not.

VLC does not by default support 5.1 audio. I think it's limited when working with speakers to a left, right, center, sub setup. Rear surrounds won't work. As far as WMP compatability, VLC is only up to WMP 9, however as far as file types go they support almost everything to some extent. If you're looking to get 5.1 working, it's probably best if you do stick with the WMP11 and give a call in to Microsoft Tech Support, provided the software was obtained legitimately.

[Mobile Suit Bunny]

There are codecs for high-end audio. Looking at CCCP right now I see it has 5.1. So grab your favourite player, download CCCP and see what happens. =P

You said the gray lines appear in the widescreen bars -- do they affect the actual picture at all? It might just be an outdated video codec.

[ZevDawg]

...
You said the gray lines appear in the widescreen bars -- do they affect the actual picture at all? ...

Thanks for the advice, I'll try it out

No affect on the actual video whatsoever, so it's still a mystery :o

[Aaeden]

Hmmm... so it's just gray lines on the player window, not so much the actual video? I may not be well versed in codec lore, but I'm under the impression that the codec is purely responsible for the video that's rendered, while the software itself is responsible for any of the surrounding material. Leads more to the identification of the problem being WMP11 related, as opposed to any codecs.