Chapter 2 : Counting Codecs

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Okay so I took a day to solve the first problem, but then that's what happens when you spend half a day at work and come home to a power outage!

Coming back to Problem 1 : Codec to play DVDs

In English this means that you cannot just snap on a DVD drive and hope that your Win XP WMP9 would start playing DVDs. You would need a codec/player.

Whatever happened to plug 'n play? But that's another discussion so lets not even get into it.

What is a codec?

[wiki says] A codec is a device or program capable of performing encoding and decoding on a digital data stream or signal. The word codec may be a combination of any of the following: 'Compressor-Decompressor', 'Coder-Decoder', or 'Compression/Decompression algorithm'.

20 mins of googling and a dozen codecs later, I understood that I need a codec that is:

1) Free (yes! most ask you to pay!!!)
2) Lightweight (i saw one that was about 100 MB)
3) Easy to setup (something about messing existing codecs)

Another 10 mins, I zeroed in on K-Lite Mega Codec Pack 1.63 at http://www.k-litemegacodecpack.com/

1) Yes its free!!
2) at 31 MB its a little on the heavy side, but..
3) .. the setup was a breeze.

Now, I can play my DVDs right in WMP9

If you have a better solution please do leave a comment, It'll be great help to DVD novices like me :)



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