There are several packages of Windows Codecs available for download, Codecs are necessary to play different file formats on Windows. Codecs are used for encoding or decoding a digital stream or for signal transmission.
You might have seen that Windows Media Player often throws errors saying missing codec, where as a VLC media player will almost play anything you throw at that with out any issues. The problem here is that Windows doesn’t ship all the codecs needed to play several different video formats, but VLC player brings its own codecs with it, so it could play anything. The solution for playing various formats with Windows Media Player is to download codec pack from the internet.
Developer of the Vista/ Windows 7 Codecs released Windows 8 Codec for download. This version is compatible with Windows 8 Consumer Preview released recently.
Install the software package, watch carefully while installing the program as it tries to install a third party app called weather bug, uncheck that before proceeding. After installing you can see it adds two tiles to the Windows 8 Metro Screen, one is to open Windows 8 Codec Settings and the other is for uninstalling the program. Right click the setting tile and choose ‘Run as Administrator’ When the program opens, click the button to [associate filetypes] and Windows Media Player and Media Center will instantly recognize all your files as playable.
The following filetypes are enabled and supported by the installation of the Windows 8 Codecs. amr, mpc, ofr, divx, mka, ape, flac, evo, flv, m4b, mkv, ogg, ogv, ogm, rmvb, xvid. MKV playback is fully supported including thumbnailing and you can choose any media player to play files. All of the above filetypes can be queued to the Windows Media Player Playlist using a right-click. H264 / AVC, hi10p / 10bit codecs are available for use by all players.
The Windows 8 codecs installation supports 20 languages with the default language as English.
Download Windows 8 Codec Pack
