# How do I play my H.264 and XviD movies? (Codec question) **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 30, 2006, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-play-my-h-264-and-xvid-movies-codec-question/366613 "2006-07-30T22:15:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Hostile\_Dialect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e495f1/32.png) [@Hostile\_Dialect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hostile_Dialect)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2006, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-play-my-h-264-and-xvid-movies-codec-question/366613/1 "2006-07-30T22:15:41Z")
I stayed up til 5 last night trying to figure out how to watch these damn movies. I have two movies in the H.264 codec and two in XviD. WMP and Winamp just played the audio, of course, so I installed the following things to try to play these videos: [ul] - [Pegasus SVM Video Decoder](http://www.free-codecs.com/download/Pegasus_SVM_Video_Decoder.htm) - [XviD codec pack](http://www.free-codecs.com/download/Koepi_XviD.htm) - [The Core Media Player](http://www.free-codecs.com/download/The_Core_Media_Player.htm), which claims to handle oodles of formats including H.264 [/ul] The SVM thing was just a DLL that unfolded into my system32 folder. I had no idea what to do with it and it didn’t make WMP or Winamp do anything different so I deleted it. The XviD codec pack seems to be a package of utilities that have nothing to do with decoding or playing XviD videos, despite one of them even being called “Decoding Preferences” or something. I can’t figure out what any of them do, frankly. That one sets preferences for some apparently imaginary program or some process I don’t know how to get to. The Core Media Player, while solving some of my pet peeves with Winamp and WMP usability-wise, tosses up this error when I try to play my H.264 files: > [@TCMP](#): > > TCMP’s Core can not render the file : C:\filename.avi > Some of the streams in this movie are in an unsupported format. And with XviD it flat out says it can’t handle it. I’m at the end of my rope. HowTF do I play these files? ---
**Author:** ![Number](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/number/32/242_2.png) [@Number](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Number)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2006, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-play-my-h-264-and-xvid-movies-codec-question/366613/2 "2006-07-30T23:46:56Z")
Have you tried the [VLC Media Player](http://www.videolan.org/vlc/)? It handles a lot of formats and there are options for H.264 in the Preferences so I’m guessing it will work. ---
**Author:** ![noodlehaus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecae2f/32.png) [@noodlehaus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/noodlehaus)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2006, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-play-my-h-264-and-xvid-movies-codec-question/366613/3 "2006-07-30T23:55:21Z")
VLC Media Player is very good and I use it often, especially on broken AVI’s, but I’ve found the [k lite](http://www.k-litecodecpack.com/) codec pack to be indispensible. It has every codec you would ever need and you can use your favorite player as well. I even includes some useful tools such as enc-spot. Get 'em both. ---
**Author:** ![Hostile\_Dialect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e495f1/32.png) [@Hostile\_Dialect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hostile_Dialect)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2006, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-play-my-h-264-and-xvid-movies-codec-question/366613/4 "2006-07-31T00:00:25Z")
VLC plays the H.264 ones! Thanks to the both of ye, this is a HUGE help. **noodlehaus** , how do I get my media players to use the codecs once I install them? ---
**Author:** ![noodlehaus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecae2f/32.png) [@noodlehaus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/noodlehaus)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2006, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-play-my-h-264-and-xvid-movies-codec-question/366613/5 "2006-07-31T00:18:01Z")
[QUOTE=fetus] VLC plays the H.264 ones! Thanks to the both of ye, this is a HUGE help. **noodlehaus** , how do I get my media players to use the codecs once I install them? [/QUOTE] You don’t have to do anything exept maybe reboot. Your palyers will find them. I use BSplayer mostly, along with Media Player Classic and VLC player as well as WinAVI and Main Concept Encoder and I never had to do anything. ---
**Author:** ![xash](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/c6cbf5/32.png) [@xash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xash)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2006, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-play-my-h-264-and-xvid-movies-codec-question/366613/6 "2006-07-31T01:58:02Z")
Here’s a great freeware video conversion software to convert almost any video format: > **[SUPER ©   Video Converter | Video Encoder | Free 3D Video Converter...](https://www.erightsoft.com/SUPER.html)** > > SUPER © is a free enhanced 3D video converter encoder player recorder. It has built in all the required video codecs and audio codecs to encode from and into any possible multimedia format in 2D or in 3D. Rendered output files for PC, iPhone, Xbox,... ---
**Author:** ![Hostile\_Dialect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e495f1/32.png) [@Hostile\_Dialect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hostile_Dialect)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2006, 7:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-play-my-h-264-and-xvid-movies-codec-question/366613/7 "2006-07-31T07:38:17Z")
Thanks again, everyone!