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Windows Goes to the Movies

This is a guide on how to play movie files in Windows. There are plenty of such guides already out there, and I'm sure more are being witten, but still I decided to write one myself. This one focuses on that most important goal, with as little meandering off on other tangents as possible. The goal, of course, is to get those files to play!

Of course, a little meandering is essential for truly appreciating the work that goes into creating movie files. Also, I'm partial to using software that doesn't enable big corporations to look over my shoulder and decide what I can and can't play. So, this guide also covers the basics of what makes a movie file (don't worry, they're just the basics), and provides pointers to some nice alternative software that can play just about every video there is to download.

Two bits of information are necessary in figuring out how to play a movie file. The first is how the audio and video data are contained in the file. This is determined by the file format used, which also determines the three-letter or four-letter extension the file gets. MPEG (or MPG) and AVI are two of the oldest file formats that still see wide usage. Matroska, recognizeable by the MKV extension, is one of the newest. The other commonly used formats and their extensions are Quicktime (MOV, MP4), Flash Video (FLV), RealMedia (RM), Windows Media (WMV), and Ogg (OGM).

The second important bit of information is what "codecs" were used to create the audio and video data stored in the file. Digitally recorded audio and video can take up huge amounts of space. A codec (the word comes from "code-decode") allows data to be compressed so that it takes up less room. Most codecs go a step further, using what is called "lossy" compression, sacrificing some of the quality of the original audio or video, which allows the data to be compressed even more. Actually, when done right, movie clips using lossy compression codecs can look and sound almost indistinguishable compared to the original source, and still take up only a fraction of the space. However, most people are happy to sacrifice some quality in exchange for even smaller files that can be downloaded quickly and stored in abundance. The audio codecs you are most likely to find in movie clips are MPEG-1 Layer III or MP3 (arguably the most well known codec), MPEG-1 Layer II or MP2 (also used in VideoCD's and some DVD releases), Ogg Vorbis, Windows Media Audio, RealAudio, AAC (sometimes called MP4, popularized by Apple's iTunes), AC3 (better known as Dolby Digital, used in DVD's), and Digital Theatrical Sound or DTS (also used in DVD's). The most popular video codecs are MPEG-1 (used in VideoCD's), MPEG-2 (used in DVD's), Windows Media Video, RealVideo, and several codecs derived from the MPEG-4 standard, including DivX, XviD and H-264. It is also worth noting that some file formats are limited in the codecs they can support. MPEG files, for example, can only contain MPEG-1 video and MP2 audio.

So, to play any given movie clip, you need a player that can pull the audio and video data out of the file, and the codecs to decode the data into something you can watch and listen to. All the big companies, hoping you will use their multimedia software, also make free players for their specific audio/video standards. Microsoft offers Windows Media Player, Real offers RealPlayer, Apple offers a Quicktime player, and so on. Most of these players have support for other formats and codecs, but seldom will they support any standard defined by another big company. The obvious problem with this approach is that you end up with a lot of players that basically all do the same thing. Plus, a lot of these big-name software packages come with nasty surprises like DRM (digital rights management) and other "features" that nibble away at your privacy. The good news is, there is an excellent player that does away with all the hassle: Media Player Classic. MPC not only dispenses with the big company tactics, it also reads a huge number of file formats. On top of that, the player is free and extremely easy to install; you simply download it, unzip it, move it to your favorite folder, double click, and then sit back and hit the play button. It's that simple.

Almost, anyway. Similar to other media players, MPC takes care of extracting the audio and video data, but passes off the actual decoding of the data to the operating system. So, the right codecs must also be downloaded and installed. The latest versions of Windows come with a handful of codecs already, including those necessary to play MPEG files, but the rest you have to find for yourself. This used to be something of a challenge, but lately some very nice software bundles have appeared, making codecs a snap. In fact, with just four packages you can pretty much get everything you need to play almost any movie clip you want, without resorting to using big-company software. Note: I use these packages myself on Windows 2000 and Windows XP. I cannot vouch for their usability on any other version of Windows. I should note that, except for ffdshow, these packages were put together using bits offered by the original companies, reassembled in ways those companies don't necessarily approve of. So, these packages may not be what a corporate lawyer would call "legal." This is why I'm not providing any links to those packages. However, there is nothing in these packages that wasn't offered for free in the first place (if not exactly with the same presentation), so I see nothing wrong with using them. As for finding them, Google is your friend!

So that's it, really. Five things to download, and you're ready to go, without getting bogged down with stuff you don't need. Happy viewing!

PS: Here are some footnotes for those interested in exploring other options and features.