Many of you who are reading this article will do so because YOU require a codec for your Media Player.

This article should give most readers a basic understanding of what a codec is and exactly what codec's are available.
What Is A Codec?

What exactly is a codec and why do we need them? Well simply put the term codec is short for:
Compressor / Decompressor
When you make an audio or video recording, the "raw" file that is created is often VERY large. This presents us with two major problems: Storage and Transmission.

Lets look at an example of what we are refer¬ring to ...

The other month my younger brother got mar¬ried. We decided to use our MiniDV camcorder to record the event and create a DVD as a memento of the occasion. We filled up TWO 60 minute tapes, so how much room will we need on my computer to store this video?

Well the answer is 13 Gb's per 60 minute tape! '-l PC FRIENDllFEB'08
That's 26 Gb's in total. So not only am we going to make sure we have a large hard drive to store the video, there is also going to be huge problem if we try and transmit a file that size too. And that's the twin problem of storage and transmission.
So what can be done about this?

Well many years ago, circa 1980's, special "mathematical algorithms" were designed to make the files smaller but still play well on a computer.
And so codec's were born.

Now of course there are thousands of codec's available for audio and video compression. There are codec's that are suited to streaming video over the Internet, playing music on you're MP3 player, there are codec's for speech and even for codec's for screen capture.

Because there are so many codec's available, this often leads you to try and find a codec for your media player, as it is impractical to have every codec installed on you're PC.

How to find audio/video Codec's on YOUR Windows XP
find this hidden information on your system,you will need to open the Sound and Devices box. (We're assuming that you are in the native
Windows XP "look" to follow these instructions.) To open Sound and Devices box. simply:
# Go to the START MENU
# Select CONTROL PANEL
# Select SOUNDS, SPEECH & AUDIO DEVICES # Select SOUND & AUDIO DEVICES
The following Sound and Devices window will
then appear:
Along the top of the box you will see 5 tabs. You will need to select the Hardware tab. This will then display a list of information. The 2 parts we are interested in are:
Audio Codecs and Video Codecs Select Audio Codecs from the list and then click the Properties button.
The following Audio Codecs Properties win¬dow will appear:
Now you see the complete list of Audio Codecs installed on your Pc. By selecting each codec and then clicking the Properties button you will get a new window appear just like this one:
This window shows you more information about each individual codec installed on your sys¬tem. For instance, is it enabled and functioning correctly? It also allows you to perform some basic troubleshooting, by allowing you to disable lnterVideo MP3Audio CODEC, this audio codec Douse this audio codec the codec, if you suspect it of causing problems on your system!

These same instructions can be followed to view and troubleshoot the Video Codecs installed on your system! Some common common codecs used are VP3, Indeo 3.2, Indeo 4.4, Indeo 5, DivX, Cine pak, Microsoft Video l, ClearVideo and TrueMo¬tion which help us to play video and audio files of different formats such as divx, mpeg4,xvid,wma .. etc.

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