Divx Video appears upside-down or mirrored

Question

My video appears upside-down or mirrored, what causes this and what can I do to fix it?

Answer

What causes this problem?

Windows platform media players typically use a system known as DirectShow to decode video files. As part of this system special filters can be installed, in order to handle additional video formats or add effects during decoding, for example. Unfortunately some filters can have undesired effects, such as inverting the video or commandeering DivX decoding from the genuine DivX decoder.

Upside down or mirrored video is commonly caused by these filters:

Bicubic resize filter

Filename: bicubic_resizer.ax

Installed as part of many codec packs, this filter is perhaps most responsible for inverted video.

G400 filter

Filename: divxg400.ax

Also installed as part of many codec packs, this filter can also invert the video.

XviD filter

Filename: xvid.ax

Again, installed as part of many codec packs, the XviD filter can decode DivX video as inverted.

How can I correct this problem?

To correct this problem, you can either uninstall these codecs using the setup program of the codec packs you have installed (if they allow this), or you can manually unregister the offending filters.

To determine which filters are affecting your system, please see this article.

To manually unregister the filters perform these steps:

Choose Run from the Start menu and enter:

command

then click OK

In the command window that opens enter:

cd \windows\system32

and press enter.

For each file you wish to unregister enter:

regsvr32 /u <filename>

For example, to unregister the Bicubic Resize filter enter:

regsvr32 /u bicubic_resizer.ax