Windows 7 x64 - Encode h.264 results in jerky video in WMP 12

Question

Windows 7 x64 - Encode h.264 results in jerky video in Windows Media Player (WMP) 12
System: Windows 7 Ultimate x64 EN, Adobe Master Collection CS 4 Win En
Please download the sample file here:
http://www.tsxn.com/storage/transfer/Serenity.zip
Source:
  H.264 HDTV Testvideos
  Profile: 1280x720 fps 30, square pixel, progressive
Destination:
  For Testing purpose, just converting the original within Adobe Media Encoder.
  Profile: same as Source
1) The original source files play fine using any player, so the hardware of my test systems (3 computers) is ok
2) When exporting the Video to H.264 the resulting video is jerky in Windows Media Player and Quicktime
3) When converting the jerky result video again, but now into WMV, it plays fine
The problem can be reproduced on all 3 machines.
It seems to me that Windows Media Player and Quicktime enforce their own h.264 decoder which has problems playing Premiere Exports.
These Players seem to play the file properly:
- VLC Media Player
- Media Player Classic Home Cinema
- Adobe media player
So how can one be sure that the Premiere h.264 exports are just fine and the only problem is on decoder side? However, I feel very uncomfortable not being able to play the h.264 files within Windows Media Player 12, which has uses the built-ind Windows 7 h.264 decoder.
Any help is highly appreciated!
Thank you
Chris

Answer 1

Hello Harm,
let me add my comment of another discussion:
My concerns are about a)distribution and general b)compatibility.
a) When videos are distributed most of the users will probably try to open the files with Windows Media Player. So it is not a good start to have fresh exported h.264 videos which won't run fine with the 'main' player on windows
b) I am wondering if the Problems with Windows Media Player may also be a sign of a general compatibility issue of the h.264 video itself
At least in case b) Adobe would have to look into this.
And in general there maybe a bug in the MS h.264 decoder.
Thank you
Chris