Microsoft KB Archive/259947

= BUG: Media Player Doesn't Recognize That Video Hardware Is Available =

Article ID: 259947

Article Last Modified on 2/11/2004

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APPLIES TO


 * Microsoft Windows Media Player 6.0
 * Microsoft Windows Media Player 6.1
 * Microsoft Windows Media Player 6.2
 * Microsoft Windows Media Player 6.4

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This article was previously published under Q259947



SYMPTOMS
When you play a movie in Windows Media Player, Media Player may not use the video card's hardware overlay.



CAUSE
Hardware overlay switching is very dynamic; in this situation, Media Player doesn't switch back to hardware overlay mode. Instead, it uses software rendering techniques to play the movie.



RESOLUTION
To resolve this problem, do one of the following:
 * Stop the movie and then start it again.
 * While the movie is playing, from the Tools menu, click Options, and then click the Playback tab. Click the Hardware acceleration slider, slide it to the left, and then slide it all the way to the right. Click OK to close the dialog box. Media Player will switch back and start using hardware overlay.



STATUS
Microsoft has confirmed that this is a bug in the Microsoft products that are listed at the beginning of this article.



MORE INFORMATION
You can see this behavior by running the Zoomin.exe file from Visual Studio Tools. When the hardware overlay is used by Media Player, Zoomin displays a black background in its window. When software rendering is used, Zoomin shows a portion of the movie in its window, which means that Media Player is using software rendering instead of hardware overlay.

Steps to Reproduce the Problem

 * 1) Open and play any valid movie file in Windows Media Player.
 * 2) Open the DOS command window.
 * 3) Switch the command window to full-screen mode by pressing ALT+ENTER.
 * 4) Exit the command window by typing exit at the prompt.

Media Player continues playing the movie but no longer uses the hardware overlay.

Additional query words: Windows Media Player, Overlay.

Keywords: kbbug kbmm kbdswmm2003swept KB259947

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