The VideoLAN Forums

Hello!

This is my first post here so I have to start by stating my very honest and totally unimportant opinion that VLC is the best, user-friendliest, with the lowest CPU usage and the most advance features and options player available!
It's even better than most if not all DVD players for Windows.

I never use any other, unless I really have to. And that brings me to my question:

1. What do I have to install to play *.ASF, *.MOV, *.WMV and preferably all other kinds of video files using the VLC player on a AMD Duron 800MHz with a Matrox G450 operating a Windows 2000 Service Pack 4 with all updates, but without the Windows Media Player 9 installed?

I have installed the 'ACE Mega Codecs Pack 6.03' and the 'K-Lite Codec Pack 2.80 Full' which used to be enough in the past, but now they are apparently not.

I know that some *.WMV files can have registrations that can expire, but I'm not talking about them, but about the usual ones which I could only play with the Windows Media Player 9, which I clearly want to avoid if possible.

Thank you very much and have a nice weekend!

Nothing extra like codec packs is used at all. VLC comes with its internal codecs. On Windows VLC is able to use the .dll from Windows Media to decode WMV files through the so called dmo (direct media objects) method but if you use a recent version (0.8.6 development or newer) it includes recent FFmpeg which is able to decode WMV9 as well.

So basically what you do is just install VLC and you're ready.

Thanks!

Well I uninstalled both codecs pack and *.WMV and *.ASF files still can't be watched. Actually they run for about 3 sec., then they stop and a small windows opens where it says roughly translated from German 'The programm has generated a runtime error and had to be closed'. *.MOV files don't even start!

I KNOW the files have to run because they did in a previous Windows installation! But I really can't say why they don't play now!

Try resetting your preferences and/or try: http://downloads.videolan.org/pub/video ... 0.8.6-rc1/

The final release should be just around the corner..

I even uninstalled and reinstalled vlc, but it did not help!

I think the problem is more complex and has to do with Windows 2000...

In 0.8.5 the Windows Media Format 9 needs to be installed or Windows Media Player 10 (WMP 11 is not recommended). In 0.8.6 test2 or rc1 ffmpeg decodes WMv3 or WVC1. While this is a bit slow to start and (in my opinion still needs some work) it does work. The only known issue at the moment is that files using WMap audio don't play in 0.8.6