Educate me on Codecs!

Factual Questions
1

This may be a GQ question, and if so, please feel free to move it, oh gracious mods (blessed are they).

I have a video file that was sent to me by a friend. But unfortunately, while Media Player will play the video, I get a little message saying “Error downloading Codec” and the title on the right is red, with an exclamation point.

The video plays, but there is no sound. And I know the file has sound.

What to do? Advice, whimsical tales, or the Codec code to contact Solid Snake are all appreciated.

2

Here’s a guide for setting up your PC for multimedia playback. Its written for users of Zoom Player, but ZP uses the same codecs as WMP.

http://www.inmatrix.com/articles/mediasetup.shtml

3

There’s also a program nastily named Gspot that will tell you what codec a file uses. You can use that as a starting point.

4

I use the K-Lite Codec Pack and have never come across a file that I cannot play whilst using it. The basic pack weighs in at just 1.34MB and has everything you are ever likely to need (in my experience). It contains no spy/adware to the best of my knowledge but I take no responsibility for you using it :slight_smile:

http://www.free-codecs.com/K_Lite_Codec_Pack_download.htm

5

Off to GQ. So reads the codecs.

6

Loaded Gspot (snort, giggle) last night.

Will grab K-Lite tonite.

Thank you so much for the assistance!!

7

ACE Mega Codecs is also a suprt great codec pack, and IIRC it comes with Media Player Classic, G-Spot, and alot more goodies.

Be careful loading up on codecs, tho. I’ve been told by people more serious about their video than me that it’s easy to have too MANY codecs on your machine which will fuxor playback just as bad as having too few.

oi!