Windows 7 vs Windows XP video

[loukingjr]

I have both Windows 7 and Windows XP installed as guests running on VirtualBox 3.1.2 on Snow Leopard 10.6.2. I just noticed that while XP plays videos just fine, from disk, from shared folders, online, the Windows 7 install will only play videos online. If I try and play them in VLC, it will play just the audio portion. If I try to use Windows Media Player, it crashes the entire guest. both Windows versions are 32 bit guests.

any ideas?

[stefan.becker]

Why not playing Videos on the Host?

[constant]

.
The VirtualBox video card is inadequate for Windows 7 to do this type of thing. Also a W7 VM cannot get a performance rating.
.

[lshurr]

Why not playing Videos on the Host?

Well, we just can't help ourselves, can we? Of course there's little reason to view videos or play sound files in a guest when we can do it on the host, but we try it any. I've done it, too. I found a workaround for AC'97 sound playing too slow or fast in Linux guests (the workaround is built into the driver, all you have to do is use it; see some of my other posts or ticket #4605). Since the problem affects all sounds, not just multimedia stuff, it has utility even if you don't play videos and music files in a guest, but I looked for a solution for just that reason, just to see if I could get it to work -- and it does!

There may be a problem that needs fixing in VB's emulated video card, in fact I think it's likely, in order to get video playback working like it should in a Windows 7 guest, but the reason you can't get a performance rating, at least with 3D enabled, is because the 3D code's not really done yet. That doesn't mean that video playback won't work.