Dec 16, 2024 • Filed to: Photo/Video/Audio Solutions • Proven solutions
Windows Media Player, in other words, WMP, is a Microsoft provided application and known as a convenient media player either you use it on whatever operating system. WMP is considered as a robust source to play any video file regardless of the video format. Although, Microsoft has made the WMP the best media player, however, still users face the audio and video issues while playing the media files sometimes.
In this article, you will learn each and everything related to Windows Media Player cannot play the file or windows media player not showing a video.
You can find a whirlpool of ways to solve the Video not playing on Windows Media player issue. But before proceeding toward the topic, you should know that what are the reasons that can cause the "windows media player plays sound but no video' problem.
There can be numerous reasons that your media player not showing a video. The reasons could be that your video file is damaged, corrupted, bad sectors on a hard drive, some electromagnetic interference, virus attack, or other software problems.
Here are some errors that you can experience while playing the video file.
Cannot Play the File - This issue indicates that the media player might not support the video format. It also stands for the codec that is used in the video is not as it was in the mobile device.
Freezing - The error Video freezes unusually while playing occurs when the target file faced an interruption while it was downloading. (Solutions to Frozen Videos When Playing)
Codec - You can experience the there is some Codec issue when you are trying to play the video that is not supported by the exact codec your smartphone should have. You can download the codec from the WMP settings.
Sound Distortion - This is a little different from the above ones, but still a problem that causes the windows media player only playing video no sound issue. Because every time you don't need to face windows media player not playing video error, there might be an issue with the video sound.
Blank/Black Screen - Sometimes while you are watching a video and your WMP screen gets flickering black continuously, it indicates that your video file is corrupted or not all of the parts are copied properly if it came to you through a flash drive and the only solution is to change the video.
There is no standard set of any specific issue that indicates why is the video not playing on WMP. Hence, we have derived some scenarios regarding different errors and what they mean. Let's have a look at them.
Case 1: You may encounter the Windows media player encountered a problem while playing the file issue when you are trying to play AVI, WAV, or MOV video formats. AVI format is excessively used to watch standard quality videos. The AVI works perfectly with other media players. However, when it comes to WMP, you may experience a glitch while playing the AVI file on WMP. AVI format is encoded with codecs and these are not supported by Windows media player.
You can either download codecs or replace the media player.
Case 2: If you are seeing this message on your screen: "Windows Media Player cannot play the file. The Player might not support the file type or might not support the codec that was used to compress the file.", there may be two reasons.
Case 3: Well, if you are encountering this error: "A codec is required to play this file. To determine if this codec is available to download from the Web, click Web Help." It indicates that the codecs are not installed on your windows media player or computer. You can download them through media player settings.
It happens when you try all the above-listed techniques and solutions to get rid of the WMP cannot play the file error and after applying every solution, find the same error on the Windows screen. Well, in that case, the situation becomes very frustrating. You may desperately need a Video repair tool here that can solve your windows media cannot play the file problem within minutes.
We have shortlisted some of the best ways to repair a corrupted video that is not playing on WMP.
It is a bit difficult to find some software with 100% guaranteed and satisfactory results. Luckily, we have got a product - Recoverit Video Repair Tool for you which offers exceptional features to its users and capable to resolve issues like, "windows media player not playing the video only sound' efficiently.
Download the Recoverit Video Repair Tool and install the software on your operating system.
Launch the application. To repair your corrupted video files, you can add it from a folder or drag the corrupted video directly.
The software will start to upload the dragged files and the time elapsed depends on the size of the videos. If you drag multiple files at the same time then you may know that the upload is done one by one. The other one will remain in the queue while one is uploading.
As soon as they are uploaded, click on the Repair option to start the video repair process.
It will take some time to repair and once it has finished the repair process, it will show you the Success option on the screen. Press ok to close the operation.
If you find the final result not desired - videos are not repaired successfully, please go to the advance repair mode. Add a sample video and repair it now.
The sample video file will also be uploaded and once the upload is finished, you can click on the Repair option to the repair corrupted videos using advance mode.
