Compatibility Question

[jjo]

What is the reality of someone's PC being able to play an MPEG1 movie "out of the box" (i.e., without any added software updates)?

For example, if I were to hand someone running Windows 98 an MPEG1 movie, could their media player play it? What about a Windows 95 machine?

I guess what I'm getting at is that I'm looking for a "standard" distribution format that'll play on most, if not all, un-modified Windows-based PCs. I know that AVIs are standard among Windows users, but I just like the quality and scalablilty that MPEG1 offers, but I don't want people to have to download an update to view these movies.

Thanks.

[kid07]

I believe MPEG1 is very standard and playable almost anywhere with the recent versions of Windows Media Player without any additional updates.

but i could be wrong...