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I have Freemake Video Converter installed and I'm watching an MKV file through it. But I can't do it with Windows Media Player since I don't have the codec installed.

I don't want to install the codec and I don't want to convert the video to AVI. Is it possible to watch the MKV file in Windows Media Player by using/embedding the Freemake Video Converter?

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http://www.freemake.com/free_video_converter/ looks to be a video converter. It likely has a movie "preview" mode that would handle your mkv file.

But it is not made to be a movie player.

Converting a file into another format does not make sense to me.

Seems to me, the most straight forward thing to do would be to install a codec.

If you didn't want to install a codec, then I would use a player that handles the file type you need without installing a codec. Would think that VLC or MPLayer would do that.

See, Watch a partial WMV - partially downloaded in emule?.

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You can play the video with Freemake Video Converter or install this codec:

http://haali.su/mkv/

to play the video with your player. It is matroska splitter

The reason that your player does not have codecs to play the format

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  • You're probably right, but for some reason the question asker states: I don't want to install the codec.
    – Arjan
    Dec 16, 2010 at 11:50
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I was able to get mkv files to play in WMP and stream via DNLA using the following registry edit that I found in a forum. Worked like a charm. Note I also have CCCP and ffdshow and klite codec packs installed. 

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.mkv]
"PerceivedType"="video"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Multimedia\WMPlayer\Extensions\.mkv]
"PerceivedType"="video"
"Permissions"=dword:0000000f
"Runtime"=dword:00000007

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\MediaPlayer\MLS\Extensions]
"mkv"="video"

Put the above in a wmp_mkvfix.reg file, double click on it, and WMP will play mkv video. Shutdown WMP first.

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In order to play a video in Windows Media Player, you need to install the codec. Is there a reason you can't install a codec? It seems what you are doing is working. You could always download a player with embedded codecs, such as vlc like others have mentioned.

I would recommend against converting to AVI, as any conversion degrades the quality a little, unless you aren't recoding it. But then you would still need the codec to play it in WMP, even as an AVI file.

Windows Media Player, in short, will not play videos it does not have codecs for.

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