Windows Media Player Codecs Question

[Kilgore Trout]

My Windows Media Player won't play dvd movies so I downloaded the K-Lite codec pack which someone recommended; but, I still can't play movies on my WMP11.

Does anyone know of a codec pack that works so wmp11 will play dvd movies.
Thanks for any info.
Also, does anyone know why Microsoft, after all these years, even bothers to supply the market with a windows media player that won't play dvd movies.
This seems like a basic Mickey Mouse thing any media player should be able to do.

 

[DocOdd]

My Windows Media Player won't play dvd movies so I downloaded the K-Lite codec pack which someone recommended; but, I still can't play movies on my WMP11.

Does anyone know of a codec pack that works so wmp11 will play dvd movies.
Thanks for any info.
Also, does anyone know why Microsoft, after all these years, even bothers to supply the market with a windows media player that won't play dvd movies.
This seems like a basic Mickey Mouse thing any media player should be able to do.

The answer to almost any "why do media players suck?" question is DRM. Digital Rights Management is a cunning system to encourage piracy by making legally obtained content enough of a pain to deal with that people would rather face the inconveniences of finding and playing pirated content, even if it means the artists they like don't get paid.

 

[bsi]

Try VLC Player at www.videolan.org. Its free and does not need any codecs. I tried it about 4 years ago and have not used WMP since.

 

[The Options Menu]

Try VLC Player at www.videolan.org. Its free and does not need any codecs. I tried it about 4 years ago and have not used WMP since.

The other great thing about VLC is that it exists on pretty much every OS. Windows / Linux / MacOS / iOS and probably anything else that runs the Qt toolkit. I use VLC on pretty much everything for that reason. (Well, and the fact that it works.)

 

[Rockslinger]

so I downloaded the K-Lite codec pack

I did the same thing. I have no idea what it is.

 

[bassnut]

FFDSHOW is the best of the codec packs out there give it a try. WMP also has some codecs for playing DVD Movies another road you can try. VLC is a good choice if you are not looking for anything fancy as is media player classic.

 

[The Options Menu]

I did the same thing. I have no idea what it is.

Modern (mostly) video files are just containers that hold video and audio data. The problem is that audio and video data can be encoded and compressed in many ways. Codecs decode that data. Usually if it doesn't play, or you have no video, or you have no audio, it means that you don't have the right codec. The thing is that codecs change, go in and out of style, and have different bugs in different versions. Codec packs came to be so people didn't have to hunt across the web for some version of some obscure codec from 3 versions ago. Yes, it is a horrible as it sounds.

 

[WoodPeckr]

Codec packs came to be so people didn't have to hunt across the web for some version of some obscure codec from 3 versions ago. Yes, it is a horrible as it sounds.

Codecs are always changing supposedly getting better which requires frequent updating. It can be a pain at times.

 

[Rockslinger]

Codecs decode that data. Usually if it doesn't play, or you have no video, or you have no audio, it means that you don't have the right codec.

Ha, that explains it. Thanks.

 

[alwayslooking]

Try VLC Player at www.videolan.org. Its free and does not need any codecs. I tried it about 4 years ago and have not used WMP since.

Another good media player is SM Player http://smplayer.sourceforge.net/ . I have not found a video that can`t be played on 1 of those 2 players

 

[wigglee]

does the vlc run on windows 7 64 bit? my windows media center won't even play the sample video that came with it, supposedly due to missing video codec. Does FFDSHOW install automatically or does it require a complicated custom setup?

 

[WoodPeckr]

VLC should run on windows 7 64 bit, although I haven't tried it yet.

 

[AnimalMagnetism]

yes VLC runs on win7 64bit and just about anything else you can think of. great program that runs all file formats and doesn't need codecs downloaded.
it will even play files that are still downloading, allowing you to check out the file and quality before it's finished

 

[WoodPeckr]

...it will even play files that are still downloading, allowing you to check out the file and quality before it's finished

This is a nice feature I've enjoyed with many Linux apps, the ability to listen to or see what you are downloading while it is being downloaded. This way if you don't like the quality of that file you can abort it and select another file to get a good copy of whatever you are looking for. This feature has saved lots of time compared to Windows, where you could only check the file after it had been completely downloaded only to find it was crappy quality or a misnamed file.

 

[bassnut]

yes VLC will run on 64 bit ..... not sure if it is compatible with media center though. FFDShow is self installed from an exe though you can enable different codecs for allot of the different formats as needed.

 

[The Options Menu]

This is a nice feature I've enjoyed with many Linux apps, the ability to listen to or see what you are downloading while it is being downloaded. This way if you don't like the quality of that file you can abort it and select another file to get a good copy of whatever you are looking for. This feature has saved lots of time compared to Windows, where you could only check the file after it had been completely downloaded only to find it was crappy quality or a misnamed file.

It also saves you from downloading a lot of goat porn.