# How Do You Get This Movie To Play **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 31, 2010, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-get-this-movie-to-play/565900 "2010-12-31T01:46:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f04885/32.png) [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qin_Shi_Huangdi)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2010, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-get-this-movie-to-play/565900/1 "2010-12-31T01:46:33Z")
[link removed by moderator] I downloaded various episodes from the _Legend of Galactic Heroes_ here but I can’t get them to play no matter what I open them with. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2010, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-get-this-movie-to-play/565900/2 "2010-12-31T01:50:05Z")
Is that a legal site or pirated stuff? ---
**Author:** ![mittu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecd19e/32.png) [@mittu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mittu)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2010, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-get-this-movie-to-play/565900/3 "2010-12-31T01:50:31Z")
.mkv files will play with VLC media player, which you can download from [here](http://www.videolan.org/vlc/) ---
**Author:** ![BunnyTVS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BunnyTVS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BunnyTVS)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2010, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-get-this-movie-to-play/565900/4 "2010-12-31T01:51:34Z")
You do already own legally obtained copies of these files? ---
**Author:** ![Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f04885/32.png) [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qin_Shi_Huangdi)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2010, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-get-this-movie-to-play/565900/5 "2010-12-31T02:07:28Z")
I’ve downloaded VLC and it says: > [@](#): > > VLC does not support the audio or video format “undf”. Unfortunately there is no way for you to fix this. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2010, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-get-this-movie-to-play/565900/6 "2010-12-31T03:16:08Z")
> [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](#): > > I’ve downloaded VLC and it says: > > VLC does not support the audio or video format “undf”. Unfortunately there is no way for you to fix this. That type of error tends to mean that the files are corrupted or bogus. “undf” stands for Undefined, I believe. If the video and audio are not defined, they can’t be played. Whatever you do, do not play them in Media Player–they may try to load viruses by using a fake codec. ---
**Author:** ![Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f04885/32.png) [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qin_Shi_Huangdi)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2010, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-get-this-movie-to-play/565900/7 "2010-12-31T03:23:46Z")
Alright thanks. But other people who downloaded those files seemed to have those movies playing fine. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2010, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-get-this-movie-to-play/565900/8 "2010-12-31T03:44:58Z")
> [@runner pat](#): > > Is that a legal site or pirated stuff? There are _ **illegal** _ torrent files ? :eek: 😉 ---
**Author:** ![mittu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecd19e/32.png) [@mittu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mittu)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2010, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-get-this-movie-to-play/565900/9 "2010-12-31T04:12:33Z")
> [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](#): > > I’ve downloaded VLC and it says: The 4th and 5th in the list are collections of .mkv files which VLC player will play with no problem. Which torrent did you actually download and which operating system are you trying to open them in? ---
**Author:** ![Palooka](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/palooka/32/2902_2.png) [@Palooka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Palooka)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2010, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-get-this-movie-to-play/565900/10 "2010-12-31T04:23:33Z")
Did bittorrent fully download them? Many clients will pre-allocate the download and not append the file extension, so they look complete. That’d explain why VLC isn’t liking them. ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_Robson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gary_robson/32/3448_2.png) [@Gary\_Robson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Robson)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2010, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-get-this-movie-to-play/565900/11 "2010-12-31T05:28:22Z")
[moderating] Since (a) several people have reported this thread saying that the link goes to an illegal torrent site, and (b) it looks like the question is answered, I’m breaking the link and closing the thread. [/moderating]