Media Player Codecs

I have Win Media Player version 6.4. I do NOT want a higher version. When you try to view some cips with this version, naturally many clips want you to upgrade and will not show the video portion of the clip. My question is can I download just the CODECS while keeping my MP version 6.4 and it will play the newer clips? See the following link:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/release.asp?ReleaseID=31921&area=search&ordinal=2

Will this work WITHOUT upgrading to Media Player 7.0?

 

Hi AceH,

Can I download just the CODECS while keeping my MP version 6.4 and it will play the newer clips? See the following link:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...earch&ordinal=2

Will this work WITHOUT upgrading to Media Player 7.0?

I used the Windows Media Version 7 Codec (690 kb) from Steve Gibson's site at:
http://grc.com/media.htm

Scroll about halfway down the page and you'll see the download. I have WMP, Ver. 6.4.07.1110. I have a slow DUN connection rate, so I obviously don't get any streaming media that's great, but the CODECS definitely helped!

Ramona

 

I downloaded from the link provided by AceH 733kb and they also seemed to have helped.

In fact I just dumped WMP7 and re-installed 6.4 yesterday.

I have the same verison of WMP as Ramona

BillyBob

 

Hey BB,

Is this on your Windows 98SE machine?


Curious Ramona

 

Is this on your Windows 98SE machine?

No. It is on my machine that has the Original Win98.

I dumped SE off of this machine a long time ago.

However I will give it a try on the machine that does have SE on it tomorrow,

BillyBob

 

Ramona/BillyBob

Ramona/BillyBob,

The link I have appears to be more recent codec updates. I'm not sure which one to try, my link or the one posted by Ramona.

Ramona....should I decide to go with your link, would it be a good idea to install all the components (I started to do it then backed out)

BillyBob....the link I posted says it's for administrators to use over a network. Geez I don't know what to do here!

HELP!!!

 

Well, I just could not wait so I just loaded the one from Microsoft into the machine with 98 SE.

It really did a number on that one as it apparently had never been updated with NetShow and a bunch of other Codecs

It only put a couple of itmes on ths one.

It works differently as that machine only has IE5 on it. This one has IE6. ( if that does make a difference )

I can watch Videos from MSNBC where I could not before.

So the bottom line that I draw is that it did not hurt.

One thing about WMP it can be un-installed.

BillyBob

 

BillyBob,

You wrote: "It works differently as that machine only has IE5 on it. This one has IE6. ( if that does make a difference ) "

I have IE 5.5 Sp2. I'm not sure how to take "it works differently... "?

When you installed the codecs from the Microsoft site, did you install the whole package?

 

Hi BB,

One thing about WMP it can be un-installed.

Well, 6.4 needs a manual install, as it is not in the Add/Remove applet.

AceH,

I hear your reluctance. I too am very conservative when it comes to installing something that I'm not very familiar with. I can only tell you of my own experience, which was with the Version 7 Codecs. I rarely use WMP, so it is of minor importance to me.

I took a peek at both the Ver. 7 & 8 codec .exe files. I note that Ver. 8 has a total of 35 files, vs. 21 files for Ver. 7.

The files in Ver. 7 are dated 2000
The files in Ver. 8 are dated 2001

I am going to nudge you in the direction of Ver. 7, see how it goes, then if you want to move on to Ver. 8, do so.

And to answer your question, if you downloaded from the Gibson site, then it is a straight forward install.

FWIW

Ramona

 

Thanks Ramona!

I was leaning more, much more in fact, toward the Gibson site you posted. I already downloaded the file I was just waiting for your "good houskeeping seal of approval ".

You're right about MP ver 6.4, it isn't listed in the add/remove applet. Just out of curiosity, how would you uninstall it?

 

These are uninstall instructions from MS, but are no longer available at the link shown:

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q171/2/29.ASP

How to Manually Uninstall Windows Media Player 6.4

You may want to uninstall Windows Media Player for one of the following reasons:

You want to return to a previous version of Windows Media Player or Media Player.

