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I use Server 2008 box as my primary machine (I'm a developer) so I've tried to configure it as much as is it can to a behave as a Vist Desktop.

I've attempted and failed to convinve Media Player 11 to play DVDs in the process I think I may have trashed its codec set or some such thing. It won't play Mp4 files (I'm not sure it ever did but I think its supposed to). I just get the dreaded "cannot play... might not support ... codec blah..." message.

Unfortunately you only have to wave the word "codec" at a search engine to be inundated with a wave of acronym diahrea which is impossible to decipher by video dummies like me.

Anyone know of a simple way to correct this without re-installing (or how how can simply re-install windows media player on 2008 that won't trash other stuff).

If anyone know how I can (if possible) convince Media player to play DVDs on server 2008 that would be a bonus. ;)

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You can also try vlc (http://www.videolan.org/vlc/), which lets you play DVDs, but has the added advantages of

  1. Ignoring region coding!
  2. Skipping DVD bloat-ware (unskippable FBI warnings, promos, etc).

Not quite what you asked for, but in general a very useful alternative when that foreign disk (especially if you've lived in multiple "regions" like me) won't play.

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Thanks thats quite neat, I can now play DVDs. It will play the MP4s but doesn't support the samr audio encoding so its silent. – AnthonyWJones Aug 2 '09 at 13:42
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What you need is a 64-bit codec pack.

The 64-bit K-Lite Codec Pack should work nicely.

If you are running a 32-bit media player then try the 32-bit version.

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I'm running the version of media player found in the Program Files (x86) folder. Isn't that a 32 bit app? Wouldn't I need 32 bit codecs for that? – AnthonyWJones Jul 28 '09 at 13:43
I'm not sure if that's a 32-bit or 64-bit binary. If it's in (x86) it' s probably 32-bit so try the 32-bit version of the same pack. – Mike McQuaid Jul 28 '09 at 14:03
The version of Media Player is 32 bit so I tried the 32 bit version. I didn't get anywhere with it. Unfortunately exactly as I predicted in my question happened. Once downloaded the installer presents me to the usual codec acronym diahrea, I accept the defaults. I can't be sure thats the correct thing to do but I've got no choice. Media Player still gives me the same error. – AnthonyWJones Aug 2 '09 at 12:56
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