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 comments 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

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

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