How many times have you tried to play a video file in Windows Media Player and got a message that informs you of a missing codec? Sometimes, even this doesn?t happen, and the file refuses to play, or just plays audio with no video, or vice-versa.

A codec (code-decode) is nothing more than a set of instructions given to a software media player so it can understand the file it?s reading. If you try and play a file that?s encoded and compressed with a certain algorithm, you need the same algorithm?s decoding capabilities in your computer?s software library. That?s why you need to have codecs installed on your computer.

The DVD Codec

Many users, despite having DVD-ROM drives, don?t prepare their systems for DVD movies. They don?t install all the software that comes with their drives.Software such as PowerDVD install MPEG-2 codecs, thus enabling your computer to play DVD movies. If the MPEG-2 codec isn?t installed, you?re never going to be able to play movie DVDs. This can cause confusion: regular data DVDs, such as the Digit DVD, will play fine. In order to make sure that you have an MPEG-2 DVD codec installed, go to Start >Run, type in DVDUPGRD /DETECT and press [Enter].You should see something like the visual shown alongside.If there is a codec installed, then you should tryand play the DVD movie with the program that installed it. If there?s no codec you need to install one.These codecs are installed along with any software DVD movie player, such as PowerDVD.

Other Video Codecs

Most of the movies you download from the Net (legally or illegally) are compressed DVD rips. Just as people started making MP3s from audio CDs, people now make AVI files from DVDs using a particular codec for compression in file size. Some of the more popular codecs are the DivX and Xvid codecs, which are freely available.

You?ll often find that the same movie could be over 2 GB in size or just a few hundred MB. This happens because of the quality settings chosen when compressing the original DVD movie.Unfortunately, just as with DVD movies, AVI files encoded and compressed with a codec need the same codec to be installed on your system.Since there are hundreds of codecs available, just relying on your media player to figure out which one is needed,really isn?t a good solution. Windows Media Player, for instance, will often just not identify the required codec properly,and will try to connect to the Net and then give you an error message.

There are two possible solutions that you can do to get rid out of this problem:

1. You can install codec packs that contain all the popular codecs used to encode the majority of files on the Web. These packs, such as Kazaa Lite Mega Codec Pack, should solve almost all codec problems you may encounter with your system.However, they also install a lot of unnecessary codecs which you may never use. For those who are paranoid about keeping their registry as clean as ever, manually choosing which codecs you want while installing the pack is, perhaps, a good way to go.

2. If you really want to get to the heart of the matter and find out which file was encoded with which codec, a third-party tool such as GSpot Codec Information Appliance will help you with all the information you need.

All you have to do is go to GSpot Codec Information Appliance here :- http://www.headbands.com/gspot & download the installer and install it.

Now, if a file refuses to play, you can run GSpot, choose to open the file and press?Render?. GSpot will attempt to play the file, and simultaneously match the codecs used with its own database of codecs. When a problem occurs, or some codec does not work as it?s supposed to (corrupt codec files), GSpot will tell you exactly what the problem is.Though there are a few problems with audio streams in video files, these generally get sorted out upon installing a codec pack. The same principles as with video codecs apply.

The lack of uniformity in compression algorithms has brought us to a stage where we have millions of video files available on the Internet, but unfortunately, too many different ways of encoding them. We hope you?re now better armed to deal with these problems in the future.

Hope you find my article useful & as always it’s for only those who may not know these. 😊

I would still like MediaInfo over GSpot. It tells you the codec and will bring you to their official site so you can actually see what you’re downloading. It also allows you to replace the hover menu, so all the info comes up if you just hover over the button.

UUGGGH thank you!!
i have about 5 different players for different codecs lol
these forums have so many programs iv never heard that i need!

5 diff players for 5 codecs ? Media Player Classic should play all the files if you have the K-Lite Mega codec pack installed.

Alright, so to make life easier, you don’t need to install any media players. if you are running Vista, or XP, and have a copy of Windows Media Player, get VistaCodecs and you can watch everything from .rmvb to .mkv using Windows Media Player.

Info here:
http://www.codecs.com/download/Vista_Codec_Package.htm (note: this is not their website. i don’t think they have one)

sushrukh - 01 June 2008 04:34 AM

5 diff players for 5 codecs ? Media Player Classic should play all the files if you have the K-Lite Mega codec pack installed.

lol no not for 5 different codecs, for many different codecs
i mean a lot of times i try to play a movie i get an error so i try it on another media player

K-LITE ISH TEH EVIL MEGAPROBLEM FILTER.
Why K-Lite should be burned, flamed, and bashed at in general for its harmfulness and maliciousness.
Why K-Lite is evil part 2
I didn’t know VistaCodecs works with MKV… -goes to take look at their MKV splitter- Looks like it’s for XP too, thanks tsunzilla! ^_^

I have stopped using codecs.VLC can play virtually all files,the only one which it doesnt by default i think is real media formats which i think should be banned.That company i tellya ia evil.