<p>h.264 has different "levels" of compression.  These levels have to be supported by the particular playback engine.  Windows 7 supports up to level 5.1 via it's Media Foundation library, however your video is encoded with level 5.2.  Since Windows 7 does not natively have support for this version of h.264, it is unable to play the video component.</p>

<p>You can either re-encode with a lower level or you can suggest that viewers either install a codec pack to provide support or use a third party viewer that includes built in support.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-10-13T14:43:56.303Z
Thank you @AJ-Henderson. That is exactly the kind of information I was looking for.
Daniel
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-10-13T13:53:32.523Z
2017-10-13T13:53:32.523Z
AJ Henderson
<p>We have multiple reports of our h.264 video playing audio-only in IE11 on Windows 7. The video screen stays black. I can reproduce the problem. </p>

<p><a href="https://duvvvuzcgswqh.cloudfront.net/dpp/3/eat_well_to_prevent_t2_2017-10-09.mp4" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Here is an example video</a> that exhibits the problem. Downloading it and playing it in Windows Media Player also reproduces the problem.</p>

<p>Visiting <a href="https://www.youtube.com/html5" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://www.youtube.com/html5</a> indicates that html5 and h.264 are supported by my Windows 7 test machine, so my thought is that the problem has to do with the particular settings I used to export the video from Premiere Pro (current CC version for Mac).</p>

<p>Has anyone run into this before? Are there known "safe" settings for exporting h.264 from Premiere so that it will play back properly on Windows 7?</p>

<p>Thank you!</p>

<premiere><h.264>
Exporting h.264 from Premiere Pro resulting in black screen on Windows 7
Daniel
# Exporting h.264 from Premiere Pro resulting in black screen on Windows 7

(Asked by: username_0 on 2017-10-13)

We have multiple reports of our h.264 video playing audio-only in IE11 on Windows 7. The video screen stays black. I can reproduce the problem.

[Here is an example video](https://duvvvuzcgswqh.cloudfront.net/dpp/3/eat_well_to_prevent_t2_2017-10-09.mp4) that exhibits the problem. Downloading it and playing it in Windows Media Player also reproduces the problem.

Visiting <https://www.youtube.com/html5> indicates that html5 and h.264 are supported by my Windows 7 test machine, so my thought is that the problem has to do with the particular settings I used to export the video from Premiere Pro (current CC version for Mac).

Has anyone run into this before? Are there known "safe" settings for exporting h.264 from Premiere so that it will play back properly on Windows 7?

Thank you!

**Tags:** premiere, h.264


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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2017-10-13. Score: 1 | Accepted answer

h.264 has different "levels" of compression. These levels have to be supported by the particular playback engine. Windows 7 supports up to level 5.1 via it's Media Foundation library, however your video is encoded with level 5.2. Since Windows 7 does not natively have support for this version of h.264, it is unable to play the video component.

You can either re-encode with a lower level or you can suggest that viewers either install a codec pack to provide support or use a third party viewer that includes built in support.

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: Thank you @AJ-Henderson. That is exactly the kind of information I was looking for.  

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