Media Players need to buy Codec to watch???

[JeffersLos]

Maybe one month ago video files being watched on GOM Player were all only playing the audio to the files with a blank black screen, and a pop up saying we need to buy a Codec, for something like $0.99.

 

The exact same happened when opening the files on WMP (Windows Media Player) and others. 

 

A search online said that only VLC player doesn't need them because on the way the program runs. That was correct. Out of all the Media Players only VLC was showing the video screen and no pop up to buy a Codec. 

 

However, VLC isn't nice to use. The keyboard shortcuts are all different, it doesn't start where you left off like GOM player but at the start of a file you've already watched half of etc. So we would like to switch back to GOM player.

 

Are you experiencing the same issue? I've no problem paying $0.99 once off if the payment channel is easy, and ime it usually isn't, if it is a once off payment, not for every different video file we watch. Is it only us? How to get rid of it? 

 

TIA. 

[JeffersLos]

Reinstalling GOM Player doesn't fix the issue.

 

It plays the video of home movies, but not of TV shows or films we have downloaded. For those, the screen is black, the audio plays, and there is a popup saying additional codecs are required. 

[Digitalbanana]

40 minutes ago, JeffersLos said:

However, VLC isn't nice to use. The keyboard shortcuts are all different, it doesn't start where you left off

Well thats not true.

 

Enabling Resume Playback

    Open VLC media player.
    Go to Tools > Preferences (or press Ctrl + P).
    In the Preferences window, click on Interface.
    Under Playback, check the box next to Continue playback.
    Click Save.

[JeffersLos]

13 minutes ago, Digitalbanana said:

Well thats not true.

 

Enabling Resume Playback

    Open VLC media player.
    Go to Tools > Preferences (or press Ctrl + P).
    In the Preferences window, click on Interface.
    Under Playback, check the box next to Continue playback.
    Click Save.

 

Thanks. Do you know how to get rid of the codec issue on GOM Player? (only the audio plays and not the video, and there's a popup saying that a codec is needed, when playing downloaded TV shows or films)

[gargamon]

What type of videos make this happen? Please post the medianfo for one. Mediainfo is available on all platforms.

[JeffersLos]

23 minutes ago, gargamon said:

What type of videos make this happen? Please post the medianfo for one. Mediainfo is available on all platforms.

 

All types of video files.

 

Under the popup stating a codec is needed to view the video, it says show details. This is the copy and paste of that.

 

Stream 0

--------------------
MEDIA TYPE 0:
--------------------
[AM_MEDIA_TYPE]
majortype: MEDIATYPE_Video {73646976-0000-0010-8000-00AA00389B71}
subtype: Unknown GUID Name {31435648-0000-0010-8000-00AA00389B71}
formattype: FORMAT_MPEG2_VIDEO {E06D80E3-DB46-11CF-B4D1-00805F6CBBEA}
bFixedSizeSamples: 0
bTemporalCompression: 1
lSampleSize: 3441600
cbFormat: 2612

 

[gargamon]

6 minutes ago, JeffersLos said:

 

All types of video files.

 

Under the popup stating a codec is needed to view the video, it says show details. This is the copy and paste of that.

 

Stream 0

--------------------
MEDIA TYPE 0:
--------------------
[AM_MEDIA_TYPE]
majortype: MEDIATYPE_Video {73646976-0000-0010-8000-00AA00389B71}
subtype: Unknown GUID Name {31435648-0000-0010-8000-00AA00389B71}
formattype: FORMAT_MPEG2_VIDEO {E06D80E3-DB46-11CF-B4D1-00805F6CBBEA}
bFixedSizeSamples: 0
bTemporalCompression: 1
lSampleSize: 3441600
cbFormat: 2612

 

Can you not get mediainfo to show what's actually going on? What the app that is trying to get your money states is irrelevant. What does vlc say it is? I think mediainfo is builtin there.

 

Maybe you could post a link to a video that fails.

[JeffersLos]

13 minutes ago, gargamon said:

Can you not get mediainfo to show what's actually going on?

 

Maybe, if I know what it is.

 

The mediainfo of what?

And get it from where?

 

14 minutes ago, gargamon said:

Maybe you could post a link to a video that fails.

 

They are files on our PC. Downloaded films and TV shows from torrent sites, MP4, MKV files etc. 

 

This only started around 1 month ago. 

