You open a video and the sound starts - voices, music, everything normal - but the picture stays black. Sometimes you get a frozen first frame, sometimes a spinning wheel, sometimes just an empty window. The good news first: the file is almost certainly fine. The sound playing proves your player opened it and is reading it.
What's going on is that a video file carries the picture and the sound as two separate streams, each compressed in its own format. Your player found a decoder for the sound but not for the picture, so it plays what it can and shows nothing for the rest - usually without any error message. (If the difference between a file type and the formats inside it is new to you, Codecs vs containers explains it in a few minutes.) The fix is either to give your player the missing decoder or to convert the picture into a format it already understands. Which one depends on what's inside the file, and finding that out takes about a minute.
#The one-minute test
- Open the file in VLC. It's free for Windows, Mac, Linux, iPhone and Android, and it carries its own decoders for nearly every format, so it doesn't depend on what your device has installed.
- If VLC shows the picture, the file is healthy and your usual player is missing a decoder. The next step tells you which one.
- If VLC is black too, the problem is in the file itself. Skip to When the file itself is the problem.
Next, find out what the picture is compressed with. In VLC, open Tools → Codec Information (on a Mac, Window → Media Information) and look at the stream marked Video. The free MediaInfo app shows the same thing under "Video". Or drop the file onto Wave: the inspect screen lists the video and audio formats before anything is converted, and nothing is uploaded.
The four picture formats behind almost every black screen
| Video format says | Usually comes from | Black picture on | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| HEVC · H.265 · hvc1 | iPhones since 2017, most recent Android phones, GoPros, drones | Windows 10 and 11 without the HEVC extension, Firefox, older phones and TVs | HEVC extension, VLC, or convert to H.264 |
| AV1 · av01 | Web video, newer screen recorders | Older PCs, phones and TVs; Windows without the AV1 extension | Free AV1 extension, or convert to H.264 |
| MPEG-4 Visual · XVID · DIVX | DivX-era downloads, 2000s cameras and phones | Chrome, Safari, iPhones, Android | Convert to H.264 |
| ProRes · apcn · apch | iPhone Pro ProRes mode, Final Cut and Premiere exports | Windows players, web browsers, most phones | Convert to H.264 |
#1. HEVC video (usually from an iPhone)
This is the most common cause by far. Since 2017, iPhones have recorded in HEVC (also called H.265) by default - it's what the camera's "High Efficiency" setting means - and most recent Android phones, GoPros and drones use it too. HEVC makes files about 40% smaller than the older H.264 at the same quality, but it's tied up in patent licensing, and Windows doesn't include a decoder for it. Not Windows 10, and not a fresh copy of Windows 11 either. Many laptops come with one preinstalled by the manufacturer, which is why the same video plays on one PC and not another.
Without that decoder, Windows' Media Player and Movies & TV either play the sound over a black window or stop with error 0xc00d5212. Your options:
- Install HEVC Video Extensions from the Microsoft Store. It's a one-time $0.99 from Microsoft, and it fixes HEVC across Windows, including File Explorer thumbnails and iPhone .heic photos. HEVC Video Extensions: is it worth it? helps you decide.
- Use VLC, which brings its own HEVC decoder and needs no extension.
- Convert the video to H.264 if you're sending it to other people, so nobody has to install anything. Wave does this in your browser: drop the file and turn on Make it play everywhere. HandBrake (free) does the same on a desktop with its "Fast 1080p30" preset, and is quicker for long videos.
- Stop it happening again: on the iPhone, Settings → Camera → Formats → Most Compatible records in H.264 instead. Files are bigger, and a few modes (4K at 60 frames per second, 240 fps slow motion) need High Efficiency.
#2. AV1 video
AV1 is the newest widely used video format, released in 2018 by a group that includes Google, Netflix, Amazon and Microsoft. It compresses even better than HEVC and is royalty-free, which is why YouTube streams much of its video in AV1 and why recent screen recorders can save it - OBS on newer NVIDIA, AMD and Intel graphics cards, for example. Older computers, phones and TVs can't decode it, and on Windows the built-in apps need Microsoft's AV1 Video Extension.
- On Windows, install the AV1 Video Extension from the Microsoft Store. Unlike the HEVC one, it's free.
- On a TV, an older phone, or anything you can't add a decoder to, convert the video to H.264 - in Wave, turn on Make it play everywhere, which handles AV1 the same way as HEVC, or use HandBrake.
#3. Old DivX and Xvid video
If the file comes from the 2000s - a DivX or Xvid download, an old digital camera, a phone from before smartphones took over - the picture is probably compressed with MPEG-4 Part 2. VLC and most desktop players still decode it, but Chrome, Safari, iPhones and Android's built-in player don't, so you get sound and nothing else. There's no extension to install for this one; the picture has to be converted. Wave does it automatically: DivX to MP4, AVI to MP4 and 3GP to MP4 re-encode the video to H.264 in your browser. MPEG-4 vs MP4 explains why this format still causes so much confusion.
#4. ProRes video
ProRes is Apple's editing format: very high quality and enormous. Apple puts a minute of 4K ProRes from an iPhone at about 6 GB. iPhone Pro models from the 13 Pro onward can record it (Settings → Camera → Formats → Apple ProRes), and Final Cut Pro and Premiere Pro often export it. Windows players, web browsers and most phones can't decode it. ProRes to MP4 re-encodes it to H.264, which usually shrinks the file by ten times or more as well.
#5. The player, not the file
If the black picture only happens in your web browser - online videos, or files you open in Chrome or Edge - the culprit is often the way the browser uses your graphics card. Turn off "Use graphics acceleration when available" (Chrome: Settings → System; Edge: Settings → System and performance), restart the browser and try again. Updating your graphics driver fixes the same problem more permanently. If the video plays fine in VLC and other apps, this is the likely explanation.
#When the file itself is the problem
If VLC shows a black picture too, the video stream really is damaged, missing or locked:
- The copy or download didn't finish. Compare the file size with the original and copy it again.
- The recording was cut off. A camera, phone or dashcam that lost power mid-recording can leave an MP4 without the index that tells players where the frames are. The open-source tool untrunc can often rebuild it using a healthy clip from the same device.
- It's protected. Downloads from Netflix, Disney+ and other streaming apps only play inside those apps, and screen recordings of streaming services usually come out black on purpose: the service blocks capture of protected video.
- There's no video at all. An audio file renamed to .mp4 plays sound and nothing else. Wave's inspect screen tells you if a file has no video stream.
#The short version
- Sound but no picture means your player can't decode the picture format. The file is almost always fine.
- Test in VLC, then check the video format in Codec Information.
- HEVC: the $0.99 HEVC Video Extensions, VLC, or convert to H.264. AV1: the free AV1 Video Extension, or convert.
- DivX, Xvid and ProRes: convert to H.264 - Wave does that in your browser without uploading the file.
- Black in VLC too: an incomplete copy, a cut-off recording, copy protection, or no video stream at all.