Vista Codecs

Author: Ian Cunningham
Published on: 29-01-2008
Views: 119078


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Although the VLC media player isn’t a codec pack in itself, it is free, open source media player that works on many platforms. It is very light weight and comes with a number of built in codecs that can play many media files (including DVDs).

A full table of supported filetypes is available on the VLC website. This media player does not support "RealMedia" files at the time of writing, however quicktime MP4, MOV and 3GP are supported. This free player is a real gem, and should be on an essential downloads list. The vast majority of media files will play on this open source software, which is free of any bloat often associated with media players.

VLC Media Player

Conclusion

A summary of Vista Codecs

Out of the two popular codec packs, the K-Lite package is the current leader in terms of compatibility and would be the recommended download for users looking to play video files that they do not have codecs for. However, it is recommended that if you can play all video files at the moment then you do not need a codec pack yet. Be sure to install only 1 codec pack, as multiple packs could cause conflicts.

The VLC media player is a fantastic bit of free software, coming self packaged with almost every codec you would need. If you are not comfortable installing a codec pack, then this bit of software is strongly recommended. It is easy to use, very light weight and can play the majority of video files that Windows Media Player can’t use out of the box (including : DVDs, MP4, MOV, FLV etc...).