Video quality in Vista!

Hi fellow Vista users! I wanted to see if anyone else is having the following weird video problem in Vista:

When i am viewing videos in Vista, be it an actual movie or clips filmed with my digital camera - basically any file format, then the only player that shows them clearly(the way they should be) is WMP.
When i am using either VLC player, or media player classic(you know the one that comes bundled with Real Alternative and Kazaa Codec Packs), then the picture looks a bit grainy. It looks exactly like watching clips on Google Videos. Those familiar with Google Videos should know the quality i am talking about, and those who aren't can go and check it out here:
http://video.google.com/

Now, it wouldn't be such a problem and i could keep watching my movies with WMP, but the thing is that the video quality on my USB TV Tuner is exactly the same - weirdly grainy, like Google Videos.

I am dual-booting with XP, and all my movies, no matter what player i am using, look good, and so is the video quality of my TV card.
If anyone else is having the same problem, or if you have any ideas what could be causing this, please let me know.

BTW, my computer is HP dv6000z with GeForce Go 6150 graphics. Just thought it could be relevant.

Thanks guys!

 

i don't have a geforce, but did you try to:
1. update the video drivers (nvidia doesn't have a fully stable driver for vista yet)
2. play with the video configuration panel and see if you can see some changes

 

Yes, i've tried the drivers and some of the video settings i could find, but somehow i don't think it's graphics card related, because all videos play the way they should in Windows Media Player.
I thought that maybe it's the codecs, so i downloaded VLC player, which comes with it's own codecs, but the same thing.
And when i finally got my TV Tuner working in Vista, i saw that even the TV picture is the same way, so it can't be the codecs either.

 

What about Vista users here who are using players other than WMP to watch their media; is your video quality okay?

 

Could be that post-processing/hardware processing is enabled in WMP and not the other apps.

Just for future reference, I recommend you not use MPC or any codec packs. VLC plays it all anyway, there's no reason to install codecs. They just lead to trouble more often than not.

 

Thanks techguy! But is there a way to enable the post-processing/hardware processing in other apps as well? I am not that much worried about being forced to watch my media in WMP, but not having being able to view TV on my laptop in Vista is something i am worried about.
Oh well, i guess as long as i have that TV card, i will have to do my TV watching in XP. Thank you, Vista.

And i think you are right about codec packs. I'm gonna uninstall my kazaa codec pack standard, and just use VLC. But what happens if i come across a file that Windows Media Player has no codec for? Sure i could use VLC to play that file, but then i'd be back to my problem again - bad video quality.

 

Am i really the only one having that problem with Vista?

 

Probably this is way too far fetched but...
...could it be an issue with the DRM?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6286245.stm

Maybe WMP is able to recognize your home videos as DRM-free, but for some reason the other players are not.

Just a wild guess.

 

This is along the lines that i'm thinking as well.

 

are your other players attempting to play the video in overlay mode?

 

eeee.....i'm not sure. I don't think the software i am using to watch TV programming even has that. Have to check the options of my other players.

 

It's got nothing to do with DDR. If it plays in WMP, DDR will not stop it from playing in other applications or play it in lesser quality. What DDR can do is stop media from being played through WMP as DDR is in WMP. Check the video quality in all your other applications. Make sure it isn't set to the lowest quality, for whatever the reason.