Tried to watch a video friend sent me. said i need codec

Asked By Amy Adams Farmer 0 points N/A Posted on - 11/01/2011

I was trying to watch a video that a friend had sent me the other day and it told me I was missing a codec file. What are codec files and how do I get the one that is missing?

I'm a bit afraid of just goggling codec files because I know people put viruses in packages all of the time. If you guys could just point me in a safe direction.

 

Thanks.

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Answered By joul84 0 points N/A #100123

Tried to watch a video friend sent me. said i need codec

Hi Amy,

Codec is from the word compression-decompression or code-decode. These are files that enable music and video files on your computer. Usually codec errors come about from a fresh installation of an Operating System e, g Vista.

 

The safest way to download your required codec file is to go to your laptops manufacturing site and download all the drivers for your computer. To narrow down the search as to know the specific file/codec missing, go to device manager and check which hardware has an exclamation mark.

 

Double click on it and run a driver update via the internet. Below are pictures I have taken just to show you how to use device manager to fix your problem.

 

Right click on my computer:

Click on device manager, right click on device with exclamation mark.

Click properties, then click driver.

Click driver updates, then click search via the internet.

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Kind regards,

Joul84

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Answered By Alber grower 0 points N/A #100124

Tried to watch a video friend sent me. said i need codec

To solve your problem regarding the codec problem. I suggest that you download Combined Community Codec Pack. It is easy to download and install. The best thing about this software is that it is free and you can just press the next button on each installation box. The link is given below, try clicking it.

• http://www.cccp-project.net/

It also gives you a media player classic which is perfect for watching other videos. FLV, RMVB, AVI you name this codec will play it. You can also try other codec but what I give you is already a package so you will have a low probability of facing the same problem again.

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Answered By Clair june 15 points N/A #100126

Tried to watch a video friend sent me. said i need codec

Hi,

Videos are encoded in certain formats using a codec. If your media player doesn't have the codec used to encode the video, or a codec that knows how to decode the video format, then the media player won't be able to play the video because it doesn't 'understand' it. A codec is also known as compressor-de compressor.

You can try using the VLC media player. This media player supports a vast majority of video formats so you won't need to install any other codec packs from the internet. You can get it from here:

• http://www.videolan.org/vlc/

Thank you.

Hope it helps.

Clair June

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