Question:
Why will Acquire Player not play certain video files that I deploy?
Resolution:
Firstly, not all video files (formats) are not all the same. There are many standards which have been agreed by industry, and then developers have produced versions which (most of the time) support such standards.
To playback a video in a specific format, Acquire uses a standard feature called a CODEC (which stands for CODER/DECODER) and makes use of Windows based DirectShow filters. To playback a video in a specific format, you need to ensure that you have a DirectShow CODEC installed which is capable of decoding your video.
When Acquire Player is installed, a number of Recommended CODECs are presented to you to download and install. You can access this list again at any time by selecting the Recommended Components option from the Acquire Start Menu in Windows. These CODECs provide compatibility with many different file formats and encoding formats, but you are also welcome to install any other CODECs as long as they are DirectShow compatible, and Acquire Player will use them. We do NOT recommend the installation of CODEC Packs which include many different CODEC types in one installer – often these include many different provider’s CODECs which may not be fully compatible with your video. If there are too many CODECs then it is often hard to work out which ones are being used to decode the video if there is then a problem.
Windows (7 and above) provides a facility to change the priority of which CODECs are used, although it is always best to keep as few CODECs as possible and choose the ones which work best for you and your devices, then convert (or Transcode) the videos into that chosen format.
An easy way to do this is to use a package like DivX which includes a free converter from most file formats to the DivX format.
In some cases, the CODEC errors are generic and dependent upon several different variables, such as file input, system configuration, and hardware. In this case, further investigation is needed to find a solution and we will need a few things from you before you contact us using our support system or for customers with support contracts our support team. Follow the steps below to learn what to do if you need to contact Support about one of the errors.
- Ensure the latest drivers are installed on the computer, such as Graphics Card drivers, Audio drivers and System (Chipset, etc.) drivers all have an impact upon the ability to playback video in a stable manner.
- DXDiag: Click on the Start Menu and select Run. Type dxdiag and click Save All Information and add your name or case number to the file. Upload the .txt file created to your Support case.
- Screenshots: you can take a screenshot of the error message window by clicking the Print Screen button key on your keyboard. Paste it in the Paint application and save as a jpg. Upload this to your Support case as well.
- File Diagnostics:
- For .AVI, .WMV, .DivX, .MPG, .VOB, and .MPEG video files, please send us a screenshot of the video file rendered in the application GSpot. Please refer to the GSpot website for information on how to use this tool.
- For .MKV, .MP4, .DivX, .MOV, .TS, and .VOB video files, please send us an analysis of the file from MediaInfo. Please refer to the MediaInfo website for more information how to use this tool.
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