Codecs and problems associated with them.

[rock.freak667]

I recently had to reinstall XP on my pc. Since I forgot the exact codecs I had previously installed, I just downloaded a codec pack(I believe it was AVI+ codec pack) from the internet. It worked well in the sense that it played my AVI files, but when if I try to skip ahead in any of the AVI files, the video freezes on the frame that it was playing on while the audio skips ahead to where I had put it to skip to. Should I uninstall the codec pack and look for individual codecs to install? ( Also,letting WMP download the codec didn't work as it gives me an error whenever it says "codec acquired")

[jagabo]

Should I uninstall the codec pack and look for individual codecs to install?

Yes. Hopefully the codec pack hasn't screwed up your system already. Or use a player with built-in file readers/splitters and codecs like VLC and KMPlayer.

( Also,letting WMP download the codec didn't work as it gives me an error whenever it says "codec acquired")

WMP will only download a few specific Microsoft codecs. Totally useless.

[redwudz]

Codec packs are almost always a bad idea. Some can cause enough damage to make a OS re-install the easiest option. Did those same AVIs play back properly with the old install? If so, try to uninstall the codec pack. Then if you want to read more than one codec, try ffdshow. It's safer than codec packs.

You can also drop unplayable videos into Gspot and it will tell you which codec you need, then you can install just that one. It's easy to have too many codecs and they can interfere with each other.

And I find WMP about useless when trying to play much more than WMVs. JMO. Try using VLC instead as it has it's own codecs and plays about anything.

EDIT: I see jagabo typed faster, but we have about the same ideas.

[rock.freak667]

Wow thanks so much jagabo and redwudz, I swear I would have never remembered the wonderfulness of VLC....Seems VLC does play it better while WMP still can't do a thing. Oh well seems I will have to continue using WMP to play my music files ( I don't like iTunes and Winamps interface too much). Anyhow thanks for reminding me about VLC!