Question : Problem: Picasa does no longer recognize AVCHD video files (mts and m2ts)

Picasa2 used to play AVCHD video files (mts and m2ts) beautifully but suddenly it does not recognize them anymore. I get a black icon instead of the first frame nad Picasa crashed when trying to play them.
I did instaled Picasa on a new Windows XP Professional Dell XPS630i.
After the Picasa install and cataloging photos and videos it played the AVCHD files perfectly.
I then installed some more programs and such as Ulead Videostudio 11.5plus and Quicktime which will also play and access video files.
I have no clue as to where to look for any relation between Picasa and any other programs that were installed. Can anyone help as this is a great undocumented Picasa feature which I hate to loose?

PS. Neither Quicktime nor Windows Mediaplayer can play mts or m2ts-files, only Ulead Videostudio 11.5Plus can play and edit these files.
Thanks, Jos.

Answer : Problem: Picasa does no longer recognize AVCHD video files (mts and m2ts)

Codecs are contained inside of special files. A program, every time it detects a certain codec "style" (e.g., Xvid, H.264, Quicktime.mov), it (most of the time) looks to the Windows registry to see what file it should use to decode the video content. The registry will return the location of the files that the program should use to decode, and the program grabs them and attempts to decode it.

Sometimes, different codecs can used to decode the same kind of codec "style". Sometimes it's just a matter of money, other times there are technical differences between the codecs, such as compatibility--sometimes, a codec is made to support certain kinds of programs but doesn't work well with other programs.

I would *guess* that what happened was that whatever codec was being used before got replaced when you installed QT and/or Ulead. Those codecs might not play well with Picasa, and Picasa can't decode the files that use that codec style using the new codec.