How to Play MP4 Videos in Windows Media Player?

Before you meet trouble in playing MP4 in Windows Media Player, you perhaps originally thought MP4 could be played with any media player. Now, you should know Windows Media Player is the exception:

“I am not able to play MP4 video files in wmp 11.  It says these files are not supported by wmp.  Can you suggest a remedy.” – from answers.microsoft.com

“hi, my windows media player just wont play anything that has a mp4 extension, it keeps saying “Windows Media Player cannot play the file. The Player might not support the file type or might not support the codec that was used to compress the file.” – from answers.microsoft.com

Why can’t you play MP4 in Windows Media Player? Maybe you don’t know what format Windows Media Player, here is the list of video formats supported by Windows:

.avi, .asf, .wma, .wmv, .wm

Although Windows Media Player doesn’t support MP4 file, there are still some ways to make your MP4 files playable in Windows Media Player or on Windows.

My suggestions:

1. Install MP4 codecs for Windows Media Player: Elecard MPEG-4 Codec Pack  provides a wide range of MPEG-4 decoding/encoding solutions, which are offered as DirectShow Filters. Elecard MPEG-4 Codec Pack will enable you to encode and decode various video and audio stream types.

2. Install a free media player ….. VLC. It plays virtually any kind of formats.

3. Google for a video converter. Use it whenever you have video files NOT supported by Windows Media Player. WMV format is the most reliable format for Windows. Would be wise to use that.

Best MP4 to Windows Media Player Converter Recommendation

Pavtube Video Converter Ultimate <Mac version>
is just the right MP4 to Windows Media Player Converter which can convert all kinds of MP4 videos such H.264 MP4, MPEG-4 MP4, H.265 MP4, 3840P MP4, 1080P MP4, 720P MP4 to Windows Media Player supported video format WMV, AVI, ASF, MPG. Besides converting MP4 to WMP video format, it also can convert MP4 to Windows Media Player supported audio format like WMA, MP3, WAV, AU, and AIFF.

Moreover, this ideal MP4 Windows Media Player Converter also helps to convert other Windows Media Player unsupported format like MOV, VOB, WTV, MKV, WebM, RMVB, FLV, 3GP, MXF, AVCHD, FLAC, APE, OGG, 3GA, M4A, DTS, RA, VOC, M4R, and etc to WMP supported video or audio format. Read reasons to choose the program.

Read other tutorials on Windows Media Player media playback:

Steps to Convert MP4 to Windows Media Player

Step 1 Load MP4 videos

After you install the MP4 decoder correctly on your computer, drag you files in this program directly or with “Add Video” button. This top-notch MP4 to WMV converter pro supports drag-drop and batch conversion, so you can import and convert several MP4 files at one stroke.

Step 2 Select Output Format as WMV

Come to the output list and choose HD Video > WMV HD(*.wmv) as the best video format for adding to Windows Meida Player. Of course, you can choose other WMP compatible formats like MPEG-2 or ASF.

Step 3 Optional adjustments of output videos

Adjust the video and audio parameters, including the Bitrate of Video & Audio, Video Size, Sample Rate, Frame Rate, Audio Channels, etc., by clicking the Settings button on the main interface for getting the best quality.

Step 4 Start to convert MP4 to WMV

Now lightly click “Convert” to get MP4 to WMV conversion work started with a split second. You can view the conversion progress from the progress bar at the bottom of the dialog box. After conversion, you can import the output files to Windows Media Player for playing.

With this method, you not only can play MP4 in Windows Media Player, but also can convert and play other unsupported video in WMP.

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