help need

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when i download a movie i cant seem to play it i have
windows media player 9 but cant get a pic can anyone help
please
 
-----Original Message-----
when i download a movie i cant seem to play it i have
windows media player 9 but cant get a pic can anyone help
please
.
Click to expand...

Most likely, the video you downloaded requires a codec you
do not have on your machine.

"Codec" stands for "Compression/Decompression" and is how
the image data was compiled (for lack of a better term) to
be played on a computer.

Typically, Windows Media Player will download the required
codec if it encounters a type that it does not have.
Unfortunately, it seldom finds the codec you need, unless
that codec is fairly old and listed as "safe" by Microsoft.

Now, to find the codec you want to install, you first need
to determine what codec the video requires. There are a
few ways to do this, but try these two suggestions first.

Method 1.
Make sure you have an internet connection.
Open Windows Media Player.
Open or drag-and-drop the video file into the Windows
Media Player (WMP) playlist and click the PLAY button.
Wait to see if WMP finds and downloads the codec.
If it finds the codec, you *may* need to close WMP and re-
open it before you can play the video.

If this doesn't work, go to method 2.

Method 2.
Make sure you have an internet connection.
Open Windows Media Player.
Open or drag-and-drop the video file into the Windows
Media Player (WMP) playlist and click the PLAY button.
After Windows does not download the codec, RIGHT-CLICK the
video file in the playlist, and select PROPERTIES.
Check the dialog box that opens, and look for a line that
says something like:

Codec: 3iVx
(This is merely an example. You may see something
completely different.)

In this example, the codec we're looking for is called
3iVx.
Open your internet browser and go to Google/Yahoo and
enter the name of the codec in the search box, and press
the search button.
99% of the time, you'll find a site somewhere that will
have the codec you need available for download.

As a safety tip, avoid any websites that are NOT in your
country or appear to be hacker/warez sites, (Legality of
the file, compatibility and security are issues) UNLESS
it's the website of a major corporation, such as Intel or
something.
Read ALL the details available on that site, and before
you download and install, check another site or two.
Comparison shop, so to speak.

Other things to be wary about:

READ THE LICENSE AGREEMENT! A lot of these home-made
codecs have bizarre license aggreements, or put other
components on/in your PC. If the site you're on makes you
uneasy, leave and find your file elsewhere.

Never, EVER pay for a codec. If the publisher/developer is
asking for money for the codec, he's scamming you. None of
the established Codec developers require that you pay for
using the codec to view files encoded with it. The only
time you *might* be required to pay is if you plan to use
that codec to encode a movie you want to publish, and even
then, it's not very common.

Be aware of what you're downloading and installing. Some
codecs (DivX for example) come "bundled" with a
proprietary media player. In the past, DivX would not
allow you to install the codec separately from the player,
but recently have changed that restriction.

Disconnect from the internet and close every application
you can before installing anything. Too many people ignore
this simple step, and often create headaches for
themselves down the line.

And always, ALWAYS create a restore point or back-up your
Windows drive before installing ANYTHING.

I hope this long-winded post gives you some help.

Spymagician
 
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