My HDV files stopped playing in Windows 10

[BJB]

Greetings.  I have numerous HDV files which were captured from my HV20 camcorder tapes using Premiere Pro.  They have an .MPEG extension.  These are the raw captures, no transcoding.  They play fine on my streamer and USED to play on Windows 10.  I am not sure if it was a windows update or what but now they will not play on my PC.  I really suspect a windows update as I have not done anything else on my PC since the last time I know those files played.

I have searched around and cannot figure out a solution that will allow them to play on just the regular windows media player  or the fancy new windows 10 video/tv player or whatever it is called.  I know the player works as it will play my older AVi files and my newer 4K files.

I even have Premiere Pro CC installed and of course I can ingest the HDV video and it plays fine there. 

Any suggestions?  I know it is an older format but I was hopeful that these files could be played in the future by windows without having to transcode them to H.264 for something.

Thanks,
BJB

[VideoGeek]

What video player/players (other than Windows Media Player) have you used to watch the videos?  Have you tried VLC media player?

[BJB]

I am going to install and try that this week.  I was hopefully it was an easy fix within windows to keep that player working.  I am fairly certain a windows update changing somehting or installed something that caused it to stop recognizing them.

I'll report back after trying.  I got side-tracked with my current video!

Thanks,

BJB