MP4 Video Playback in PSE8 & Windows 7

[cncb]

I have several MP4 videos that play back natively in Windows 7 RC (can play them fine in Windows Media Player without having to download any codecs). However, to play them and generate thumbnails in PSE8 it is trying to force me to download Quicktime which I have no interest in doing. Is there any way to force PSE8 to use the "native" playback capabilities?

[cncb]

Well, I downloaded Quicktime and while I can now play my MP4 (720P) videos inside PSE8, the playback is horrible (stuttering and white specs in the video). When I play the same videos in Windows Media Player they are perfectly smooth with perfect colors.

I tried the official Adobe PSE forum but got no help. They didn't really hardcode the requirement for Quicktime for these codecs did they? Does anyone have any ideas?

[johnrellis]

A number of people have complained about this with PSE 7, and I've observed it in PSE 8 on Windows 7 too. I haven't seen any solutions posted.