The advance repair will perform the repairing process and prompt a success message when the process is completely done. Now, you can play these videos and you will not see any error on the screen.
As we are discussing above, a large number of users complained that they are troubleshooting an error which is a Windows "Media player has stopped working'. Many solutions can be performed in different ways to get rid of the WMP can not play the file.
The first way is to Disable and Enable through Apps & Features.
To do this, hold the Win+X keys from your keyboard and press them simultaneously. You will see, a bar will appear at the left corner. Look for Apps and Features option from there and click on it.
It will take you to the Windows Apps and Features window. From there, choose the optional features action and press the Enter.
Scroll down until you don't see the Windows Media Player setup. Right-click on it and an uninstall button will appear. Uninstall the WMP temporarily.
After that, restart your operating system. Repeat the process and install the Windows Media Player. Maybe this time the video will work.
Another trick to resolve windows media player not working is disabling and enabling the WMP through windows features.
Type the Windows Features in your windows search bar and hit the Enter button to open it.
Find the Media Features options, expand the tab, and there, you will see the Windows media player option. Uncheck the checkbox and then mark the checkbox again, press the OK button to save the settings.
Close the window and try playing the video.
If the above both techniques don't work, not to worry at all, you can so the same by uninstalling the AMD Media Foundation Transcoder.
Type the Control panel in the search bar and click to open.
From the panel, click on Uninstall a program and from there you can uninstall the program. Download the latest drivers and again reinstall them on your system.
In most cases, it works but if you are still facing the same trouble maybe there is an issue with your Windows media player's settings. See the below solutions if your WMP is not working anymore.
Here are some quick solutions that you can perform if seeing the Windows Media player not working error on the screen.
The Windows Media Player cannot play the file error occur if you have mistakenly chosen the wrong device.
However, that's not a problem at all, you can change the device settings anytime. To change it, right-click on the WMP screen and you will see different options, hover on Tools and it will further display a list of actions. Click on the Options field.
From the options, go to the Devices bar and hit the Speakers option. Lastly, click on the properties to apply the settings.
Here, you can choose the preferred Audio device and check either the video problem is sorted or not.
Download codecs is another great option to solve WMP not working problem.
You can check the status of the codec by right-clicking on the file that isn't working. Click on the Properties and there you can see the Audio codecs and Video Codecs status.
Else you can directly download the codecs from the Player that can be found in the Options field. From there, mark the connection to the internet option and apply the settings.
Also, you can cross-check the Network protocol settings. Mark all the tabs if there is someone unmarked because if you are playing the video over the network then your WMP requires all protocols.
Your outdated windows can significantly impact on your operating system's performance because sometimes window update contains some major packages and that can impact on Windows Media Player as well.
Try updating your windows to its latest version and then try playing that video file.
Well, Windows media player is not only the player used to play videos. You can find hundreds of media players on the internet. So, if your windows media player is glitching or unable to play video, you can use any other media player to play the video. All you have to do is, find a good media player (VLC), download and install the setup on your operating system. After that, you can enjoy playing that video. Another great news is all the latest media players supports all the file formats so your video will not create a problem on other media player.
There may be some kind of serious issue with your windows media player or something else. However, whatever the reason is, you can try another media player like VLC as an alternative that is capable to play every kind of video file.
Here are a few basic things to keep in mind to avoid corruption in MP4 files and Windows Media Player errors in the future.
In this article, we have discussed various symptoms and issues that users experience when windows media player not playing video and also discussed the best possible technique and software to get rid of this situation. Repeating the same, I highly recommend Recoverit Video Repair Tool that can fix video files within minutes. Besides a recovery tool, we also discussed some general methods that can be implemented when you see WMP cannot play the file error on the screen. All methods except Recoverit recovery tool, may or may not work depending on the nature of the issue but Recoverit recovery tool work in every case.
I hope you liked the article. Let us know with your suggestions leaving a comment in the feedback box.
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Eleanor Reed
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