Can't get Windows Media Player 9 to work properly?

[jacatone]

Don't know what happened but everytime I click on an mpeg,wmv or avi, Windows Media Player launches then says it's looking for codecs. I tried reinstalling both 9 and 10 but they wouldn't install. I'm running WinXP with SP2. Thanks.

[redwudz]

Just my opinion, but MS player is a very poor player. Although it should just hook up to the internet and download the needed codecs. Not sure exactly what the problem is.

There are many alternatives. I use Zoom Player, VLC media player (Freeware), Media Player Classic, Power DVD for DVD's, the list goes on. VLC has it's own codecs, usually doesn't need to download anything.

Try some alternatives, you will probably not miss MS player and all it's extras.

[jacatone]

Thanks. I've used Media Player Classic before and even that doesn't seem to work anymore, so I must be missing something. Is there a codec package that might fix these issues. Seems like they're a million of them out there but found they seem to create conflicts with one another. Will give VLC a try.

[guns1inger]

Stay away from codec packs. Use the latest g-spoy beta to determine exactly which codec you need, then download just that codec. most codec packs install crap everywhere, install things you don't need, introduce conflicts with things you do need, then don't uninstall cleanly. Bad news all round.