FS2004 clouds video fails

[brynjames 0]

Has anyone else tried downloading the higher definition file clouds_highband.wmv from the MS FS2004 site. It features a 5 minute lecture on the new techniques used to make the clouds in FS2004. Unfortunately, after a 35MB 2 hour download (no ADSL here), I find it only plays as sound, so I can't see the wonderful video effects being described by the speaker. I have tried on Win98 and WinXP machines. Anyone else had any success, or any thoughts on what might be going wrong?

[Guest Max Cowgill]

If you're only getting sound and no video, chances are you need to update your media player or d/l a new codec. What media player are you using and does the site specify a media player to use? Chances are since it's directly off of MS's website they'd use their own Windows media player as opposed to a competitor's player. Try d/ling Windows media player 9 (if you haven't already) and see if that takes care of the problem for you. If you've already got the latest version of Windows media player, and you have other media players installed (quicktime, real player), you may want to check the file associations to see which player is set up to play which files by default and make sure the player you're using to play this file will play said file.hope this helps,Max Cowgill

[brynjames 0]

Thanks for the comments Max. I have tried various players, including the MS player, latest version. In all cases I get sound only. Other MS .wmv videos on my disk play ok, so maybe they actually forgot to include the video data in the file.I'm surprised no one has written to say it looked ok on their system yet. I thought everyone was so hyped up about 2004 that they would download every file MS made available.

[kerosene31 349]

I just watched that video now. The clouds are very impressive, I just hope they don't hurt performance.

[brynjames 0]

Thanks Craig. Which player did you use, and which operating system? Did you download the file to play off-line, or did you watch it on-line as a streaming video? And finally, was it the high definition version you watched?Sorry for all the questions, but I would like to get to the bottom of this problem.

[kerosene31 349]

I use: (work system)Win2k with latest service pack, patches, etcWindows Media player 9I have a bunch of codecs and also the divx plugin from http://www.divx.com/ I have no idea if that is needed or not. Good luck, the video is worth the hassle :) I just played it off the internet. My lan connection at work was fast enough to stream it.

[brynjames 0]

>I just played it>off the internet. My lan connection at work was fast enough>to stream it. Ok, so the downloadable version which I have may be different. Oh well, I'll know what the clouds look like in 3 months :)

[Guest White Hawk]

The high res version is working for me, don't know why it's not showing a picture for you, I just DLed it about 2 days ago and it worked fine.

[Guest jordan]

Strangely, I had the same problem. I have most the new codecs, and even produce .wmv's myself quite often. I was also able to view all other videos they produced. Maybe its some small difference. Hmmmm..

[Guest White Hawk]

Any chance it might be a corrupt download?

[Guest cwright]

Max, I also had sound but no picture. But after installing Version 9 it worked fine. Best regards, Chris