I have used windows media player as my default player since I bought a new Vaio laptop in December. However, recently windows media player will not play any videos in "my libraries" no matter what format. I double click the video and it tells me it is "opening media" but nothing happens. I have to use VLC media player which works fine.

Also, In windows media centre itself (which I have just started to use) neither my photos or video appear in "my folders". I get the message "There are no items in your library yet - windows media centre is searching for media files in the background. To add more pictures/video you can go to tasks > settings > media libraries". I can't even find where the "tasks" tab is to do this! Strangely some of my photos and video do appear in "date taken" but I'm not sure where windows media centre is getting them from but its not from "my libraries". 

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Do you have any third party codec packs installed?  Sounds like they are screwed up.   VLC uses its own codecs so it is not affected.

 Goodie -

9 times out of 10 its a CODEC issue.I would revert to default codecs.

rgreenpc

Thanks for your reply. How do I revert to default codecs? I haven't got much experience with this type of thing. Infact, although I've heard of them, I've no idea what a codec is.

Thanks for help

Goodie

Lithium630

 Thanks for your reply. 2 votes for CODEC so I'm guessing thats it. I have no idea if I have any third party codec packs installed. How do I find out and what do I do with them.

Thanks

Goodie

Lithium630

 Thanks for your reply. 2 votes for CODEC so I'm guessing thats it. I have no idea if I have any third party codec packs installed. How do I find out and what do I do with them.

Thanks

Go to Control Panel and choose Uninstall a program.  Remove anything that says FFDSHOW, Klite or Sharky.  There are many others so if your not sure what a program is than search it on google.   Reboot and try again.  If that doesn't help you can try installing Antipack from Babgvant.  There are some good instructions on Hack7mc.com.

Don't appear to have any of those codecs. Searching the internet gspot and codec sniper are recommended to identify what codecs I have installed and help delete unwanted ones. Sonud ideal for someone like me! Can you recommend a safe site to download these programs?

Thanks

Update

Within Windows Media Centre - Windows Media Player will play all my videos in any format.

Outside of Windows Media Centre - Windows Media Player will play AVI and WMV files but not mpg and mts files.

 Does that make things clearer?