HardlineAMD: Have this problem since i have played WC4 DVD years again on my RX9070XT on W11.
The Laptop with integrated AMD860 play the game, but the mobile 4060 cant play the videos. It sucks and their is no fix that works.
New: This
should fix black screen videos, but as my computer isn't going back to having them, I can't properly test against it. The original way I fixed it is further below and including new tests left unfinished (may or may not ever continue). Highly recommend this instead of that.
Do also note there's another black screen issue as explained further below and this will not fix that type unless its from the game provided player not working or installed. See that further below for more causes of this type. Just noticed there's a newer video playback patch created just this year https://github.com/mattwells77/Wing_Commander_IV_Enhancement_Patch and may very well solve this issue. This person is referenced on wcnews for WC3 and at least once for WC4, so I consider it safe w/o needing to look at the code. I may also have previously used for WC3 (not looking). I tested it as working with original videos. It should work with the HD videos found on wcnews as well as its designed to.
Just download the appropriate release version (DVD works with default GOG Galaxy installed version) and the libvlc package also found linked with the release. Extract them (or copy/move) to the game's root dir. At a minimum that is all that's needed.
As I expect this to work and be the best way, am shelving my testing below.
Original: To clear up something: a mobile 4060, AMD GPU, Nvidia GPU, whatever absolutely can work fine. The black screen issue isn't a no fix that works problem. It is a common issue.
Here's my notes on WC4 black screen:
If black screen and no video playback... install k-lite basic and use game provided videos and just play.
If there's an error like name and file not found or whatever it was and may be hidden behind the game (with a black screen trying to play videos)... solved by k-lite basic install. *See A: further below for more. Can also happen after placing HD videos in the vob dir if something is incorrect or missed. This would also include download/install failures or corruption on video files.
K-lite install can negatively conflict with other old games. To also add, other software installed or previously installed, or k-lite settings previously done with other games may conflict with WC4 video playback. I can't do it for you and also can't keep track of what things you did trying to fix it that could cause issues all due to trying things so that it appears like things don't work that do. Other things people posted here are not things that fix black screen videos and have been done in confusion attempts eg XP sp3 compat setting. If anything, integrated GPU may solve the issue as GPUs are involved in video playback. Even needing k-lite may or may not be the base solution/problem and I may not have fully narrowed down. This is actually a solution from other posts, and I never thought about applying odd GPU control panel settings or some other odd things where it could actually be. Until this moment when I'm not dealing with it. But, its not an HDR issue as I don't have HDR, so that on its own doesn't do anything here (HDR is itself built to be a problem so best to leave it disabled anyway at all times). Fresh findings: Decided to test WC4 today and noticed having video without k-lite. I need to look into this more, why this happened. Fresh found possibilities: A: "\Wing Commander IV\ac3.cmd" is supposed to run (brief popup at end of install). If it doesn't, which is likely a possibility, then "\Wing Commander IV\Mpeg2DecFilter.ax" doesn't get used. Mpeg2DecFilter.ax is used as a MPEG/DVD Filters to play the videos. Without it, the game has a black screen and not found error as I noted above k-lite as fixing. However, can try opening Windows terminal and running "ac3.cmd" manually. Eg right click on ac3.cmd in File Explorer, copy as path, paste that into command line with a dot (.) added to the beginning so its ."path to/ac3u.cmd" and hit enter (nothing will appear and that's normal), close, start game.
B: Installing and simply starting a game that includes ffdshow.ax in its game installer for video also affects WC4 video. During this test it has not been seen as a negative but it certainly is a possibilty to be a problem. Same goes for other creations of these things.
C: Other game used for B: is also not having a video issue that it had during first install.
D: Intel integrated GPU indeed did not need to do anything. That is, the black screen video on a clean OS didn't show up. Just install the game and play.
E: Older Nvidia GPU and first game install on a computer also did not receive the black screen video issue. Just install and play. Same as D.
F: New Windows user on dirty Windows install where black screen initially showed up but no longer after fixes were uninstalled removed years ago... videos still work. No black screen seen. Issue not found on Windows user side of registry. Could always be a possibility depending on if the root issue is on the non-user side as entries can be set to either side all depending. I can only continue on this by doing a clean OS install at this point. Very unlikely with such an old game that something else changed in an update since then eg Nvidia wouldn't care, etc. What I'm currently expecting: either its dirty still and fixing it and or one or more other old games (including attempts at dealing with) cause it.