What can be more frustrating than gearing up to play a movie or an audio file, only to find out you don’t have the right codec? Or, you’ve landed on a site that insists you have to install a new codec in order to view content.
So now what are you going to do? Well, in the first instance if you’re playing a movie/video that’s on your Hard Drive, you need to download Windows Essentials Codec Pack, a must have collection of Video Codecs, Audio Codecs and tools, that are needed to Encode / Decode (i.e., play), audio and video files.
With Windows Essentials Codec Pack you should be able to play 99% of all the movies and music files that you download from the internet, and better yet, stay up to date with the latest Codecs through W.E.C.P’s Audio / Video Codec Update Service.
W.E.C.P is extremely easy to use: a couple of mouse clicks and you’re finished. According to the developer, W.E.C.P. is designed as a nearly complete solution for all video and audio needs. With W.E.C.P installed you can play Audio CDs, DVDs, (S) DVDs, and more. I must admit, that in my case, the mystery of the missing Codecs that I was faced with recently has been solved, since I installed this neat Codec pack.
Later in this article you will find a comprehensive list of the Codecs included in this download.
In the second instance, where viewing a site’s content is dependant on downloading a new codec – DON”T. A favorite method used by cyber-criminals to drop malware on unsuspecting users’ computers, is the requirement that you must download a “missing” codec.
Consider this: Currently there is an epidemic of so called “rogue software” on the Internet, with much of it being delivered by the Zlob Trojan which in many cases is hidden in these fake and malicious codec downloads.
Common sense should tell you that if a website does not recognize a standard codec, there is something wrong. Ask yourself this question; how long would a website stay in business when a visitor is required to download a specific codec to view content? The answer is clearly – not very long.
Don’t be the type of person who clicks indiscriminately at every opportunity to do so. If you do, I guarantee you – your computer will be infected within minutes.
Included in the Windows Essentials Codec Pack are the following Codecs / DirectShow / VfW Filters /
• APE Source Filter: DirectShow audio decoder filter used to decode Monkey’s Audio files (APE files)
• AC3 Filter: DirectShow audio decoder and processor filter used to decode audio tracks in movies (DVD, MPEG4 and others)
• AVI Splitter: Replacement for DirectShow’s default Audio Video Interleave (AVI) Splitter (It can open many broken files and can re-index when needed)
• CDDA Reader Filter: DirectShow audio decoder capable of reading Audio CDs
• CDXA Reader Filter: DirectShow video decoder capable of reading (S)VCDs and XCDs
• CoreAAC Filter: Advanced Audio Coding (AAC) DirectShow audio decoder capable of reading AAC files
• CoreFlac Decoder: DirectShow audio decoder for the Flac audio codec
• FFDShow: DirectShow decoding filter for decompressing DivX, XviD, H.264, FLV1, WMV, MPEG-1 and MPEG-2, MPEG-4 and various other audio and video formats. It uses libavcodec from ffmpeg project for video decompression, post processing code from MPlayer to enhance visual quality of low bit rate movies, and is based on original DirectShow filter from XviD, which is GPL’s educational implementation of MPEG4 encoder
• FLV Splitter: Capable of splitting Flash Video files (FLV) and decoding On2 VP62 Video streams (notable users of the FLV format include YouTube, Google Video, Reuters.com, Yahoo! Video and MySpace.)
• OGG Splitter: DirectShow OGG Splitter capable of splitting OGG and OGM file(s) and enables to play / create .ogm wrapped video
• GPL MPEG-1/2 Decoder: DirectShow MPEG decoder filter can be used to play MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 streams
• MOD Source Filter: DirectShow filter decoder capable of decoding Tracker files (MO3, IT, XM, S3M, MTM, MOD and UMX)
• MPEG Splitter: DirectShow splitter capable of splitting MPEG1/MPEG2 files (MP(E)G, VOB, DAT, TS, TP, etc.)
• MPV Decoder: DirectShow decoder capable of decoding MPEG1/MPEG2 Video streams, and DVDs
• MPA Splitter: DirectShow Splitter capable of splitting MPEG Audio files (MP3) and MPEG4 Audio files (AAC)
• MPC Source Filter: DirectShow decoder filter capable of decoding MusePack Audio files (MPC)
• MP4 Splitter: DirectShow Splitter capable of splitting MP4, M4A, 3GP and HD-MOV files
• Matroska Splitter: DirectShow splitter capable of splitting Matroska files (MKV and MKA)
• Media Player Classic: an open source media player that looks just like Windows Media Player, but has many additional features. It has a built in DVD player with real-time zoom, support for AVI subtitles, QuickTime and RealVideo support
• OFR Source Filter: DirectShow filter decoder capable of decoding OptimFROG Audio files (OFR)
• RealMedia Splitter: DirectShow splitter that allows you to play RealNetworks audio/video files
• SHOUTcast Source Filter: DirectShow decoder filter capable of handling internet radio stations streams
• WV Splitter / Decoder: DirectShow WV Splitter and decoder capable of splitting and decoding WavPack Audio files (WV)
• VobSub Filter: DirectShow Vob Subtitles filter capable of displaying (embedded) Subtitle files (SRT, SUB, IDX, etc)
Operating System: Windows 98/ME/2000/XP/2003/Vista
Download at: Download.com
What can be more frustrating than gearing up to play a movie or audio file, only to find out you don’t have the right codec? I’m familiar with this type of frustration, since this has happened to me from time to time; but no more. 
Bill Mullins' Weblog - Tech Thoughts 