The most popular programs for playing video files on your computer are Microsoft Media Player, Apple Quick Time, and Real Audio.

Video formats include MPG, MPEG, AVI, ASF, RA, RAM and a few other customized formats.

But just because your have an up to date player, doesnt mean all video files will necessarilly play.

For Windows Media player if you attempt to open a video file and the correct format is not installed , then you will get an error, like "Cannot open file", and then the player say "Attempting to download appropriate decompressor".

But that may not always work.

Here is another way.

Get a Video Codec identification program, such as one called "GSpot" which will determine the format of the video file (or coded used) and tell you if it is installed on your system.

GSpot can be found at http://www.headbands.com/gspot/

After running the program, if you don't have the codec it says the file uses, then just do an Internet search for that 'codec' and install it on your system.

Or better yet, check out this site where you can download many codecs - all from one page.

http://codecs.nm.ru/

If you still have problems opening the file, it may be corrupt, or you may have other hardware or software problems.

TTI Staff

http://articles.todaystalleologies.net