VLC Deprecated – LaunchBox Now Uses Windows Media Player for Video Playback

[AstroBob]

With the release of LaunchBox 13.21, we’ve officially switched our default video playback engine to Windows Media Player (Legacy) and are deprecating VLC.

This change should improve stability and compatibility going forward, but if you’re experiencing black screen issues or missing playback, we’ve put together a detailed support article to help you out:

👉 Read the full article here

Feel free to use this thread for any questions, feedback, or discussion!

[ransuco]

Hello, I tested video playback with the K Lite Codec Pack, and on some videos, the Windows Player crashed, while the videos worked fine with the MPC Player. Why force the Windows Player in Launchbox when the MPC Player works fine?

Sincerely,

Edited May 1 by ransuco

[trueanimus]

you may want to look into adding pot player instead, i have been using it for a while now and it seems far more stable than media player or vlc

 

[andyco47]

dont cus windows media player is not working for me i have to stay on 13.20. i have tryed everything i can thing of and it still not working just get black screen

what is the difference between Windows Media Player (Legacy) and windows media player ??

in my Windows Features window, expand Media Feature only says windows media player and not Windows Media Player (Legacy)

Edited June 7 by andyco47

[Technous285]

As someone running Windows 11 23H2 (on a Ryzen 9 5900X with RX 6900XT) and Feature-Locked the system using Group Policy Editor to prevent Microsoft from shoving updates down my throat that are more likely to gimp my system than to help anything - I have just updated to LaunchBox 13.22 and had to set it to use VLC as I am unable to get Windows Media Player (Legacy) to install due to the various lockdowns I've had to apply to prevent Windows Updates from gimping my system and hogging my limited-bandwidth connection (barely 25/5mbps on a good day. There are literally no better options where I live than Optus 4G "Mobile Broadband" with a bandwidth cap of 25/5mbps in exchange for no data cap in my part of Rural NSW, Australia).

I'd happily finally drop Win11 23H2 to go with my Linux Mint Cinnamon 22 install full-time, if there was a Linux version of LaunchBox (that didn't need bodging with Lutris or Protontricks), as otherwise I'm doing my best to keep my gaming system free of Microsoft's forced junk like CoPilot, which would gimp the performance of my system if I loosened the lockdowns enough to allow for WMP (Legacy) to be installed.

[Reckless_D]

This has also caused me video issues so I've had to roll back to 13.22 for stability. (4:3 big box arcade set-up running crt emudriver) I've thought for a few weeks that my graphics card was on its way out as I didn't notice or twig that VLC was discontinued, and that it was in fact WMP causing all my platform videos to be black for 10 seconds before showing, as well as discolouration on game videos. I tried to fix today with klite codec packs to no avail, then tried the ffmpeg option which was better, but the audio stuttered. So I ended up rolling it back to 13.22 for VLC which is so much better. Please offer users the choice of their own preferred 3rd party video players going forward, otherwise many of us wont be able to update the software versions, or eventually having to look elsewhere for a front end which is unfair when investing long term in the product.

[C-Beats]

15 hours ago, Reckless_D said:

WMP causing all my platform videos to be black for 10 seconds before showing

If you are using Nvidia cards you can go the Nvidia control panel and turn on full range color profile and this will go away. By default Nvidia clamps color values for some reason and it causes the fade in from black on EmuMovie vids to play incorrectly when played via WMP. It'd do that even in stand alone WMP.

[Reckless_D]

Ahh fair enough...thanks for mentioning...definitely worth a try if have an nvidia card. I've just got an older radeon 7000 series card to enable the crt switch res stuff to work. It might well be part of the issue for me tbh as its not the most modern card etc, where-as some builds would have more modern power. Hopefully future updates may include for you to just be able to choose a 3rd party vid player of choice that is best for any particular build, but it might not be that simple I guess, cheers

[Jabb3rJaw]

2 hours ago, C-Beats said:

If you are using Nvidia cards you can go the Nvidia control panel and turn on full range color profile and this will go away. By default Nvidia clamps color values for some reason and it causes the fade in from black on EmuMovie vids to play incorrectly when played via WMP. It'd do that even in stand alone WMP.

I’m not experiencing the black videos but get a lot of crashing to desktop which seems to be affecting a lot of users. I do have an Nvidia card so you think this could help my problem with crashes? Weird that it normally crashes within the hour but if it doesn’t crash within the hour it doesn’t crash at all.