Why are my video and music files changing formats when I upload them?

Question

Well, recently, I had formatted my HDD and reloaded it with Windows Xp Pro Service Pack 3. I can't remember when exactly this started happening, but when I upload music or video files from like my flash drive, or download them from a site. (making sure they were for example, AVI or MP3 format, when I download them, the icons will look like the correct file type, but when I look at the description, what was supposed to be AVI is a video clip, and an MP3 was a mp3 format sound. My windows media player 11 nor my nero showtime will play the files. My computer works fine with pictures and programs, but not these files. I even tried different formats and I still get errors saying that my programs can not play those formats saying it encounters an error when trying to play it. Please help me.

Answer 1

i had this same problem, their is a certain codex in the video and mp3 files that your media players don't have. the only thing u can do is find the codex that is needed. Mostly to be found by updating all your media type players

Answer 2

Just download " K-Lite Mega Codec pack".It play almost every files.You don't have to use windows media player or any other media player in your system anymore.Before installing K-Lite Mega Codec pack, remove all the media players other than windows media player from your system.After that install K-Lite Mega Codec pack and when you see the finish button( don't configure anything when you see the finish button),just click finish and you can see a " media player classic" icon.Use media player classic.It plays almost all video and audio files