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[Above 720 quality] Videos [Won't Play Properly]

Anonymous
2021-06-24T13:47:40+00:00

Hello. So my Windows 7 computer has problems playing videos that are higher that 720 quality. The screen resolution won't go higher than 1280 x 800. Is this what is causing the higher quality videos to not play properly?? If so, how do I set a custom screen resolution (so I can set it to higher than the maximum)? I've tried many things that I've read about. But nothing seems to work.

And if the problem's root doesn't lie with the screen resolution, then what else could be causing the problem?

Thank You in Advance.

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Music, photos, and video

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  1. Les Ferch 10,326 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2021-07-09T20:48:40+00:00

    You didn't say what video you're trying to play, but if it's a highly compressed movie, from a site name I can't mention here, then it may be encoded using X265. That's going to require your computer to do a LOT of work to decode it fast enough to play without issues. Even movies in H264 encoding can be problematic on a machine as old as yours, but you'll likely have better success with the H264 encodings vs X265.

    Please be aware that Windows 7 has a serious security vulnerability that cannot be patched unless you are a corporate customer with an extended service contract.

    I recommend that you upgrade to Windows 10 32 bit. Do a CLEAN install using a USB flash drive. Create the bootable drive using the Media Creation Tool.

    https://www.microsoft.com/en-ca/software-download/windows10

    Then install VLC (https://www.videolan.org/) to play any downloaded videos. That should give you the best results possible with your hardware.

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  1. LemP 74,930 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2021-06-26T18:32:39+00:00

    You have a pretty low-end graphics adapter with a very old driver.  Although its possible that an updated driver might enable higher resolution, I doubt it.

    To answer your initial question, a video recorded in 720p (so-called standard HD) has a resolution of 1280x720.  The next-highest resolution videos are 1080i (not used so much anymore) and 1080p.  A 1080p video has a resolution of 1920x1080.

    As you've seen, your video card, at least with its current driver does not support 1920x1080.  And if the highest resolution it currently is capable of is 1280 x 800, you're stuck with 720p videos.

    If the Intel scanner says that no newer drivers are available, that is probably the end of the story.  However, you should not look for laptop drivers on sites like Intel.  You should, instead go to the support site of your laptop's manufacturer, where you will have to enter your laptop's serial number or (if a Dell) its Dell Service Tag.  There you will see if a newer driver is available.  If one is, read the release notes to see what features, if any, were added.  Again, I doubt that the resolution will increase, but if a newer driver is available, you might download and install it.

    With a laptop like yours, the best way to get better video performance is, unfortunately, to buy a newer computer.  If you don't want or can't afford to do that, there are external video adapters that supposedly will provide higher than 720p capability.  I can't vouch for any of these; I've never used one.  See https://www.amazon.com/s?k=usb+external+video+adapter

    Most of these require a USB 3.0 port.  You can check to see if your laptop has these (they will have a blue plastic insert rather than a black plastic insert).  If you only have USB 2, these devices should work, although USB 2 is about 10x slower than USB 3, which may have some effect on the video quality.

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  2. LemP 74,930 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2021-06-26T17:33:09+00:00

    The most likely reason is that you have a problem with your video card ("display adapter).  That could be a hardware problem or a driver problem.

    When you provide the information requested by Canadian Tech, please ALSO provide the make of your computer and its Serial Number or, if you have a Dell, its Dell Service Tag number.  You can find this information on a manufacturer's sticker on the back or side of desktop/tower cases or on the bottom of a laptop.

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  3. Anonymous
    2021-06-26T17:25:39+00:00

    What do you mean by age?

    I've had the computer since late 2017/early 2018.

    Bios version/date (in system information) says 2009.

    Laptop.

    So I click on the arrow next to 'Display adapters'. And something is shown called 'Mobile Intel(R) 45 Express Chipset Family (Microsoft Corporation - WDDM 1.1)'   

    I double click it. Some of the description:

    Device type: Display adapters

    Manufacturer: Intel Corporation

    Location: PCI bus 0, device 2, function 0

    Driver Provider: Intel Corporation

    Driver Date: 5/6/2009

    Driver Version: 8.15.10.1749

    Digital Signer: Microsoft Windows

    I click on update driver.. It's now 'searching online for software' for a while... 'Downloading driver software' now.. 'Installing driver software' now... Now the screen is getting a little **** up... Now the screen is back to normal... It says now that "Windows encountered a problem installing the driver software for your device. Windows found driver software for your device but encountered an error while attempting to install it. Mobile Intel(R) 4 Series Express Chipset Family. This operation returned because the timeout period expired. If you know the manufacturer of your device, you can visit its website and check the support section for driver software."

    But on the Intel site, after scanning my system, it says "No supported driver or software updates are available for your system."

    But now the computer says something's changed, and it asks me to restart the computer. So I did. Now when I press Ctrl + Alt + Right Arrow, it rotates the screen. But now I disabled it.

    Still won't play [higher than 720] videos properly.

    Now I try to put in custom resolution in 'Intel Graphics and Media Control Panel'. I put width: 1920, height: 1080, Refresh rate: 60, Color Depth: 32. And then it says "you have entered an invalid value. Refer to the manufacturer's manual to determine the supported values for this display device."

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  4. @CmdrKeene 90,621 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2021-06-25T00:31:18+00:00

    Typically when you try to play a video that has higher dimensions that your screen, it will still display (although you won't necessarily see any benefit from it).  It could be that your computer's graphics processor and system resources aren't enough to decode and process such high amounts of video information, especially a computer as old as Windows 7 (14 years old, no support, no updates, dangerous to even connect online with such an outdated system).

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