Deskscapes 8 MPEG2

Which dream did you try to use.  There many be some dreams encoded in non standard formats that will also not play.

Testing here shows the Windows 8 Media Centre Pack installs the codecs for MPEG2 and with them in place any MPEG2 videos play fine without that message.

First off i assume your preview doesn't work either. I had the same issue on my win8 x64 pro + MC machine as well. Get yourself Shark007 32/64 bit tools. Here's what i did. I went to the mpeg/dvd tab and told it to use powerdvd12and or ffdshow for dvd/mpeg playback. Logoff you don't have reboot entirely. You should notice the preview is working and should run. Its not the best solution i have found as every once in a while it pauses. I have to click pause and resume then it starts working again. Or if i have a window open i can also do fullscreen back to window to get the same effect of it working again. If i don't force the powerdvd12 codec it says it cant find the codec for me as well wich is bs. I even found the file in system32! I know its there. Anyway hope this some what helps until the next revision.

Thanks for the suggestion. I THOUGHT of trying Shark but didn't. I will try it as soon as I get a chance. Oddly, my all my previews DO show up in motion on the Deskscapes8 configuration. They jut will not load. I will try this tho. Will report back. Thanks.

UPDATE:

I spent some more time on the matter to try to get this working better for myself. I reset everything back to defaults. Logged off which of course borked it like a fresh install did for me. Tried a few things and I'm pretty sure i got it working 100% now with only one setting!

First off you need to go to http://shark007.net/ and get windows 8 codec pack (32 bit) as the 64 bit version is required it says to work. You don't actually have to make any changes there as stardock was awesome and indeed made the programs used 64 bit. So we use the 64 bit version of the program to satisfy all of our deskscape needs. Run the 64 bit version as admin. Click on the SWAP tab and change the *MPEG2 codec in directshow players* to the *Use FFDshow's codec*. Click exit - hit the windows key or goto the start menu and right click your user and sign out. Log back in and use all of your mpeg2 deskscapes like before. Enjoy  

which version do you have?  i see no such option in 1.4.2

My problems expands past that, as I tried what you (SteveFox1620) recommended in the "updated" thread and  and still didn't make a difference.

@Neil Banfield I just noticed your post. (I'm on Win8 64 BTW)

 I have tried and deleted LOTS and MOST of my dream collection due to this, but some of the ones I stilll have that give me the error are these:

Snowy Day by Carguy1

Clownin' Around by Carguy1

Rough Seas by CarGuy1

Corbiere Light House 4 by Nicholas Kenny

Red Sea by Master Baron

Red Giant by Master Baron

Winter Paradise by Amitsaran

Could you download graphedit from here : http://www.videohelp.com/tools/GraphEdit

Then navigate to c:\programdata\stardock\deskscapes\extracteddata and then info the folder of one of those ones which does not play and find the video file.  Then run graphedit and drag the file into it.  Take a screenshot of the results.

Then run graphedit64 and do the same.

Then post both screenshots here.

Here's the results. I highlighted the obvious. Is this the problem? How do I fix this? Thanks!

Neil, I believe the problem with mine involves the frame height or aspect ratio of the mpeg. At the time those were created, The MasterBaron and I were encoding these for 16x10 aspect ratio monitors. To do that with TMPGEnc4.0 Express, we had to encode at an odd resolution, 1792x1120.

While the prior versions of Windows played these fine, Windows 8 seems to have an issue with them. For the record, these are working fine on Windows 7 with DeskScapes 8.

Since I'm going to want to run some of mine on Windows 8, it looks like a few of them will be getting an update.

LAV splitter worked but caused some issues. only ddshow is being used while running the mpeg when working correctly. It was enabled and the icon was visable when things didn't work. If you could force ddshow and got rid of LAV it might solve your issue.

Doctorx 3.9.9 i had to use the x64 version since i run win8 x64

I confirmed that the frame size was the issue. Here's a test dream I made for the Snowy Day dream that is 1920x1080.

llennellV3, give it a shot and let me know if it works for you. It works fine for me with Windows 8 and the Media Center codecs.

@ CarGuy Ha! Awesome. This one worked...and is truly my most favorite (with my former set up) dream. 1.Snowy Day by Carguy1 2. Sea Fish by Amitsaran. 3.Nocturne by Amitsaran. My top 3. Thanks for that. I wonder if this is the problem with the others.

If they were mine...it probably was. Let me know which ones they were and I'll see what I can do to re-encode them. Although as many as there are in my Gallery, I doubt I get to them all.

Ok how about monument valley and starburst?....Please?

I was having the mpeg 2 error problem even with Windows 7. The converted snowy day dream works for me but the Another Earth dream II will not work. Can you convert that one too CarGuy1?

Its April 2015 and the problem still exists. Why does Stardocks staff not fix things like this? Any new user will experience this problems.

When it is due to a failing of the OS to include suitable codecs the solution is to locate any appropriate ones and install them yourself.  Many Codecs are proprietary and attract a commercial licence for their use commercially, but not individually/personally...;)

There are significant licensing costs to include MPEG 2 decoders with a product.  Therefore if you wish to use a MPEG2 video you can either use Windows 7 which included such a decoder, or pay for decoders from a 3rd party supplier.

Deskscapes will play any video type as long as there is a decoder installed.

If you are running Windows 8.....you got what you deserve.

Ouch Wiz...now play nice.

Quoting llennellV3, reply 8

Here's the results. I highlighted the obvious. Is this the problem? How do I fix this? Thanks!

 

Reduced 60%

Original 996 x 330

End of llennellV3's quote

Not sure how/if this applies to Dreams, but I have the solution for when playing mp4 files in DirectShow plugin in Winamp - this concerns the LAV filters and I presume Deskscapes uses the exact same codecs.

The LAV Splitter in itself is not the problem - the LAV Filters are excellent - but for some reason that MS DTV-DVD Video/Audio Decoder likes to take priority.  Since LAV decodes mpegs just fine, you can (in my experience) safely disable the DTV-DVD Decoders.  There are programs that purport to do this, though I've never had any luck with them.  Best way is to rename the DTV-DVD dlls so Windows can't find them - they are:

C:\Windows\SysWOW64\msmpeg2vdec.dll

C:\Windows\SysWOW64\msmpeg2adec.dll