This is a fresh installation and when I start the game, after the Ubisoft intro, I can hear sound but have a black screen. On ESC I get further to the profile selection just fine.

Any codecs I might be missing?

Try this:
Right-click the game's start shortcut => Properties => Compatibility and check the "Disable display scaling on high DPI settings" checkbox

Thanks for the reply, I read the other thread and the marked solution does not work. The setting was actual checked by default on my installation.

p.s. I also have no other way to complete come out of the game than using the task manager. Other than that it works fine :D
pp.s. actual you have to choose a profile to exit the game, my fault...

Have you tried running the DirectX 9 version of the game, yet? The black screen problem, is probably connected to DirectX 10.
=> Start the game with ..\Assassin's Creed\AssassinsCreed_Dx9.exe

You have to have DirectX 9 installed on your system:
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=8109

Alternatively try disabling scaling on high DPI settings for ..\Assassin's Creed\AssassinsCreed_Dx10.exe
(right-click AssassinsCreed_Dx10.exe => Properties => Compatibility and check the "Disable display scaling on high DPI settings" checkbox)
Now run the game by starting AssassinsCreed_Dx10.exe.

All the settings don't work :/

I think I figured something out.
In my current setup, I run an external monitor on the IGP R7 Radeon via D-Sub and my main monitor on an extra R9 Radeon card via DVI-D.

If I choose the external monitor as my main display, the video plays on the R7 card.

I just had this problem too (on a single-screen system, a laptop), but for me the fix was to set these two compatibility options enabled:

- Disable display scaling on hig DPI settings (this was already enabled by default)
- Run this program as an administrator

So yeah, it seems I need to run it as admin in order for the intro to work. I originally set those options with

C:\GOG Games\Assassin's Creed\AssassinsCreed_Dx10.exe

ie. setting those two compatibility options enabled on the executable, and then running it directly. But now it seems to work also with the GOG shortcut from the Programs folder, as long as it also has those both enabled.

Hello. I'm running this game on Windows 7 x64 sp1 and I manage to solve this problem by creating direct shortcut to AssassinsCreed_Dx10.exe and setting compatiblity mode to Windows Vista in shortcut preporties. I hope this helps:)

I have the blank video problem. I found that if you activate compatibility mode and select XP or Vista, or even Windows 7 it will fix the blank video.

It appears that AC is a Vista DX10 era game, and has some issues with Windows 7 (and possibly later versions)

The solution to this problem is pretty simple. You have 2 options:

1. Go into the AC installation folder, right click on the DX10 executable, properties, compatibility tab, and set compatibility to windows vista.

or

2. Go into the AC installation folder, and play the game using the DX9 executable. I recommend this solution, since you will also get better performance. DX10 is not worth the trouble in my opinion, there is ZERO visual difference.

This above!

I was having the exact same "black screen during intro" problem. And as soon as I ran the DX9 executable it worked fine.