It happens sometimes that you download a video clip from the internet and have troubles playing that movie on your computer. This problem is most of the time codec related, one indication would be a black screen or no sound after hitting play. One solution, which is not that perfect, would be to install a so called codec pack and hope that the coded that is needed for playback is included in that pack.
A drawback is that you install many codecs that you do not need and that could interfere with codecs already installed on your system. A more elegant approach would be to scan the media file to find out which codes have been used to encode the file. One freeware that is able to do this is Media Info.
Media Info loads the media file and scans it for codes that are needed to playback the file. It displays extensive information about audio and video streams, the bitrate used to encode the movie and the names of the codec(s). A great feature is a link to the website of the codec used where it is possible to download it and a link to a video player website that is able to play the file without downloading the codec seperately.
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6 Responses to “Find out which codec is missing for playback”
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[...] alternatives to Video Inspector are G-Spot, AviCodec, Media Info or Codec [...]
i prefer gspot but i guess it does the same
I’ve always been looking for something like this. Thanks!
installing this or that codec is a little like playing russian roulette, especially considering the large number of codecs that are malware these days… you’re better off just finding a player that plays most any format you can think of natively (without installing a bunch of codecs) and treating anything it doesn’t play with suspicion…
to follow up kurts post… VLC is the best player on the net imo…. simple and plays nearly everything! plus you can stream over your network any media
“”"One freeware that is able to do this is Media Info.”"”
Thanks you I didn’t know this software which is very userful.
It’s even better than a ‘freeware’ it’s a Free Software (GPL licence) : freedom to redistribute it, Open Source (freedom to learn/improve the code), etc. :)