[JeffersLos]

General
Unique ID                                : 267860060923889725208777442439261797258 (0xC983F8A220AA6A3D98401A1A96E33B8A)
Complete name                            : G:xxxxx.mkv
Format                                   : Matroska
Format version                           : Version 4
File size                                : 1.60 GiB
Duration                                 : 56 min 57 s
Overall bit rate                         : 4 014 kb/s
Frame rate                               : 23.976 FPS
Movie name                               : xxxxx
Encoded date                             : 2021-11-26 17:24:35 UTC
Writing application                      : mkvmerge v59.0.0 ('Shining Star') 64-bit
Writing library                          : libebml v1.4.2 + libmatroska v1.6.4

Video
ID                                       : 1
Format                                   : HEVC
Format/Info                              : High Efficiency Video Coding
Format profile                           : Main 10@L4@Main
Codec ID                                 : V_MPEGH/ISO/HEVC
Duration                                 : 56 min 57 s
Bit rate                                 : 3 526 kb/s
Width                                    : 1 920 pixels
Height                                   : 956 pixels
Display aspect ratio                     : 2.008
Frame rate mode                          : Constant
Frame rate                               : 23.976 (24000/1001) FPS
Color space                              : YUV
Chroma subsampling                       : 4:2:0
Bit depth                                : 10 bits
Bits/(Pixel*Frame)                       : 0.080
Stream size                              : 1.40 GiB (88%)
Writing library                          : x265 3.5+12+14-106329cbd:[Windows][GCC 10.3.0][64 bit] 10bit
Encoding settings                        : cpuid=1111039 / frame-threads=3 / numa-pools=12 / wpp / no-pmode / no-pme / no-psnr / ssim / log-level=2 / input-csp=1 / input-res=1920x956 / interlace=0 / total-frames=81930 / level-idc=0 / high-tier=1 / uhd-bd=0 / ref=3 / no-allow-non-conformance / no-repeat-headers / annexb / no-aud / no-eob / no-eos / no-hrd / info / hash=0 / no-temporal-layers / open-gop / min-keyint=23 / keyint=250 / gop-lookahead=0 / bframes=8 / b-adapt=2 / b-pyramid / bframe-bias=0 / rc-lookahead=80 / lookahead-slices=6 / scenecut=40 / no-hist-scenecut / radl=0 / no-splice / no-intra-refresh / ctu=64 / min-cu-size=8 / no-rect / no-amp / max-tu-size=32 / tu-inter-depth=1 / tu-intra-depth=1 / limit-tu=0 / rdoq-level=0 / dynamic-rd=0.00 / no-ssim-rd / signhide / no-tskip / nr-intra=0 / nr-inter=0 / no-constrained-intra / no-strong-intra-smoothing / max-merge=5 / limit-refs=3 / no-limit-modes / me=3 / subme=5 / merange=57 / temporal-mvp / no-frame-dup / no-hme / weightp / no-weightb / no-analyze-src-pics / deblock=0:0 / sao / no-sao-non-deblock / rd=3 / selective-sao=4 / early-skip / no-rskip / no-fast-intra / no-tskip-fast / no-cu-lossless / b-intra / no-splitrd-skip / rdpenalty=0 / psy-rd=2.00 / psy-rdoq=0.00 / no-rd-refine / no-lossless / cbqpoffs=0 / crqpoffs=0 / rc=crf / crf=19.0 / qcomp=0.60 / qpstep=4 / stats-write=0 / stats-read=0 / ipratio=1.40 / pbratio=1.30 / aq-mode=3 / aq-strength=1.00 / cutree / zone-count=0 / no-strict-cbr / qg-size=32 / no-rc-grain / qpmax=69 / qpmin=0 / no-const-vbv / sar=0 / overscan=0 / videoformat=5 / range=0 / colorprim=2 / transfer=2 / colormatrix=2 / chromaloc=0 / display-window=0 / cll=0,0 / min-luma=0 / max-luma=1023 / log2-max-poc-lsb=8 / vui-timing-info / vui-hrd-info / slices=1 / no-opt-qp-pps / no-opt-ref-list-length-pps / no-multi-pass-opt-rps / scenecut-bias=0.05 / hist-threshold=0.03 / no-opt-cu-delta-qp / no-aq-motion / no-hdr10 / no-hdr10-opt / no-dhdr10-opt / no-idr-recovery-sei / analysis-reuse-level=0 / analysis-save-reuse-level=0 / analysis-load-reuse-level=0 / scale-factor=0 / refine-intra=0 / refine-inter=0 / refine-mv=1 / refine-ctu-distortion=0 / no-limit-sao / ctu-info=0 / no-lowpass-dct / refine-analysis-type=0 / copy-pic=1 / max-ausize-factor=1.0 / no-dynamic-refine / no-single-sei / no-hevc-aq / no-svt / no-field / qp-adaptation-range=1.00 / scenecut-aware-qp=0 / conformance-window-right-offset=0 / conformance-window-bottom-offset=0 / decoder-max-rate=0 / no-vbv-live-multi-pass
Default                                  : Yes
Forced                                   : No

