Issues:Windows 2003 and XP64 Video Problems

Windows 2003/XP x64 and black screen(sound but no video)/grey screen/weird colours

Symptoms: any of the following ones:

• you are using ZoomPlayer, irrespective of having Colors Controls enbled or not
• you have enabled ffdshow's Overlay Control
• you are using any other player that allows you to change the overlay colour values regardless of having enabled that option or not.

When you close the player and start it, or any other player, again, you may experience either a black screen (aka sound but no video), a grey screen or the colours look completely weird.

This is a problem with Windows 2003 and with XP64 themselves. When you close the player, the overlay colour values are set to absurd values (like -100 brightness and so on).

Solution: To overcome this problem, there's not much you can do. First of all, make sure Overlay Control is disabled in ffdshow's Video decoder configuration settings (the Overlay option is unchecked in the list on the left)

1) Stick to only MPC or only ZoomPlayer. Using Zoomplayer and then MPC will give you a black/grey/weird colours screen in MPC. That's why only was emphasized.

If your favourite is ZoomPlayer, then you need to do this: open a file in ZoomPlayer -> open your graphic card's overlay control page and reset the values to defaults as described below in the How to reset to Default Overlay Values -> right click on the video surface -> select Options/Setup -> go to advanced mode by pressing the Advanced Mode button -> select Colors Control in the list -> check Use Color Control Interface -> press the Query Overlay button -> in the Confirmation dialog that pops up select Ok -> press Set Current as Default -> press Manual Save -> press Close. (If you are wondering what this does: each time ZoomPlayer is closed the overaly values are broken, but by enabling the Color Control Interface, the right values that you have saved as defaults are restored each time ZoomPlayer is opened)

2) If you like to switch between players or use other players not supported by CCCP, then you will sooner or later get the black/grey/weird colours screen. Each time this happens, just reset to the default overlay values as described below in the How to reset to Default Overlay Values.

How to reset to Default Overlay Values:

For ATI graphic cards: start the playback of a media file if you have no file playing already -> right click on the desktop -> Properties -> Settings -> Advanced -> Overlay -> press the Defaults button -> use the other sliders to adjust the colours to your liking -> press Apply.

If you use the Catalyst Control Center, start the playback of a media file -> right click on the desktop -> Properties -> Settings -> Advanced -> Catalyst(R) Control Center tab -> click the ATI Catalyst(R) Control Center button in the center of the panel. Make sure to chose Advanced and click next. Click the + next to Video under Graphics Settings on the left side of the screen and highlight Adjustments. Uncheck Let the application control the video adjustments and the video should appear in your player.

For NVIDIA graphic cards: start the playback of a media file if you have no file playing already and then see the last paragraph of the nVidia Issues entry for instructions on how to adjust the color controls.

Each time you need to change the colours while playing, you have to use the overlay colour controls provided by the driver of your graphic card as written above.