Warning: new Microsoft codec won't uninstall

riredale wrote on 9/13/2002, 10:53 AM

Just a warning to everyone eager to try out the new Microsoft codec--apparently, Microsoft has decided that it will offer no easy way for early adopters to "uninstall" the new beta version of the Windows Media 9 codec if it is installed on an ME or XP system. The only way to get rid of it is to do a "System Restore" to an earlier state. Users of W98 and 2000 can uninstall the usual way, by using the "Add/Remove" control panel applet. Since a beta version of software is often buggy (that's why it's beta software, after all) and since beta versions usually have to be wiped out before installing the official version, this is probably going to make for a few interesting situations over the next few months.

There's more info here:

http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104-957704.html

Comments

mikkie wrote on 9/13/2002, 1:24 PM

Thanks for the warning.

In hopes it helps and all that...
The winmedia 9 codec won't change that much if past practice from M/Soft is any guide; instead they'll likely change the media player in response to feedback. That's where I've run into trouble in the past -- I understand the problem not recognizing Matrox files for encoding was caused by having the last beta installed.

At any rate, the winmedia9 encode/decode codec, to the best of my searching, testing etc., is incorporated into the same file(s) that work with winmedia 7, 8, mpeg & so on. Being an optimist, I would like to believe that would be replaced in total by any future codec related updates, as there's few if any *extra* files left hanging around.

On the other hand, If the codec is added to the existing media player, it appears a isingle file is added specifically for winmedia 9 - Wmv9dmod.dll, along with the related .inf & .cat files.

An alternate route might be to install the sdk, as that also installs the 9 version codecs, and has an uninstall, though I don't know yet if the codecs are rolled back too. Interestingly, the sdk talks about winmedia 9 & winmedia 9 Pro codecs -- I don't know if they're talking about vbr or if there's an actual higher quality codec floating around somewhere.

As trivia I guess... After massive problems resulting from the XP Sp1 & ie6 Sp1, I haven't had much opportunity to do further analysis, but what I have seen with winmedia 9 does seem encouraging. If nothing else, problems with background crawl seem to be greatly reduced or even absent in comparison with winmedia 8 at 1 - 1.5 bitrates. Using their encoder, the deinterlace option seems much better, & cropping is easier. On the downside, ATI capture shows a negative image (might be cured by newest drivers, if they work with VV3), and encoding is a bit slower. File sizes compared to winmedia 8 seems about the same.

thanks

salad wrote on 9/13/2002, 3:25 PM

Thanks for the info & link.
I uninstalled WinMedPlayer 9 Beta from my Win98 machine a few days ago, but ended up putting it right back on. I have it installed on the XP machine as well.
I really like it, and it seems to be working perfectly.
Irfanview's MultimediaPlayer (which requires WMP to be installed) is also working perfectly.
If it is giving anyone prob's on XP, I suppose you can go into the WMP program folder and create a shortcut for "mplayer2.exe" on you desktop. This opens the default 6.4 version of wmp.
I'm sure someone will come up with a hack to remove it. For me, it's a keeper!

I thought maybe it might be causing probs with that demo MC encoder, but a tip from the MC forum to rename the "iAVI.dll".......fixed my problem of not being able to open certain DV files. Now it opens and encodes everything.