No MPEG preview or playback in Bridge CS5

Hopefully this can help someone.  I was also missing previews in Bridge CS5 for .m

2ts files.  Strange thing is, I've got previews for some of the files, but not others.  Double-clicking

the file brought up the "Windows cannot find '%ProgramFiles(x86)%Windows Media Player

\wmplayer.exe' error.  But Windows Media Player would play the files directly.  So......

Please back up your system prior to modifying the registry!!!

Open the registry editor by clicking the Windows button in Vista, type regedit.exe.  Make sure you are at the top of the registry tree.  Press Ctrl-F to bring up the search box.  F3 will move to the next returned search result.

Search for your file extension, you should find it in several places in HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT.  We are specifically looking for an entry that has subkeys of shell\open\command and shell\play\command.  The specific value in question is "(Default)".  For my .m2ts_auto_file entry, the (Default) value was "%ProgramFiles(x86)%\Windows Media Player\wmplayer.exe" /Open "%L" .  Exactly the path that Bridge was not able to find.  I changed this in both command Default values (under open and play) to: "C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Media Player\wmplayer.exe" /Open "%L"

Restart the computer.

You may have to re-associate what program opens your files by right-clicking on the file, choose open with (make sure Always Open With check box is checked) and select Windows Media Player (If you have to browse for the Windows Media Player, make sure you browse to Program Files (x86), DO NOT select the media player under C:\Program Files\Windows Media Player\wmplayer.exe if you have a 64 Bit OS!)  The file should play in Windows Media Player.

Open Bridge.

Now double click the icon in Bridge, Media player plays the file.  OK almost there, but I really want previews at a minimum!

Next,

Again Under HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT, find the entry for your extension (I was looking for .m2ts).  Strangely enough, there were no subkeys under this entry.  Now look at an entry that Bridge does play preview for.  In my case, .M2V files would preview in Bridge.  Under the .M2V key were several subkeys for "OpenWithProgIds" and "ShellEx".  What I did next was right click on the .M2V (or what ever file extension previews correctly in Bridge) and export the keys.  Give it a file name and save.  Next we will locate the saved file (will have a .reg extension if visible) and right click, then choose edit.  This should open the .reg file with notepad.  Next we will replace EVERY reference of .M2V with .m2ts (or whatever extensions your are dealing with. there were not many entries, but I still used Edit --> Replace to make sure I got them all).  Save the file.  Now double click the newly saved file, and select "yes" to import values into the registry.  Reboot.

For me, previews are now showing for .m2ts!!!

Now about playing video within Bridge, that may be tougher.......

Hope it helps!

Tom

Man I had really hoped that this last update would fix the mpeg playback problem..........

I wonder if I am still the only one who misses this feature in Bridge?  I spent a couple hours on the phone with Adobe Tech support with no positive results.

Today, Apple issued a Quicktime update, I got all excited, installed it (maybe the missing 64bit CODEC was an early holiday present), but no playback of HDV files in Quicktime or Bridge on the Win7 machine! 

Am I alone?  I have a break in editing for a few days so I might uninstall/reinstall Master Suite yet one more time.  And do the same for Quicktime (the only suggestion made by Adobe Tech support.

If I knew Marty McFly I'd have him drive me back to my days in CS4 and stay there.  rg

Thanks, Todd!

I'm subscribed to this thread and will be interested to see how it turns out.

While trying to solve my problem I noticed that Windows Media Player does not have MainConcept (Adobe2) listed as one of the installed video codecs.  That always was included in CS3 and 4 wan't it?  I see it as an encoding option using AME but not on the list for Win Media Player in either my Win7 laptop or Vista64bit edit station.

I have to think that the disconnect between Win Media Player and CS5 Bridge is where my problem lies.  How can WE patch it????

rg

Well, I have totally clean system now after 18 hours of cleansing.  Problem is I'm back to square one with the "no MPEG previewing in either Bridge or even Windows Media Player.  Premiere seems back to normal, all video (HDV) displayed while logging.

Can anyone from Adobe HQ offer any help on getting HDV footage, captured using Premiere to play in Bridge??????  Please??

Come on, this is amazing to have to put up with after my annual $1,000 pledge to the Adobe Mother Church.  I am such an advocate of the product line but this is like driving the Indy 500 with a front wheel locked up.

(also posted in Premiere Forum.)

Thanks to Adobe in advance.  rg

I found this thread at Major Geeks that may be helpful http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=148496

The problem I was having was with .m2ts files which is a Sony AVCHD wrapper for HD mpeg files. I would double click on the thumbnail in Bridge and get the same error message you reported. If I go into Bridge preferences and point to the Windows Media Player in it's default location, I get the same error. But, if I point to the copy of media player that I moved to a new location, a media player window pops up and plays the file. I have no clue as to why this worked for me, but it did. Navigate to C:\Users\Your user name\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Bridge CS5 and find a file named Adobe Bridge Opener Preferences.xml. Open it in Notepad and look for a line that looks something like this:

<item description="$$

$/Bridge/OpenersXML/Description/MPEGMedia=MPEG Media" extensions="mpeg mpg m2ts" app_name="OS" app_path="D:\Windows Media Player\wmplayer.exe">. (They're in alphabetical order by description.) The app_path here is the location where I placed an exact copy of the Windows Media Player folder that is located in C:\Program Files (x86). The m2ts, I added myself.

As far as the CODEC Pack goes, I assume that there's no entry in Control Panel->Programs and Features (Win7) or Add/Remove Programs on earlier releases. If that's the case, you'll need to restore from a backup that's as close as possible to right before you installed the pack. Make sure you backup any files that you want to keep that you've produced or saved since then. If no backup is available, you may need to reinstall the system and CS5.

The way I read that error message, Bridge, for some reason, couldn't find Windows Media Player in it's default location. I copied the whole wmp folder and pasted it on my D: (Storage) drive. I went into Bridge preferences and pointed to this copy of the player. After a reboot, everything is as it should be. That CODEC Pack was not necessary. I agree with the previous post that advises avoiding adding any CODEC Packs if you don't absolutely have to. Before I hit on this solution, I also cleared the cache and reset Bridge preferences to default (hold down ctrl + alt while starting Bridge.) I realize that it's been a while since anyone posted to this thread, but I thought that my experience may be of use to someone experiencing this problem.

Well, tlt, I have purged many times, both from within Bridge and externally.  I also did do a "clean install of CS 5 to a machine with a "clean install" to Windows 7 64 bit.  That's what frosts me: everything else is working amazingly well.  Only this one glitch.

In my main workstation (Vista 64 bit), I did a "clean install" to CS 5 and go the same, "no mpeg preview" results until I did that ffdshow codec install which I hated to do.  Any now it does seem as mentioned above that my Premiere playback has suffered a bit.

Doing a total "clean install/format the C: drive" is not an option.  Don't have the 2-3 days that that would take to get back up to speed.

Going to take a look at that file acciation list thing above and make sure all those various file types point to same player.  Will let you all know.

Rick