Comments on: Problems with Windows Media Player

Question: Problems with Windows Media Player

TorontoSandy — Thu, 19 Jan 2006 18:22:56 -0800

Help me play an .avi file.

Everytime I try to load a particular .avi movie, I get a warning from Windows Media Player saying it cannot be played as a codec is missing. The Windows site says if you know the codec you can search for and download it. But, I don't know what codec I need. Is there a way to tell, or is there some popular codecs I should download? My frustration level is mounting.

By: coach_mcguirk

coach_mcguirk — Thu, 19 Jan 2006 18:26:13 -0800

Download VLC Media Player.

It's free, and plays pretty much everything you throw at it, no problems. I've been using it to watch DVDs and AVI's (divx and xvid codecs) for a few months with no problems at all.

By: fire&wings

fire&wings — Thu, 19 Jan 2006 18:32:01 -0800

What coach_mcguirk said. VLC seems to play everything.

By: holgate

holgate — Thu, 19 Jan 2006 18:42:14 -0800

VLC. But you can also identify the codec if you download and install G-Spot.

By: puke & cry

puke & cry — Thu, 19 Jan 2006 18:44:42 -0800

Here's the videohelp.com tool page for codec/video identifiers.

By: tysiva

tysiva — Thu, 19 Jan 2006 18:44:53 -0800

if you prefer to use windows media player, i recommend downloading K-Lite Codec Pack Full; it has every codec you might need.

By: apple scruff

apple scruff — Thu, 19 Jan 2006 18:46:18 -0800

Go to "Run" and then type in "mplayer2" in the Open box. The try running the AVI file from that window. Mplayer2 will sometimes fix the problem by automatically downloading the necessary codec. Worth a try.

By: stavrosthewonderchicken

stavrosthewonderchicken — Thu, 19 Jan 2006 18:58:39 -0800

if you prefer to use windows media player, i recommend downloading K-Lite Codec Pack Full; it has every codec you might need.

As I've said before on this subject, shovelware codec packs often cause more problems than they solve. I'd recommend the defiler pack, if you're going to use one, which will play anything, and is relatively minimalistic.

By: TorontoSandy

TorontoSandy — Thu, 19 Jan 2006 19:26:26 -0800

Wow, thanks everyone I had no idea there were so many options available. I was afraid it might be a lost cause.

By: xiojason

xiojason — Thu, 19 Jan 2006 19:26:33 -0800

If you just want to know what codec you need so you can go find just that one, or if you're curious, give GSpot a try. It's a great utility that will tell you tons of information about your video files.

The most useful multi-codec all-in-one and free (GPL) solution I've found is ffmpeg's DirectShow filter, ffdshow. Works great for 98.722% of the videos I've downloaded.

By: xospecialk

xospecialk — Thu, 19 Jan 2006 19:28:08 -0800

i second ffdshow, its lite and has never caused me any problems

By: stavrosthewonderchicken

stavrosthewonderchicken — Thu, 19 Jan 2006 19:48:17 -0800

Defiler pack uses ffdshow, by the way. That's why I recommend it.

By: stavrosthewonderchicken

stavrosthewonderchicken — Thu, 19 Jan 2006 19:51:21 -0800

Also (sorry), I highly recommend and use Media Player Classic, which will use ffdshow for decoding, if it's installed.

By: frankie_stubbs

frankie_stubbs — Thu, 19 Jan 2006 20:13:15 -0800

Unless you play mass amounts of video on your computer, the most sensible thing is to find out the exact codec you need and download only that. You can do this without any program you don't already have. Just Open the file as usual in Windows Media Player and hit close for the error message. The file name is displayed on the right of the screen. Right-click on it and hit properties - the codec will be displayed on that screen. Just google for it.

By: meehawl

meehawl — Thu, 19 Jan 2006 20:16:50 -0800

FFDShow works fine for me as well.

GSpot is sometimes more info than you need. AVICodec is a nice lightweight drag'n'drop util that will print out a quick list of codecs in an AVI.

By: ascullion

ascullion — Thu, 19 Jan 2006 22:43:48 -0800

No offence to people above, but you'll save a lot of time and hassle if you just follow the first advice - download and use VLC.

By: stavrosthewonderchicken

stavrosthewonderchicken — Thu, 19 Jan 2006 23:55:58 -0800

Quite true, ascullion, but I don't tend to recommend VLC to people, mostly because it has one of the worst and most unintuitive user interfaces EVAR.

By: suni

suni — Fri, 20 Jan 2006 04:21:49 -0800

you're probably just missing something usual like divx or xvid, so install xvid and see whether it works now
if you don't like videolan or have problems with it, then don't install a "codec pack" but get ffdshow and media placer classic (latest stables from here)

By: Sharcho

Sharcho — Fri, 20 Jan 2006 05:04:11 -0800

I'll second DefilerPak, AVICodec and Media Player Classic

By: bcwinters

bcwinters — Fri, 20 Jan 2006 05:35:30 -0800

Maybe the Mac interface for VLC Player is very different from the Windows one--I regularly recommend the program to n00bs and they have no problem finding all the standard features like fast forward, rewind, play/pause, full-screen, float-on-top, etc.

By: youarenothere

youarenothere — Fri, 20 Jan 2006 09:10:02 -0800

I use and love VLC on Windows, but have to agree with stavros - the interface is teh sux0r.

By: SlyBevel

SlyBevel — Fri, 20 Jan 2006 12:45:05 -0800

"if you prefer to use windows media player, i recommend downloading K-Lite Codec Pack Full; it has every codec you might need."

Right answer, right link. Should get best answered.

By: stavrosthewonderchicken

stavrosthewonderchicken — Fri, 20 Jan 2006 20:36:24 -0800

Not necessarily, Mr Presumptuous, for the reasons I mentioned upthread. How about you leave your best-answering for threads you actually start, huh?