what are codecs? codec packs? (and one more question)?

Question

ok. so i asked this before: none of my media players work. i play my songs and they stay at 0:00 seconds. some one on yahoo answers told me to download a codec pack. i did but i have no idea what to do with it, and do not know how that is suppose to fix my media players.(help!)

and also, just today, i played some of my songs on vlc player. it didn't stay at 0:00 seconds but the little bar moved as its suppose to. however no sound came out. and no, there's nothing wrong with the speaker itself bc i can still play songs and videos on the internet.
PLEASE HELP!!!!

so anyways, please answer what are codecs and how do you use the codec pakcs?

thanks

Answer 1

Codec: COmpression/DECompression algorithm. It's for reducing file size, as uncompressed audio/video takes a lot of HD space. Generally speaking, if you want to play a compressed video file, you need the same specific codecs as were used to compress it.

Get the latest beta version of GSpot to identify the audio and video codecs in a particular video file:

http://www.headbands.com/gspot/

Codec Sniper can identify and remove broken codecs from your system:

http://www.videohelp.com/tools?tool=Codec_Sniper
Don

Answer 2

http://www.free-codecs.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Codec