Media Player Codecs

July 6, 2004 4:58 PM

[Media Player Filter] I've downloaded several TV programs via torrent in an .AVI format which on my XP system is associated with Windows Media Player, unfortunately all I get is audio.

What / where do I obtain the appropiate codecs or a better media player?
posted by page404 to Computers & Internet (14 answers total)

Here
posted by majick at 5:00 PM on July 6, 2004

Or here. I like that one a bit better.
posted by Mayor Curley at 5:23 PM on July 6, 2004

I find that vlc works better that media player for most downloaded tv shows..
posted by srboisvert at 5:25 PM on July 6, 2004

I prefer ffdshow to codec packs.
posted by smackfu at 5:29 PM on July 6, 2004

JetAudio will play just about every audio/video file you throw at it, including Real.
posted by crunchland at 5:45 PM on July 6, 2004

Media Player Classic is a slimmed-down media player for Windows that plays everything you can throw at it, including Windows Media, Quicktime, Real, Divx, Xvid, and all other incarnations. Highly recommended.
posted by waxpancake at 6:41 PM on July 6, 2004

Response by poster: Thanks all, I'll try your suggestions (in reverse order :P) and see what my results are.
posted by page404 at 7:21 PM on July 6, 2004

Response by poster: Hmmm, Media Player Classic told me to install ffdshow, and after installing ffdshow both media player and Media Player Classic work, next up, JetAudio.
posted by page404 at 8:09 PM on July 6, 2004

FWIW, this is a great program to identify what codec is used to encode any avi file.
posted by phyrewerx at 10:17 PM on July 6, 2004

Stick to VLC, it'll never fail you
posted by ascullion at 10:24 PM on July 6, 2004

AVI is a broad category, an umbrella underwhich many codecs lurk. But if you search the web for "DIVX" and "XVID" codecs, and install those, it's likely 85-95% of your problems will go away.
posted by scarabic at 10:52 PM on July 6, 2004

Just FYI, the excelent Philips DVP642 Dvd player will play these files (XVID/DIVX/MPG/MPEG4) as is when burnt on a CDR or DVD-R. You can then watch these movies on your normal TV.

This thing only costs about 60$ as well.
posted by phatboy at 11:26 PM on July 6, 2004

I've always had issues caused by the K-Lite Codec Pack. I installed 3ivx, instead, and (so far) it seems to perform the job without any problems.
posted by Blue Stone at 4:10 AM on July 7, 2004

IIRC, k-lite installs WMC and GSpot as part of the codec pack. I 2nd or 3rd the rec. for WMC.
posted by turbodog at 1:13 PM on July 7, 2004