Sometimes the video plays without audio, occasionally its the sound which plays with a blank screen. Since there are many codecs, unless you have the right codec, you cannot play the file.įurther, there are many scenarios. Later, the consumer can decode the file and play it on his computer.

Think of it as a program which can reduce the size of a video file so the end-user can download it faster. Windows Media Player cannot play, burn, rip, or sync the file because a required audio codec is not installed on your computer.Windows Media Player cannot play the file because the required video codec is not installed on your computer.Similar other messages you could see are: To determine if this codec is available to download from the Web, click Web Help. So if you receive an error - A codec is required to play this file it means you don’t have the codec to decode and play the file on your computer.Ī codec is required to play this file.

Codecs are a program that compresses a video and later helps to decode it. The word Codec is an acronym of the words compressor and decompressor.

Update codecs for windows media player