Audio
ID                                       : 2
Format                                   : AAC LC
Format/Info                              : Advanced Audio Codec Low Complexity
Codec ID                                 : A_AAC-2
Duration                                 : 56 min 57 s
Bit rate                                 : 473 kb/s
Channel(s)                               : 6 channels
Channel layout                           : C L R Ls Rs LFE
Sampling rate                            : 48.0 kHz
Frame rate                               : 46.875 FPS (1024 SPF)
Compression mode                         : Lossy
Delay relative to video                  : 20 ms
Stream size                              : 193 MiB (12%)
Title                                    : Main Audio
Language                                 : English
Default                                  : Yes
Forced                                   : Yes

Text
ID                                       : 3
Format                                   : PGS
Muxing mode                              : zlib
Codec ID                                 : S_HDMV/PGS
Codec ID/Info                            : Picture based subtitle format used on BDs/HD-DVDs
Duration                                 : 54 min 47 s
Bit rate                                 : 25.3 kb/s
Frame rate                               : 0.325 FPS
Count of elements                        : 1068
Stream size                              : 9.90 MiB (1%)
Title                                    : English
Language                                 : English
Default                                  : No
Forced                                   : No

Menu
00:00:00.000                             : en:Chapter 01
00:05:28.536                             : en:Chapter 02
00:16:51.802                             : en:Chapter 03
00:28:28.707                             : en:Chapter 04
00:39:37.458                             : en:Chapter 05
00:56:01.983                             : en:Chapter 06

[gargamon]

So it's HEVC. Pretty simple these days. Can you not find a different player that suits your needs? What OS are you running it on?

 

EDIT: I just looked up GOM. It's windows. I haven't used windows for decades so can't recommend a current player, but if all else fails and you can't find something else, load KODI (formerly XBMC)

 

Here's a simple dump from one I recently downloaded

[ukrules]

Quote

Fix: Install the Free HEVC Codec (Avoid Paying $0.99)

Instead of purchasing the codec, your friend can install a free version of the HEVC codec from Microsoft.

1. Open a web browser and go to the following hidden Microsoft Store link:

   • HEVC Video Extensions from Device Manufacturer (Free Version)

2. Click Get and install it.

3. Restart GOM Player and Windows Media Player, then try playing the MKV file again.

From ChatGPT - the codec is free if you want it for free

The issue is 100% related to HEVC / H.265 usage in the file which is why it works just fine in VLC which contains the codec and not in the others - they don't want to license it for commercial use - but it is freely available.

The link to get the codec is : https://apps.microsoft.com/store/detail/hevc-video-extensions-from-device-manufacturer/9N4WGH0Z6VHQ

[JeffersLos]

3 hours ago, ukrules said:

From ChatGPT - the codec is free if you want it for free

The issue is 100% related to HEVC / H.265 usage in the file which is why it works just fine in VLC which contains the codec and not in the others - they don't want to license it for commercial use - but it is freely available.

The link to get the codec is : https://apps.microsoft.com/store/detail/hevc-video-extensions-from-device-manufacturer/9N4WGH0Z6VHQ

 

Thank you. Very informative. 

 

I go to that link, press install, then the MS Store opens and the Get button is greyed out, and on the top left of the screen it states This app will not work on your device. 

 

This is a genuine windows 11 device. 

[blaze master]

9 hours ago, Digitalbanana said:

Well thats not true.

 

Enabling Resume Playback

    Open VLC media player.
    Go to Tools > Preferences (or press Ctrl + P).
    In the Preferences window, click on Interface.
    Under Playback, check the box next to Continue playback.
    Click Save.

 

When you start a movie again there is also a box that appears asking you if you want to start where you left off. It's small but it's there.

[ukrules]

3 hours ago, JeffersLos said:

I go to that link, press install, then the MS Store opens and the Get button is greyed out, and on the top left of the screen it states This app will not work on your device.

 

That's a pain, it may be restricted to certain Microsoft devices like Surface Pro versions or something.

There's one old but tested way to do it - the K-lite codec pack - always did the job going back a long time and it seems to still be around

 

Whether it will work with this specific player nor not is anyones guess but it's definitely worth a shot - this could solve your issue in minutes

Find it here : https://www.codecguide.com/download_kl.htm

[ukrules]

If the K-lite codec pack doesn't work with that player then give up and change player.