This post is part of the user recommendation series where users recommend question to us.

Our reader Jerome asks us “Hey Techie, I have been reading you for quite some time and wanted to ask this question. I love Windows Media Player but it does not play all the files I download saying that some codec is being downloaded, some of the videos only have sounds but no video at all. I did try VLC player but do not like the interface and would like to play all the files in Windows Media Player, can you tell me know I can do it?”

Well Jerome, like you we too have been using Windows Media player for quite some time, in the past we have also shown how to play real media files in Windows Media Player ^[1], but there are several other files which do not play in Windows Media Player, even though they “are supposed” to play in Windows Media player.

The core problem for not being able to play a supported file in Windows Media Player lies in the fact that several manufacturers use different codecs for the same file format, so even though .AVI files may be supported by Windows Media Player it may not play the file because of the encoding used while creating it. You can get over the problem by downloading the required codec from the manufacturer.

A codec is a device or program capable of encoding and/or decoding a digital data stream or signal. The word codec may be a combination of any of the following: 'compressor-decompressor', 'coder-decoder', or 'compression/decompression algorithm'. – Wikipedia ^[2]

Finding and downloading missing codecs can be hard if not a waste of time. And with the amount of codecs actively used in producing videos, you may require several of them.

To solve the problem of playing any file in Windows Media Player, you can download K-Lite Codec Pack, which is like a collection of almost every codec available today. Once you have installed K-Lite Codec pack you can play almost any file types in Windows Media Player including real media, 3GP files, Quick time movies, Mp4 files, DivX files, HDTV files and more.

K-Lite codec pack has a option to only install components you want, so you can still keep playing the media you want  in your favorite player.

There are three versions of the K-Lite Codec Pack: Basic, Standard and Full.

• K-Lite Codec Pack Basic contains only the most essential things. It contains everything you need to be able to play the most popular and widespread formats. It is small enough to fit on a single floppy. Also great for including on your movie CDs.
• K-Lite Codec Pack Standard contains everything you need to play all the commonly used formats. This package should be enough for the average user.
• K-Lite Codec Pack Full contains even more codecs. It also has encoding support for the various formats. This package is for power users and people who do their own encodings.

Download K-Lite Codec Pack ^[3]

Hope this solves your problem Jerome. If our readers want to ask us questions or recommend something to us, feel free to contact us ^[4].