If I start wmp from, say, the Start Menu, it opens, but never responds. It just locks up. If I start it by clicking on an mpg file, it comes up fine, but if I try to pause it, the screen goes black and it stops responding and when I try to kill it, it takes forever to die. I haven’t added any new software, or drivers, or anything else to make this happen. I know this isn’t much to go on, but does anyone have any ideas what may be the cause?
Is it possible to uninstall and then reinstall?
Wait a minute, I just got an error I’ve never seen before: Windows Media Player cannot play the video because there is a problem with your video card.
Have you checked your video card manufacturer’s Web site for new drivers, OR the Windows Update site? You may have gotten a Windows Update that forked your video driver, and Windows may also have a newer, more compatible driver available (which probably does not download automatically).
VLC uses its own internal implementation for various codecs which makes it a great second choice when your player of choice can’t play something. Unfortunately, VLC has a really crappy user interface which is it’s better to save it as a backup.
Personally, I’m partial to Media Player Classic and the K-Lite Codec pack. The former has a fairly nice UI (based off of when Windows Media Player’s UI back before it got all weird) and a bunch of features, and the codec pack allows it to play virtually any video format.