A bad installation of Windows Media Player 6.4 occurred.

A file associated with Windows Media Player is damaged or corrupted.

You are unable to uninstall the program using the Add/Remove Programs tool in Control Panel.

To manually uninstall Windows Media Player 6.4:

1.Delete the following files from the %SystemRoot%\System folder and the "Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Msinfo" folder:

msdxm.ocx
msisys.ocx

I saved this MSKB Article in 6/01.

Good luck, and let us know how it goes!

Ramona

 

Well, 6.4 needs a manual install, as it is not in the Add/Remove applet.

We have got different setups then. I have 6.4 in the Add/Remove in control Panel. It switched from 7 to 6.4 yesterday.

This is what makes this helping ( or trying to ) so tough. Things like WMP and any updates to it may react completely different on each of our machines. That was the case on my two.

It may make a difference on how it was installed. Mine was intsalled from a separate download. I do not let it install along with IE. I always do a custon install of IE. OE and WMP are left out.

AceH

I loaded the full package.

As I said before it only put a couple of things in this machine but, several others on the other.

The other machine has 98SE against 98FE on this one. So that could make a difference also.

It actually worked the same but just came up in a different Windows. MSNBC came up the same on both. Another site came up differently.

BillyBob

 

Thanks again Ramona. I copied the instructions you just posted. That link goes to "how to uninstall IE components "....do you know if MP 6.4 is listed somewhere in that section?

BTW...I installed the codecs from the Gibson site, ran the test video and it works. (Prior to installiing the new Codecs the test video did not work for me, so I know the install was successful)...HOWEVER, there's always either a BUT or HOWEVER I wanted to test my MP on a file and now it's asking me to download NetShow, which is indicated as a ver 8 media codec; the ver 7 download does not include that one. Heck I can't win for loosing. LOL

 

AceH,

Yes, that is an older KB article, and that's why I added but are no longer available at the link shown. I don't know if MS does this when programs become obsolete or what.

My Media Player was preinstalled when I bought my PC. I have rolled back from IE 5.5 to 5.0, but I didn't elect to install WMP with IE 5.5. I'm running 98SE.

If you really want to use WMP, and the files are important to your viewing, then give the Ver.8 codecs a whirl. If you like, I would be glad to give you the additional files included with Ver. 8.

Ramona

 

Ramona,

I may as well give the Microsoft files a try...the link I gave which BillyBob used. That one should simply overwrite any older files right?

 

I downloaded and installed the WMP 8 codec files from the Microsoft site and it works just fine.

Thanks for your help with this. I really appreciate it.

 

AceH,

Glad to hear that all went well!

Ramona

 

My Media Player was preinstalled when I bought my PC.

Ramona

That may explainwhy it is not in the add/remove.

AceH

Gald all worked well.

Enjoy

I believe I mentioned it before but if not will now. It added NetShow to the other machine.

I also now see that AceH dioes not have it in add/remove so it must come down to how it was installed.

I was just checking things out and WMP is not in add/remove on the machine with SE. But it is on the two with FE.

Project for to day. See if I can figure out why.

BillyBob

 

MAYBE you discovered the reason MP is or isn't in the add/remove section in an earlier post. You said when you installed Windows, you left out MP and then installed it as a stand alone program.

When I did a clean install of windows, I INCLUDED MP. This could be the culprit. Geez! Now I'm not sure if you have the option to NOT install MP when installing Win 98SE??? Ummmm!

Anybody remember when doing a clean install of Win 98SE if you are given the option to install MP or not?

 

I would like nothing better than to sit here and say "This is why this does or does not do this or that. "

I have three machines and each one does things differently. WMP works one way on this machine and differently on each of the other two. ( different screens come up when on the web )

I can make a suggestion though.

If it is working and doing all you want it to, don't try to fix it.

BillyBob