Question : I need someone to walk me through getting Windows Media Player working with whatever codecs and/or other ancilliary files.

Greetings:

I had Windows Media Player working reasonably well. I'd click on a video link, and 9 times out of 10 after a brief download time WMP would open (if not already open) and the video would play.

Then I got upset with the 1 out of 10 it wouldn't open because it kept giving me the message that it didn't have the codec. Yet it was a .mpg file, many of which had opened in the past.

Long story short, I ended up at afreecodec.com, and after trying all of their suggestions, none of which worked, I resorted to downloading and installing a codec bundle, Klite or some such, which then tried to open .mpg's in some dinky little player called Windows Media Classic or some such, which would immediately provoke a "sorry, windows must close this app, it stinks, do you want to waste your time sending us a message about it?" over and over again. So I uninstalled this codec bundle, and now nothing opens in WMP when I click on a video link on the internet. Instead, the link tries to open in the browser (IE), which of course contains the "page cannot be displayed" error message, since it is not a link to an html file, but to a .mpg or .mpeg file. Royal pain.

What's more, I used to be able to browse from WMP to whatever location and open a saved video. For some time now, I have no idea why, there is no longer a "File" menu or any other way I can find to simply browse to a file and open it.

Now, even when I browse to a video file in My Computer and double click, I get a message "Windows cannot open this file without knowing what app created it" then I have to tell it to open with WMP, then it opens. I finally found that little itty bitty check box, so all files of that type open in WMP without this message, but this is little consolation.

I need someone who is very patient with a relative newbie to walk me through whatever I have to do at least to get back to where I was before, with 9 out of 10 online vids opening and playing automatically in WMP, ideally also with some way to browse to saved files as well.

I need someone who really knows exactly what to do, and exactly where to go for exactly what I need if resolving the problem has to do with downloading codecs or any other type of helper file, plugin or app., and who can communicate simply, and as untechnically as possible.

Are you out there?

This is important to me.

Thanks.

regards,

stevenjs
____________________________________
"I am but an egg."
--Stranger in a Strange Land
 

Answer : I need someone to walk me through getting Windows Media Player working with whatever codecs and/or other ancilliary files.

yes it does we are after all experts lol mind readers too many times having to see into the dark recesses of our monitors to grasp what the problem could be without any facts :D
but there is an order to things. Windows media player is useless to help itself because its created by a very greedy man.
Readme for Windows Media Player 10
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/player/10/readme.aspx

mpg or .mpeg, do need a few compressions tools.
First, use a codec detection utility like GSPOT to determine the FourCC code of the file you are trying to play...
http://www.headbands.com/gspot/
Then, look up the FourCC code on the FourCC Web site .
http://www.fourcc.org/fcccodec.htm

After you determine which codec is required, you can then download the correct codec. However, keep in mind that some codecs can introduce instability with programs or your computer in general, so make sure that a codec is from a trustworthy source before downloading and installing it!

- AVOID Tsunami and Nimo codec packs!!!

Finally, if you find that video disappears or turns purple and green about 20 seconds before it stops playing or that video for every file in a playlist isn't displayed, turn off video overlays.

To turn off video overlays, do the following:

In Windows Media Player, on the Tools menu, click Options, and then click the Performance tab.
Click Advanced.
In the Video Acceleration area, clear the Use overlays check box.
If the problem continues, try turning off the video mixing renderer (VMR).
You can turn off the VMR by clearing the Use video mixing renderer check box, available in the same location as the Use overlays check box.

the file is MPEG1 ( if it is still a problem) then re-install DirectX on your computer. This should overwrite any corrupt files causing the problem.
test your directx go to start run type in dxdiag press enter check your display using the display test.
DirectX 9.0c End-User Runtime
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=0A9B6820-BFBB-4799-9908-D418CDEAC197&displaylang=en

If the file is an MPEG2 (if you don't know still try this) then you will need to re-install the MPEG2 decoder you have been using e.g. WinDVD.

If you have no MPEG2 decoder installed use this:

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/forpros/format/codecdownload.aspx

Hope it brings you joy
M