whats a codec? and i try to download stuff from limwire and play them on windows media player, but it says i don't have enough codecs or something. what is a codec and what kind do i need to download so i can watch stuff from limewire?
2006-12-29 12:40:40 · 5 answers · asked by aznfobboytly 3 in Computers & Internet ➔ Software
"What Exactly is 'Codec', and Why Would I Ever Need It?" You need it for:
"Codec" is a technical name for "compression/decompression". It also stands for "compressor/decompressor" and "code/decode". All of these variations mean the same thing: a codec is a computer program that both shrinks large movie files, and makes them playable on your computer. Codec programs are required for your media player to play your downloaded music and movies.
"Why do you need codecs?"
Because video and music files are large, they become difficult to transfer across the Internet quickly. To help speed up downloads, mathematical "codecs" were built to encode ("shrink") a signal for transmission and then decode it for viewing or editing. Without codecs, downloads would take three to five times longer than they do now.
There are codecs for audio and video compression, for streaming media over the Internet, videoconferencing, playing mp3's, speech, or screen capture. To make matters more confusing, some people who share their files on the Net choose to use very obscure codecs to shrink their files. This makes it very frustrating for users who download these files, but do not know which codecs to get to play these files. If you are a regular downloader, you will probably need ten to twelve codecs to play your music and movies.
Some codec examples are MP3, WMA, RealVideo, RealAudio, DivX and XviD. There are many other more obscure codecs.
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2006-12-29 12:54:11 · answer #1 · answered by TEX 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
a codec is a piece of software that lets your viewer look at a file you want to watch or listen to and translate it into video or sound.
There are many many many codecs out there. The codec you need to use to view a certain video is determined by the person recording the video to a file.
Do a search on the net for codecs and you will find them.
2006-12-29 12:44:58 · answer #2 · answered by Taba 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I'm gonna shortcut to the meat of your question: are you really interested in what is a codec..or, what can you do to get your downloaded files to play back on your computer?
Assuming the latter, may I suggest VLC Player, available at http://www.videolan.org/vlc That's one of my most reliable players as it comes pre-loaded with numerous codecs.
However, there's a few things it can't work well with: 1. .rp/.rmvb (RealPlayer) files. For that, try http://www.real.com 2. .mp4 files. For that, you can use Quicktime Player, available at http://www.apple.com 3. Sometimes it chokes on .wmv (Windows Media Video) files, but you already have a player for those.
P.S. from my experience, Windows Media Player is notoriously poor for loading codecs (which others here have already explained what codecs are).
2006-12-29 15:36:38 · answer #3 · answered by deidonis 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
a codec decodes video and music files into a format your computer can play. try downloading a codec pack from videohelp.com.
2006-12-29 12:42:36 · answer #4 · answered by Sam 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
codec = coder / decoder
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Codec
You need to have the "decoder" installed to replay the "coded" media file.
An example of a codec is Xvid
http://www.xvid.org/
2006-12-29 12:41:33 · answer #5 · answered by Linux OS 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