Re: PCM Format Codec missing

Well at least it seems I have spent the prerequisite "minimum fiddle
time" last night: hours of clicking on stuff I didn't really have a
clue about at least restored the playback sound for AVI files and the
like.

In the end there were a few DVDs that played with sound, and a few
that only have sound during the FBI warning but nowhere else. That
sounded suspiciously like the AC3 filter like you suggested. After I
reinstalled the filter from your link, all the DVDs work again!

So I still have no clue as to what broke the system in the first
place, but it's back up. Thanks for the help!


In this foul year of our lord Sat, 17 Jun 2006 12:40:32 GMT, "Neil
Smith [MVP Digital Media]" <neil@xxxxxxxxxx> proclaimed:

PCM is only used for a very few content types (it's uncompressed audio
data so it takes up far too much space). I've a feeling this isn't
really the source of your problem.

In the media player 10ndow, next to the volume slider, is a small
button. When playing a video file known to have audio, what's the
effect of pressing that onece or twice (it's the "mute" button). That
would reproduce being able to play non-DVD video files in WMP without
sound, but in real player with sound.

If that doesn't have any effect on playback especially of DVDs, it's
useful to know that PCM is *never* used on a DVD disks, the audio
format there is "AC3", so installing the [sourceforge] AC3 audio
filter usually has the desired effect :
http://ac3filter.sourceforge.net/

A missing DVD audio decoder might well explain the second result of no
DVD audio in real player or media player.

Cheers - Neil

On Sat, 17 Jun 2006 02:02:23 +0200, Jared of Europa
<jared@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

I am having problems playing pretty much any video file on my
computer. Video works fine but there is no sound. Windows Media
Player reports that the "PCM Format Codec" is missing.

The following is what happened:

- I play many different video files on this computer, and never
encountered any problem. This machine is used daily for playing media
files. During the last few months I have not installed *any* software
other than the automatically published Windows XP updates on this
machine.

- Recently, I tried playing a DVD using Windows Media Player,
something I haven't done in a long time (although it worked just fine
in the past). There was no sound

- I then tried playng this DVD using other players such as RealPlayer
and Intervideo WinDVD. Again, no sound.

- Ever since I tried that DVD, not a single one of the video files
that worked fine before, will play with sound in Windows Media Player
(however I do get sound when playing these files in RealPlayer).


I have tried to repair the audio by following the instructions on
www.free-codecs.com, including reinstalling the Microsoft Audio
Compression Manager, but no joy. Reinstalling Windwos Media Player
didn't help either.

Jared of Europa
-*-
"I have often deprived myself of the necessities of life,
but I have never consented to give up a luxury."
------------------------------------------------
Digital Media MVP : 2004-2006
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/mvpfaqs


Jared of Europa
-*-
"I have often deprived myself of the necessities of life,
but I have never consented to give up a luxury."
.

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