Windows Media Player

[speckytecky]

A question I'm frequently asked by teachers is, why is it I can run Windows Media player at home but when I try on school computers there is no sound?

I know this is something to do with Codecs but even though I have tried downloading and installing various ones the problem persists.

Apologies if this is posted to the wrong Forum!

[Chuckster]

Download XP Codec Pack. It litereally has every codec you'll need so that every video or music you have will play correctly in WMP.

[Bezwick]

We use K-Lite codec pack, never come accross a file that cant play.

Free-Codecs.com : Download K-Lite Codec Pack 6.7.0 FULL, K-Lite Codec Pack 6.7.0 STANDARD, K-Lite Codec Pack 6.7.0 BASIC : K-Lite Codec Pack is a collection of codecs and related tools

[sister_annex]

you have to be careful with the K-Lite Pack... there has been discussion about it on edugeek and other places, but apparently it uses some illegal DLLs to get round region restrictions etc

We have had directive from SMT to remove it from our network....

[RobMongoose]

Download XP Codec Pack. It litereally has every codec you'll need so that every video or music you have will play correctly in WMP.

Any idea whether there's an MSI available for this anywhere?

[Chuckster]

@RobMongoose, there isn't an MSI available as such. However, I am running version 2.3.9 that was packaged up as an MSI, which is now 2 years old, and still works thus far. If you PM me your e-mail address I can send this over to you.

[speckytecky]

Thanks for the useful answers fellow Edugeekers.

Anyone got an answer to the fact that it runs ok off network but when behind some? school networks the audio fails?

[Bezwick]

First i have heard of this, and cant seam to find the thread discussing it, could you send me a link to it?

Cheers

you have to be careful with the K-Lite Pack... there has been discussion about it on edugeek and other places, but apparently it uses some illegal DLLs to get round region restrictions etc

We have had directive from SMT to remove it from our network....

[Chuckster]

The version of XP Codec Pack I use works perfectly fine both on and off the network. My school's network sits behind a proxy server, as I'm sure other peoples' networks do, and it serves video/music content without any hassle. I s'pose it depends on how your filtering is done and whether it is restrictive with said content or not.

[sted]

Any idea whether there's an MSI available for this anywhere?

it is an msi you just need to run it ang grab it from the temp files iirc

[Sylv3r]

You could also look at installing something else such as VLC Player (VideoLAN - VLC: Free streaming and multimedia solutions for all OS!) which will play most if not every audio and move file.

[synaesthesia]

I side with using VLC instead - it's far less resource hungry and makes older computers much better at playing DVDs.
RE K-lite, I did used to use it often until every AV package I could test with found it packed with one of two nasties.

[speckytecky]

Umh - just tried to download VLC player and Sophos pops a message up telling me:

<LI style="OVERFLOW: hidden">Location: dl2.cdn4-downloads.com/lm/cdn/VLC_32.exe Access has been blocked as the threat Mal/HTMLGen-A has been found on this website.

You could also look at installing something else such as VLC Player (VideoLAN - VLC: Free streaming and multimedia solutions for all OS!) which will play most if not every audio and move file.

[TechSupp]

Thanks for the useful answers fellow Edugeekers.

Anyone got an answer to the fact that it runs ok off network but when behind some? school networks the audio fails?

We have had the reverse, video played over network, no video but sound ok but when played locally bothe ok! Just started to use Media Player Classic instead and worked on and off the network. This was using files breated with Digital Blue cameras. Tried various codec packs but didnt seem to have any sucess.

[mac_shinobi]

Combined Community Codec Pack

CCCP - Combined Community Codec Pack

VLC

VideoLAN - VLC media player - Open Source Multimedia Framework and Player

Windows Media Player Classic Home Cinema

Media Player Classic - Home Cinema - Video Player

If you have the different video formats you can use utilities to identify what codecs you require ie gspot

GSpot Codec Information Appliance

There are other utils to identify what video or audio codecs are being used and this will allow you to install the correct codecs instead of just using codec packs and hoping for the best - like throwing spaghetti at a wall and hoping it sticks.

Why Codec Packs Are Bad - How-To Geek Wiki