VLC Media Player
 

Hi All... I have downloaded three versions of a movie which is current here in Australia and everyone of them has come up with a Codec Error when I go to test it and put a judgement on Bitzi. It is saying that I require VLC Media Player which I download but when I go to install it I receive an error on the Dowloads which says "This download has been blocked by your Secutiry Zone Policy". The movie plays for about a minute before rerouting to VLC Media Player download. It looks good and there are no viruses but I am not computer literate enough to know what Security Zone Policy is, what it means, if it is changeable and if so, is it safe to do and how do I do it, please?
Any help would be greatly appreciated because I would really like to see this movie and it has been very hard finding a copy which is even mentioned on Bitzi and I am happy for you to respond to my email: [email]***.
Thanks everyone... :shoot:

We actually highly recommend VLC .. just make sure you get it from the official site & it's mirror download sites: VLC (click on link). VLC has in-built codecs & is generally highly reliable. My guess is you were playing a mkv file?

The blocking might have been caused by your computer security system blocking software calls outward which is a good thing that it does block it. :)

hi

You have not stated what operting system you are running, a very important point.

If it is Vista or XP with Service Pack 3 than you will be enjoying the security 'improvements'.

Have a look at

Black Viper's Web Site

for 'tweaks' that will probably solve your problem.
Main thing is to disable all of the MS security stuff.
Might sound foolish but it's the price to pay if you want to have even moderately good performance and reduce your clicking by about 300%!

The 'tweaks' are all safe.

Plus, although there are many who will argue for their own favourites, I would recommend the Cole2k STANDARD Codec pack and 'easy' installation, and the All In One 6.0.3.0 Codec Pack (again with the standard/default settings).

One basic 'secret' is to remove/uninstall your existing Codec Packs, do a restart and then install first

Codec Pack Standard

next

All In One 6.0.3.0

Then, do a shutdown.
Next, start your comp and install the latest

VLC Media Player


The installation order is important.

Last, if you occasionally have problems with VLC and DVD material it is no big surprise and PowerDVD will probably run the DVD without problems.

btw, VLC should have no problems with Matroska files.

I use Safe XP to tweak my settings....I disable about everything that allows XP to communicate with home (except updates, which I have set to notify but not download via the control panel)

I don't get this at all.. or rather if I do get it, then it worries me a lot. A video is definitely not supposed to try and get you to download anything.

Are you sure this movie isn't rerouting you to some rogue site?

VLC Media Player
 

Hi and thanks for your response. What is happening is that I go into the folder in which the downloaded movie is stored. I then click on it to start it. The movie starts and then a message comes onto the screen over the playing movie saying something like "you are trying to play a High Definition movie and we require you to download VLC Media Player. We hope that this does not cause you any problems". Then, the movie stops and all of a sudden the browser is in front of me with the Download screen of VLC Media Player. As I said on Bitzi, it has happened three times with what I thought were three different versions of the movie (all titled differently) but they all turned out to be the same. And the rest you know.

May I ask what the file extension is? Also what the file size is? And which OS version you have?

VLC Media Player
 

Hi Lord of the Rings... The file extension is .avi. The file size is 683 MB and I run on Windows XP. Thanks for your response. You must be up at all hours of day and night!
Regards,
Perregrine

avi is a containor file .. the actual file type inside could be anything, but my guess is H/X.264 or Matroska. (Matroska is generally a containor file itself but I believe there is a specific Matroska video format also; not sure) :confused: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matroska
I'm a night owl lol :D I'm actually from the same land mass as you. ;)

You won't have problems if you use VLC .. but pripla's suggestion is ok too.

Hi Lord of the Rings, if you look at my first message on the forum, when I do the download and the file is in my Dowloads folder, there is a big, red cross with a message which says: This download has been blocked by your Security Zone Policy and that was what I was asking about. I do not know what any of that means. I do not know what a Security Zone Policy is. I don't know if I can enable it to allow it to accept the VLC Media Player nor how to find it or do it. But Nothing I do will make it install. I do not know what the repercussions may be if I can every find out what it is and change it. That was my question. I do not know what my Security Zone Policy is and what I can do about making it let me install the VLC Media Player.
What is an mkv file, please? Are they used for movies? How do you know what type of file you have if it doesn't show anywhere?
Regards,
Perregrine

Hi, This has just frightened me. I don't understand it at all. I run Windows XP as an OS. I'm sorry but nothing makes any sense to me at all because I am not terribly computer literate. Odd, I know, since I was in IT support for ten years but since having to give up work because I am totally disabled, I haven't any way to keep up with all the changes which are happening continually. Thank you so much for trying to help me but I am not able to understand any of it to take the chance of doing anything.
Kind regards,
Perregrine

Hi, I don't even know what a container file is, nor all the others you mentioned. Boy I wish I was able to get about and keep up to date on all the changes which have happened over the last ten years I have been bed ridden.
Thanks so much for your kind reply. I really appreciate it.
Kind regards,
Perregrine

Either this is the shortest movie in history, or it's definitely not High Definition. A high definition copy of a movie is usually over 4GB large and upwards. It will definitely not be .avi extension, because .avi unlike .mkv does not allow upscaling (has to to with DVD vs. encode pixels as to get proper aspect ratio). VLC is usually a trusted player, whether good or not there are different opinions, but I don't like the fact it purposely tries to make you download VLC and opens a link. Be very sure it's actually the real videolan site and not some copycat trying to have you download malware on your computer.

The real site is VLC media player - Open Source Multimedia Framework and Player

Hi Sleepless, you are a veritable treasure. You have hit the nail on the head. I clicked on your link and the web site is nothing at all like the one which you are redirected to when you download the particular movie I have been trying to get. Also, thank you so much for that information about high definition and the file size. It is nothing like 4 Gb. I downloaded it from Limewire, too. I do check Bitzi before downloading but for some movies which are current, people have put a listing on but nothing on the listing about their copy. I find that quite odd.
I can't thank you enough. I guess the best thing for me to do is to wait a couple of weeks and see if more people have copies of the movie which are not a mess. I did say in my judgement in Bitzi that it insists you download VLC Media Player to the point that you are redirected to the web site.
Thank you so much. I am so grateful for your help. You have helped me before actually and got me through a bind so I am a fan!
Kind regards,
Perregrine

I have a simple rule...

any video which tries to do anything besides play the file is deleted immediately...

I also ban any media player from being able to access the net with my firewall....

Thank you, too. I am so grateful for your help. I, too, am very careful about downloading anything which tries to make you do something you do not want to do. And thank goodness for my Security Zone Policy. The trouble with this one was that it didn't happen until you started to play it. It has already been deleted. Bother about the waste of my download allocation but better to have a healthy computer. Kind regards, Perregrine