what the heck is wrong

[Guest]

ok i just got some quite large videos, 6 of them that are about 250mb each.
The video itself is fine, but when i play them it say its had an error
downloading codec or something and it doesn't lpay any sound on the files.
Spent freekin days downloading them too. I'm pretty sure they have sound and
music and system sounds seem to work fine so don't think its a sound card
issue. Help. Whats the codec thing?

 

[Cari \(MS-MVP\)]

Codec = Compressor/Decompressor

ie they have been compressed and you need the correct decompressor (or
codec) in order to play them back.

Best way to find out with which codec they were compressed is to download
and install G-Spot Codec Identifer and ask it to analyze the video(s).
http://www.headbands.com/gspot/

If it's DIVX, you'll find the codec at www.divx.com If it's XVID, you'll
find them at www.xvidmovies.com/codec

If it's something else, post back and we'll look further afield.

 

[Guest]

Ok got that program and it was unable to find the codec it needs, although it
was able to give me some inforamtion on it. I don't really know what to tell
you. What information do you need to try and resolve this?

Thanks for the help, its appreciated,


Steve

 

[Cari \(MS-MVP\)]

What is the file extension(s) that we are talking about here... AVI? or
something else?

 

[RalfG]

GSpot doesn't find or supply CODECs for you it only identifies the ones that
are used in files and those that are already installed on your computer. To
find a needed CODEC you'll have to do a web search for the CODEC name that
Gspot says the files were encoded with.

MS codec search and download does not supply proprietary 3rd party CODECS
either, only a select few that Microsoft uses. All others you have to source
out for yourself. Some may even be commercial CODECs that you'd have to buy.

For a somewhat generic solution look for "FFDSHOW", ... once installed it
will allow you to play videos recorded in a large variety of CODECs.
Occasionally you'll find that you need the latest version of a specific
CODEC before a particular file will play but FFDSHOW generally works well.