Windows xp Media Center video decoder malfunction: windows xp media center

Windows xp Media Center video decoder malfunction

Asked by: dleads

Recently when I try to enter Media Center I can hear it loading in the background but the screen remains black. Funny, if I hit ctrl, alt. del. when the task manager comes up so does the media center. Even if I see media center in back of task manager if I hit, say tv, it will go black again and will only appear if I hit ctrl. alt. delete once again. The last try to get it open I got the message "video decoder has either malfuntioned or not installed. How can I get a new download for just media center. Don't really want to reformat.
Media Center Edition vers 2002 service pack 3

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I don't know much about XP Media Center Edition either, but as it is essentially Windows XP then perhaps you can troubleshoot as follows to try and ascertain which of the Video Codecs is the problem:

Start Menu > Settings > Control panel > Sounds and Audio Devices.
Hardware tab > click on Video Codecs > Click Properties button > click on the Properties tab of the new dialog to see a list of installed Video Codecs.
For each of the Video Codecs showing in the list, click on it and then click the Properties button.

If any do not show the status as "Driver is enabled and functioning properly", then take note of as much detail as you can get from the messages and let us know them.

Some of the properties pages have a settings button. Click on that to get full version details of the codec, and in some cases also take note of any extended settings offered, and how they are currently configured.

You may also like to have a look in:
Start Menu > Settings > Control panel > Sounds and Audio Devices.
Hardware tab > click on Media Control Devices > Click Properties button > click on the Properties tab of the new dialog to see a list of devices.
However, in Windows XP these are very standard old-style multimedia devices.

Clearly from what you say, the codec that is missing, corrupted, or misconfigured is one that is required to display the actual "Media Center" interface, ie. the interface that allows you to choose the media sources, etc. That's a kind of semi-Vista type look, isn't it? Rounded glassy "buttons" that move around on the screen rather than a standard dialog.

It's hard to know what Video Codec must be used for that interface, unless of course you somehow have it configured to automatically play or show snapshots of video files in thumbnail type view as you open the media Center interface.

Let us know the results of your codec properties checks if you have the same method of checking them as with standard Windows XP.

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Windows xp Media Center video decoder malfunction

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