Either install Format Factory or search for and install ffdshow. It includes all the codecs you need to play avi’s and other things in the Windows Media Player. Which there is nothing wrong with btw. Ffdshow does decode all avi’s, Xvid,Divx,etc. It also handles H264 and MP4.
Yes.
It will behave a little bit better, if you do, and install all that additional stuff
But regarding “nothing wrong with…” - just visit microsoft.public.multimedia.windows.mediaplayer News Group (and many other similar sources) and you will find millions of problems… as they were there for two-three years or more.
The WMP player - is hopeless… now win 7 issues are added to the bunch
So what’s the point?.. … when you must constantly “take care” of it, fixing bugs and broken libraries / having no ability to get all streaming capabilities / etc. … and so on…
& then anyway install “the supporting” open source Software &* features …
… the list will continue (I helped a lot of people with WMP before they eventually “got converted”)
Instead, - just get a decent player with or without the necessity of managing additional Software
and stop carrying that “WMP burden” all the time
Cheers!
How is GOM player??Is it worth a try???
I did try GOM Player - it grabbed all the associations and I didn’t like it. After uninstallation, I had to re-assign the associations manually.
Thanks for the explanation, SiberLynx.
No, not that sort of ‘docking’, but where the playlist becomes part of the UI, like this:
[attachment deleted by admin]
I have never had a single problem with WMP, but then I maintain no libraries or playlists and turn all that stuff off and set Ccleaner to delete what gets automatically generated. I store no music or video on the machine, the ones I want to keep are all burned to DvD’s and then deleted from the HD. I am able to see any streams I wish and they never play in WMP. I find the audio I get in WMP to be superior to all other players I have tried. I only use MPC when I want to see more information about files such as bitrate and codecs being used. Everything plays by default in WMP except DvD’s which I usually watch with HP Quick Play. I have no use or need for any other players.
Dch48,
Nobody really arguing. If you have minimalistic approach using WMP and that’s what satisfies you needs – that’s fine. It’s just you added again what is not working and what you have to add anyway in order to playback.
People just expecting lot more from media player and that’s why they are checking different alternatives. And there are solutions that much better and richer re: functionality than WMP.
Then, when and if one would switch to win7 x64 the list of problems grows,
starting with inability to make x64 version of WMP the default player, since MS locked that capability.
You need a registry tweak (script to run) and that is still not working for all cases;
You have to maintain 2 sets of codecs for two “platform-flavours” of WMPs;
The work required in order to make it play different media and using ffdshow in conjunction is “something” (not for everybody)…;
There are articles stating that x64 player can in some cases crash and lock the system… quite a repair needed … and so on and so forth.
The thing was not design properly in the 1st place and many things are not fixed; the desirable features are not implemented…
Isn’t it much easier and less troublesome just install VLC x64 and/or MPC x64 and forget about existing and many problems to come?.. That’s kinda hard for me to understand.
Cheers!
Hi giraffe ,
No I didn’t find that in VLC, but somehow I like the separate play list window … at least for a change 
Cheers!
I agree with you Arjun kmplayer is better than vlc in terms of screen control, subtitle options and plays all format better than vlc like when I try to run files which is downloading for checking quality it plays the file fluenty which vlc cant. but the problem is that I have now shifted to Ubuntu 9.10. I install kmplayer for linux but it has different GUI. than I install it by wine but I cant run the files on this wine installed KMplayer. anyone can help???
The problwm with kmplayer is that it requires Directx acceleration. It may not work with ubuntu.(Noy even with wine, i think i read about this in their forum.).