Windows codecs got broken, Firefox and the WMP were affected, won't pl

[strx]

Greetings! Can anyone help me out?



The essential codecs in my Windows 7 x86 installation got messed up recently so videos won't play in Firefox and the WMP. Particularly, the WMP spits an error: Can't access the file, if I try to play an AVC/H.264 video. HLS-streams won't open in Firefox and the web-sites that use HLS to deliver videos just prompt me to use Chrome (and Chrome does play those videos since it relies on built-in codecs I guess!). According to Mozilla KnowledgeBase, Firefox needs system codecs to play certain video-streams. I couldn't manage to repair the codecs or restore the defaults.

The K-Lite Codec pack wasn't helpful at all, the Advanced Codec pack enabled the WMP to play AVC-videos using the bundled filters (LAV/MPC) but Firefox still can't play HLS streams (e.g., on livestream.com)!

Will installing Media Feature/Media Format Feature Pack for Windows 7 included in Windows Update KB968211 help resolve this weird issue? Are there any other means I could try to make Windows codecs work again?

 

[wither 2]

In regards to HLS, this should answer a lot of your questions- What is the HLS Streaming Protocol? When To Use HTTP Live Streaming?

As far as I know, WMP doesn't support mpeg-4 unless you install some kind of mpeg-4 encoder such as DS decoder. If the WMP codecs got screwed up, I suggest reinstalling WMP.

In regards to FireFox, go to Options, Applications. The VLC web plug-in should be listed for playback of mpeg-4.