3 Ways to play any video format

VLC icon

Image via Wikipedia

Let’s start from the easiest, and to a more time consuming approach.

Easy Catch!

1. Download the VLC Player.

Playing DVD’s videos on your desktop/laptop wouldn’t be a problem if you have a VLC player. The Famous VLC player, a  free open source software that has helped millions of users worldwide in playing different video formats without using or installing any codecs.

Pro vs Cons

Pros

  • FREE
  • Supports a large number of audio, video and streaming formats!
  • Not memory-intensive
  • Simple user interface
  • Platform-independent

Cons

  • Lacks multiple selection feature
  • Can’t use escape key to exit full-screen view
  • No comprehensive help documentation

There isn’t not much to dislike about this software. VLC player may have some bad points that came with it. But these points are pretty small and neglectable. It’s not perfect, but it’s a perfect match for any media playing needs.

Get VLC player here.

Good Catch!

2. Convert and Play

There are hundreds of Video Editing Software’s out there that are readily available. Some of them are free or has a free trial that you could practice on and use it like any other pro. While others are worth spending, likely, depends on hardwares performance that you could install it with. Video Converters are very helpful tools, first thing you want to do is convert your video to your approved media player format; like AVI (Audio Video Interleaved), mp3’s, mp4’s, WMV (is the right choice if you can), mkv (Matroska Video), FLV, Swf and much more, then play it in your media player.

Wanna know more? Check out my other blog here.

For more info about convert and play click here.

Worth the Catch!

3. Codec hunting!

Searching for codecs is quite a hassle, especially if you don’t know what the problems are with your media player. A codec is a device or computer program capable of encoding and/or decoding a digital data stream or signal. A codec encodes a data stream or signal for transmission, storage or encryption, or decodes it for playback or editing. Using Windows media players, Quicktime, Realplayer, Itunes and so on. These are the players that are compatible to some video formats that you might able to use. The problems with codecs are they are made by different decoders from different users and organizations.

If you want to know about your windows media player version and codecs installed

  • On the Help menu, click About Windows Media Player.
  • If the Help menu is not visible then, click Organize, point to Layout, and then select Show menu bar. On the About Windows Media Player dialog box, click Technical Support Information.

Your web browser will open a page that includes information about the related binary files, codecs, filters, plug-ins, and services installed on your computer.

For more info’s about codec here or you can download a standard and basic Codec Pack

These are ways that I have encountered with video problems in the past, feel free to comment and suggest some info’s and techniques. Please share if you find it very useful. Thanks

Video Capture Software

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *