How Do I play a MP4 File on CD in Vista?

Sometimes I find Vista extremely infuriating and this is one of those times.
I've got a golf training CD that came with a book, and according to the book
there are some videos to look at on the cd. They have .MP4 extensions.
When I double click one, I'm told that Windows doesn't know what program to
use to open it, so I select Windows Media Center from a list. Then I come
to the media center, but I can't find the CD or the files in the media
center. I can find tons of icons changing size and flashing as I pass the
cursor over them, and it's all very pretty and sounds good, I'm sure, but I
can't do what I want, which is just to take a look at one of the tracks on
the CD!!

So now, instead of seeing a quick clip and moving on to other tasks this
afternoon, I am beating my head against the wall, wondering why I paid $160
for this insanely screwed up OS.

So, please excuse the ranting, and can anyone tell me what I need to do to
play these video clips?

Thanks,

Jack

Personally I use the Media Player Classic included in the K-lite mega codec
pack. Works great.
http://fileforum.betanews.com/detail...k/1080441198/1


"Jack B" <jbruss@wi.rr.com> wrote in message
news:%23bjajNpXHHA.2320@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
> Sometimes I find Vista extremely infuriating and this is one of those
> times. I've got a golf training CD that came with a book, and according to
> the book there are some videos to look at on the cd. They have .MP4
> extensions. When I double click one, I'm told that Windows doesn't know
> what program to use to open it, so I select Windows Media Center from a
> list. Then I come to the media center, but I can't find the CD or the
> files in the media center. I can find tons of icons changing size and
> flashing as I pass the cursor over them, and it's all very pretty and
> sounds good, I'm sure, but I can't do what I want, which is just to take a
> look at one of the tracks on the CD!!
>
> So now, instead of seeing a quick clip and moving on to other tasks this
> afternoon, I am beating my head against the wall, wondering why I paid
> $160 for this insanely screwed up OS.
>
> So, please excuse the ranting, and can anyone tell me what I need to do to
> play these video clips?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Jack

/Jack B/ said:

> Sometimes I find Vista extremely infuriating and this is one of those times.
> I've got a golf training CD that came with a book, and according to the book
> there are some videos to look at on the cd. They have .MP4 extensions.
> When I double click one, I'm told that Windows doesn't know what program to
> use to open it, so I select Windows Media Center from a list. Then I come
> to the media center, but I can't find the CD or the files in the media
> center. I can find tons of icons changing size and flashing as I pass the
> cursor over them, and it's all very pretty and sounds good, I'm sure, but I
> can't do what I want, which is just to take a look at one of the tracks on
> the CD!!
>
> So now, instead of seeing a quick clip and moving on to other tasks this
> afternoon, I am beating my head against the wall, wondering why I paid $160
> for this insanely screwed up OS.
>
> So, please excuse the ranting, and can anyone tell me what I need to do to
> play these video clips?

This may help, though it refers to older Media Players...
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/win...cdownload.aspx

Alternatively, try Media Player Classic, an open source player available
for free. It plays most files types...
http://sourceforge.net/project/showf...ckage_id=84358

Thanks - that worked. That's the second time I've tried to play a video in
Vista and the second set of codecs I've had to download. It seems insane to
me that I've got to keep downloading stuff in order to see a video on my
Vista OS. I've got the Home Premium version that is supposed to provide
this great media center!

Thanks again,

Jack


"John Barnes" <jbarnes@email.net> wrote in message
news:uVa8HWpXHHA.3268@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
> Personally I use the Media Player Classic included in the K-lite mega
> codec pack. Works great.
> http://fileforum.betanews.com/detail...k/1080441198/1
>
>
> "Jack B" <jbruss@wi.rr.com> wrote in message
> news:%23bjajNpXHHA.2320@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
>> Sometimes I find Vista extremely infuriating and this is one of those
>> times. I've got a golf training CD that came with a book, and according
>> to the book there are some videos to look at on the cd. They have .MP4
>> extensions. When I double click one, I'm told that Windows doesn't know
>> what program to use to open it, so I select Windows Media Center from a
>> list. Then I come to the media center, but I can't find the CD or the
>> files in the media center. I can find tons of icons changing size and
>> flashing as I pass the cursor over them, and it's all very pretty and
>> sounds good, I'm sure, but I can't do what I want, which is just to take
>> a look at one of the tracks on the CD!!
>>
>> So now, instead of seeing a quick clip and moving on to other tasks this
>> afternoon, I am beating my head against the wall, wondering why I paid
>> $160 for this insanely screwed up OS.
>>
>> So, please excuse the ranting, and can anyone tell me what I need to do
>> to play these video clips?
>>
>> Thanks,
>>
>> Jack
>

I am with you on that. I can't get certain audio or video feeds from the
web that were no problem in XP (86 or 64). I am using ultimate, yikes.

"Jack B" <jbruss@wi.rr.com> wrote in message
news:%23A803HsXHHA.3928@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
> Thanks - that worked. That's the second time I've tried to play a video
> in Vista and the second set of codecs I've had to download. It seems
> insane to me that I've got to keep downloading stuff in order to see a
> video on my Vista OS. I've got the Home Premium version that is supposed
> to provide this great media center!
>
> Thanks again,
>
> Jack
>
>
> "John Barnes" <jbarnes@email.net> wrote in message
> news:uVa8HWpXHHA.3268@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
>> Personally I use the Media Player Classic included in the K-lite mega
>> codec pack. Works great.
>> http://fileforum.betanews.com/detail...k/1080441198/1
>>
>>
>> "Jack B" <jbruss@wi.rr.com> wrote in message
>> news:%23bjajNpXHHA.2320@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
>>> Sometimes I find Vista extremely infuriating and this is one of those
>>> times. I've got a golf training CD that came with a book, and according
>>> to the book there are some videos to look at on the cd. They have .MP4
>>> extensions. When I double click one, I'm told that Windows doesn't know
>>> what program to use to open it, so I select Windows Media Center from a
>>> list. Then I come to the media center, but I can't find the CD or the
>>> files in the media center. I can find tons of icons changing size and
>>> flashing as I pass the cursor over them, and it's all very pretty and
>>> sounds good, I'm sure, but I can't do what I want, which is just to take
>>> a look at one of the tracks on the CD!!
>>>
>>> So now, instead of seeing a quick clip and moving on to other tasks this
>>> afternoon, I am beating my head against the wall, wondering why I paid
>>> $160 for this insanely screwed up OS.
>>>
>>> So, please excuse the ranting, and can anyone tell me what I need to do
>>> to play these video clips?
>>>
>>> Thanks,
>>>
>>> Jack
>>
>