thanks @rharv, that's exactly the issue.

i installed the microsoft windows media player (ugh!) and BiaB now starts fine.

installing the k-lite codec pack didn't solve the issue, though having that codec installed is probably good idea for different streams.


i bought Win7-N just so i wouldn't have windows media player on my computer. ;-) i prefer to use daum potplayer (a fork from kmplayer) and not WMP.

i actually think i ran into this issue on another machine. so when i installed BiaB on this new machine this issue crept up again. my mem is aging.

its working now. thanks all