I have a video or audio file which I am unable to play… What to Do ??

I cant play the .AVI file, how do I play it ??

Few very common questions, I am receiving via Email now days… So many people out there are facing codec nightmare with audio and video files…

What is a Codec ??

In a layman language, its a format or technique in which an audio or video file is provided to you… There are video codecs and audio codecs…

Why do we have different codecs ??

Mainly because to compress the file size by not trying to lose its quality… There after few codecs tries to compress the video or audio file to smaller size for ease of transport via online of portable offline method… Where as some tries to compress the file but with possible mean of holding back the quality lose…

For example an audio codec would be MP3 or WMA… Where as example for video codec would be xvid or aac x264

You may read more on Codecs here at Wiki

Why dont my PC comes with Codec ??

Under your Windows OS, microsoft provides support for few default and populer codecs like MP3 or such… But all these codecs are 3rd party developed softwares…

Main question, How do I make sure I have a PC which can play all those codec files out there ??

There are 2 ways… By default Windows XP / Vista / Server 2003 or any other MS OS comes with Microsoft’s own media player which is Windows Media Player… Where as you may use any other Media Player to play all your media files too…

Solution One

So the 1st way would be getting a Media Payer which can support all codecs out there… VLC media player

VLC Media Player

It is a free software… This media player by default comes with all most all codec out there… You may use it to play any codec based video or audio file…

Solution Two

Using Windows Media Player to play all the video or audio files… You may download one of the most populer codec packs which comes with support for all those codec engine out there…

K-Lite

K-Lite -> Download

Combined-Community Codec Pack

Combined-Community Codec Pack -> Download

These 2 are widelly used for all codec needs…

Related posts:

  1. Convert and Burn AVI (divx / xvid / mp4 / x264 / AAC) to DVD (VOB) / VCD How do you burn movies or video which you have encoded under compressed codec formats as divx / xvid /...
  2. 10 must install / have software / applications for your new Windows (XP / Vista / 7) installation Every time we install or reinstall our operating system (Windows XP / Windows Vista / Windows 7), we  find our...
  3. WMP in FireFox Finally Microsoft  has come up with a plug in to allow WMP content to be streamed or rather viewed from...
  4. How to burn / write a bootable Windows XP installation CD ROM Once you have successfully slipstreamed a service pack under Windows XP installation source, the next question which comes to your...
  5. Possible alternate to Nero – Quick Look at Ashampoo Burning Studio 7 As the CD Writer came to the market, apart from Windows, there is another software which became a must install...