MPEG (.mpg, .mpeg) Windows
Media Player , and Real
Player are the two most popular free players
for Windows that will play these and many other
files. Back
AVI, DivX (.avi)
An AVI file (Audio Video Interleave) is defined
by Microsoft, but can be difficult to play because
they are usually encoded with different codecs.
This means that the codec must be installed
to play the file. The newer versions of Windows
Media Player actually go after the codec automatically,
so you do not need to worry about. If you use
other players, or you are not on the web at
the time the codec is requested, you would need
to find and install the codec yourself.
is one of the most widely used codec and can be downloaded from the website. To find more information on codecs, MovieCodec.com
has a wealth of information. Back
QuickTime (.qt, .mov)
These
files are for Apple's media player. This a free
application and can play other file formats,
although it is the only known player that can
handle .qt or .mov files. Back
Real Media(.rm, .ram)
Real
Media streams the movie from the server or harddrive.
RealPlayer is used to view the movie, but there
are alternative players out there.
Back
Windows Media Format (.asf, .wma, .wmv)
These
are Microsoft's media file formats that include
streaming (asf), audio (wma), and downloadable
video (.wmv). The newer versions of Windows
Media Player can handle these files, while other
players cannot. Back
Media players for Mac
The
most widely used player for Mac is QuickTime,
but there are other players available, such
as Real Player
and Windows Media Player for Mac. There is also
a new player called VLC. It is free you can
download it here .
It is the only other media player, that we know
of, besides QuickTime, that plays mpeg files
on Mac. Back
Movie Help
