Codec Nightmare
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…
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 -> Download
Combined-Community Codec Pack -> Download
These 2 are widelly used for all codec needs…
) K-lite basic is more than enough… But for advance users, yes option is to go for K-Lite Mega 
… This is well explained in the K-Lite download web site, about which version is right for you…
Quiz_Master on January 16th, 2008
Too Good Cheeta bhiyaa…
But there is a problem…
In VLC if you play FLV files… It never lets you seek the video… (I mean going directly to XX:XX minutes of video…). Media Player Classic (with K-Lite Codec Pack) works fine though…
Also you didnt said which one is Best : K-Lite Codec Pack or K-Lite Mega Codec pack (Letter is better and huge BTW…)