Good audio. Slow video.

[R32-GTR]

I have this problem when trying to play AVIs on my system. No matter what the size, framerate or codec, the video lags behind the soundtrack. The soundtrack runs along just peachy, but the video is usually almost stop-motion. This happens, wether I use Winamp, Divx Player, The Playa, Ultra Player or Windows Media player. I've installed and configured so many codecs, then uninstalled all of them. Tried the ideas on http://vladd44.com/videoHelp.html I've loaded the most current video driver, adjusted the refresh rate on my display and lowered hardware acceleration, then raised it again. nothing works.
My system is an AMD K6-2 500, with 384megs PC133 and a 32meg AGP videocard. Any other video format plays peachy. Just AVIs don't want to work right.
Most AVI files worked fine before I ran a format/reinstall because of unrelated problems, but now, I get nothing watchable.
I've searched Google and many forums for help. Some of them play fine on my 266 laptop with 32megs PC100 and 2megs shared video. What the heck?
And they play just peachy on most other peoples systems. So I know the video file itself is not corrupt.
What am I doing wrong here?

[dap OLD werewolf]

What kind of video card is it? If it's an NVidia card (or even if not), sometimes the newest drivers aren't always best for the older cards, I've had to revert to older video drivers in order to solve some problems...

[R32-GTR]

It's a Gigabyte GA-GF1280/Nvidia Geforce2-MX 32meg AGP. I've used the older drivers that came on the CD and newer drivers from both the Nvidia and Gigabyte sites. Besides, before the format/reinstall, I was using the same current Gigabyte driver and things were fine, for the most part.
I'm almost sure it's an incorrect codec or incorrect configuration. But what? Thanks for the guess anyways. I had already done that, but because of unrelated problems. Didn't know it could influence AVI playback too.

[dap OLD werewolf]

Well i can't see how it can be a "lack" of a codec as you said that you have installed many of them, uninstalled, reconfigured etc. My next guess would be that you have a direct show filter that is playing your avi's INSTEAD of the codec that the avi would normally use, something like ffdshow or another one. I know many people swear by ffdshow and other direct show filters, but i think they cause more problems than they solve. See if this helps you any:
http://www.rita.lt/video_tools/help/green.htm

[R32-GTR]

I'd be inclined to agree with you.
I tried uninstalling ffdshow altogether and still got probs.
I thought (blonde me) that the players would be forced to use the correct codecs, but no luck. Instead, Divx player mentioned an error regarding it's "chosen" skin AND it's default skin, and therefore couldn't open.
....The hell?!?
Truely, I'm out of ideas.
I'd rather not think that my varied players displayed AVIs just fine before my format/reinstall, by luck, but it's looking that way.
Question is.....
How do I get that lucky again?
Bear in mind, the soundtrack is peachy-keen!
Just with slow-mo/stop-motion video.

[dap OLD werewolf]

I can imagine how frustrated you are, it sounds like you've tried almost everything, and it still sounds like you have a conflict someplace. I know you don't want to hear this, but it sounds to me like you might have to try another reformat.

If you're still willing to keep at it, I would try a couple more things first... You might still have remnants of some sort of direct show filter on your system, something like G400 can cause mega problems with certain systems and vid cards.

You can find the apps below at http://www.rita.lt/

1. Get DXMan (under Tools on the site) - this is an app that will find codecs, filters etc. which you have on your system, you can use it to uninstall them... I would clean up my system as best I can.

2. Get the AceMegaCodecs pack from the site and custom install it. (Important: read the txt file included in the zip, it will tell you what NOT to install.) Ace also has an aggressive uninstaller which I would use during installation, it gets rid of older versions, etc. of codecs before installing the new ones. The AceMegaCOdecs pack zip file on the site also contains new and good adfree versions of divx and xvid, so you will not need to install those either from any pack - install these last (that's all explained in the text file inside).

That's all I can think of at the moment, I hope it works.

[Guest]

Well, here's what I've done and what I think I should've done (in hindsight).
I used DXMan to find and remove the FFDShow and the G400 codecs.
I uninstalled XVid from my system and DivxPlayer. But I kept all other codecs originally installed.
Then I installed AceMegaCodecs and the DivxPlayer and XVid that came seperate with the pack. Same problems, so I'm under the impression I might need to uninstall absolutely everything and just install the AceMegaCodec pack. I really didn't consider that I'd be performing a dirty install of many codecs right over others, or worse, putting the same codecs in other directories as currently existing ones.
Maybe I do need to format again and start from scratch. Guess that'll be the last thing I do after exhausting all other resourses.
Anything you can think of that I might be missing here?

[dap OLD werewolf]

Unfortunately I'm out of ideas and my tendency is to think that you had a dodgy reformat. Sometimes (especially with xp) a reformat/install can be dodgy and the OS installation not a clean one. It is beginning to sound like what you have can't be anything other than your actual OS having problems playing video, you might be missing video for Windows (vfw) or it might have gotten corrupted on the reinstall. But even if that's the case it would be much better to do a clean reformat rather than try and sort the OS piece by piece.

I thought (blonde me) that the players would be forced to use the correct codecs, but no luck.

If everybody was as "blonde" as you we'd be out of a job