WMV File Opens 4 Copies of VLC

[hwfa]

I'm running VLC 0.9.8a on Win XP Pro/SP3.

I have a .wmv file which I received as an e-mail attachment from a completely reliable source (no viruses).

When I play it using VLC it opens 4 (yes, four) separate copies of the program. Each copy plays the video correctly. If I explicitly close 1 copy, the other 3 close immediately. When the video finishes all 4 copies close and only the main VLC "control panel" remains visible.

If I play the same file with Windows Media Player it plays as expected - 1 copy.

I have the same result on two separate computers, both with recently (and separately) downloaded copies of VLC.

What is happening, please?

I'd be happy to upload the file somewhere; it is 884 *K* bytes.

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

Your video has 4 video tracks enabled. VLC plays the four of them.

[hwfa]

Thank you. This leads to some additional questions (I fundamentally don't understand):

1. Are the tracks different? How do I tell? If they are the same, why play them separately? if they are different, why?
2. Is there some way to persuade VLC to play the file only once?
3. How did the file get created like this? I have other .wmv files which do not make VLC open multiple "copies"/tracks.
4. Is there some way to tell that this file has 4 video tracks? The Properties>Summary only says it has "2 (stereo)" audio channels. For Video it says
- Data rate: 64kbps
- Video sample size: 24bit
- Stream name: video 2

[VLC_help]

1. All tracks have different data locations, but they can naturally be identical, but usually they aren't.

2.

--program=<integer> Program
Choose the program to select by giving its Service ID. Only use this
option if you want to read a multi-program stream (like DVB streams
for example).

That might work, but I am not sure.

3. It is done on purpose, it is sometimes very useful to have multiple video tracks in one file (like DVD multi angle).

4. Try tool called Mediainfo, it should report info about media files.

[hwfa]

Thank you. You say:

--program=<integer> Program
Choose the program to select by giving its Service ID. Only use this
option if you want to read a multi-program stream (like DVB streams
for example).

Sorry, but what does this mean?

[VLC_help]

Launch VLC from command-line or from .bat file

Code: Select all

vlc --program=1 myvideo.wmv

[hwfa]

Ah. Thanks.