Can't get movies to play

[I][edited from support email][/I]
[quote]
I had an experiment set up in MediaLab that involved playing a movie. It was working fine until this morning. Now, when I run the questionnaire file, instead of the movie, it shows just a white screen with a horizontal line where the movie should be. The problem does not seem to be with the movies themselves; they play if I just open the file outside of MediaLab. The trouble only occurs when they're in MediaLab. They are .mov files, but I've also tried converting them to .mpg and some other formats, and the same thing happens. Thanks for the help!
[/quote]
When you say they play if you open them outside of MediaLab, do you mean with Quicktime, the Windows MediaPlayer or both?

[quote]
They wouldn't play in MediaPlayer or Quicktime. But I actually just figured out the problem. It turned out that two users were logged onto the computer at once, and when I logged the other user off, the videos worked again. I'm not sure why that made a difference, but it's fixed! Thanks for the response, though!
[/quote]

[I][edited from support email][/I]
[quote]
I'm trying to tell MediaLab to play a Quicktime movie clip, which I have
copied in the same directory as the experiment etc. When the time comes for the clip to play, there is nothing on the screen apart from the usual medialab background colour, which lasts exactly as long as the videoclip, and then moves on to the next item in the experiment. Any ideas?
[/quote]

First thing to try is to see if this video plays ok in the Windows Media Player on the machine where the movie isn't playing properly (since MediaLab uses the WMP as its video engine).

Also, take a look at this link:

[URL="http://www.empirisoft.com/support/showthread.php?t=572"]www.empirisoft.com/support/showthread.php?t=572[/URL]

[quote]
The movies play great, but only in Quicktime. Is there any way to convert QT to MediaPlayer files without having to buy new software?
[/quote]
There are numerous free conversion programs out there. I've only used QuickTime which will convert .mov to .mpg or .avi. It does however require the Pro version which is $29.99 from Apple.com). In some cases the conversion can affect the movie quality. You could also try clicking "use enhanced video" on the MediaLab Preferences menu. That function was designed to help users play native QuickTime files but some have had trouble with it not playing the first of a set of videos. Another thing you can try is downloading the 3ivx codec from [URL="http://www.3ivx.com"]www.3ivx.com[/URL]. I believe some users have had luck playing QT movies with the WMP after this codec has been installed.

I have also heard that with the newest version of the Windows MediaPlayer, many Quicktime videos will play but some won't--seems it may depend on how Quicktime encodes the video. If anyone know what makes the difference, please let us know or post it.

[I][edited by moderator][/I]

[quote]
I am getting neither sound nor video. I've tried using avi and wmv. All the videos play in Windows Media Player just fine, but they won't play in Medialab. I get a white square until I press ESC.

I saw another thread [URL]http://www.empirisoft.com/Support/showthread.php?t=552[/URL]) that seems to describe a similar problem as what I'm encountering, but whereas for that person the video sometimes plays, it doesn't at all for me. I can sometimes see an image that flashes for a second or less, but then the screen would go black, and then white, with no sound. I'd then have to press Ctrl + right arrow to move on.

So far, I have tried putting it in both the que and exp files. I've rebooted the computer and I'm the only one logged on. My MediaLab license is for v2004, and I'm running Vista. I'm not sure if that makes a difference.
[/quote]

Make sure you have "use enhanced video" turned off on the Preferences menu. First thing I would try is to run your files with some simple MPGs or AVIs to ensure it's not possibly related to the encoing of your particular video files. Another thing you can try is playing the clips as backvideos to another item.

Another solution for playing video files, is to create an html file and play them as an HTML item in MediaLab rather than as a Movie item. A sample is attached as a zip file.

The sample HTML can be modified in any text editor (like the Windows Notepad). Or you can create it from scratch using an empty text file.

[I]To create the HTML item from scratch:[/I]

Copy the code below into the empty text file and change the name of the video file from "text.wmv" to whatever your video is called (note the name is used twice!). Also note that in this sample, the video should be located in the same folder as the HTML file.

[code]<object type="video/x-ms-wmv" data="test.wmv" width="320" height="255">
<param name="src" value="test.wmv">
<param name="autoStart" value="1">
<param name="showcontrols" value="false">
</object>
[/code]

The above sample works with the Windows WMV format. For MPG and MOV file formats, you can use the following variations:

MPG
[code]<object data="test.mpg" type="video/mpeg" width="320" height="255">
<param name="src" value="test.mpg">
<param name="autoStart" value="1">
<param name="showcontrols" value="false">
</object>
[/code]

AVI
[code]<object data="test.avi" type="video/x-msvideo" width="320" height="255">
<param name="src" value="test.avi">
<param name="autoStart" value="1">
<param name="showcontrols" value="false">
</object>[/code]

MOV (QuickTime)
[code]<object classid="clsid:02BF25D5-8C17-4B23-BC80-D3488ABDDC6B"
codebase="[URL]http://www.apple.com/qtactivex/qtplugin.cab[/URL]"
width="320" height="255">
<param name="src" value="test.mov" >
<param name="controller" value="false" >
<param name="autoplay" value="true">
</object>
[/code]

I can hear sounds now, but still cannot view the video. I have tried the methods suggested above (except playing through HTML) but I still cannot view videos in .avi, .mpg, or .mov (with 'Use Enhanced Video' or without). I'm not a video whiz, so I am not certain about how to fix codecs if that is the problem.

Our primary use for MediaLab will be to display videos. I am using a trial version to see if our group would like to purchase it, so a speedy response would be much appreciated.

Also check out workaround post toward the end of this thread:
[URL]http://www.empirisoft.com/support/showthread.php?t=552[/URL]

See also:
[url]www.empirisoft.com/support/showthread.php?t=3442[/url]