Instructions for Opening Videos

Download the video

First of all, download the video you would like to play. To do this, right-click the appropriate "download video" link, and select "Save Target As..." or "Save Link As..." (whichever you see). On Macintosh, Ctrl-click if your mouse has only one button.

Find an easy-to-remember place to save this file. You might want to delete it later to free up disk space.

Windows Users

Double-click the file you just saved. If the video starts playing, your computer is already set up, and you don't need the rest of these instructions.

Otherwise, download and install the following programs:

Next, open Windows Media Player (look in Start -> Programs -> Accessories -> Entertainment). Go to File -> Open -> Browse, and find the file you had saved. Select it, and click Open. The video should now play.

For more adventurous users

Install VLC from www.videolan.org/vlc/, and use it to play the file.

Macintosh Users

Check if you can play the files by double-clicking them. If not, install one of the programs below, and use it to play the file.

Linux Users

Check if you have any of the following programs: mplayer, xine, vlc. If you do, try using the installed program. Next, see if your distribution's package manager can install any of them. Otherwise, download and install one of:

If you are going to compile the video player by hand, please note that you need the codecs "ffmpeg" and "libac3" to be enabled.

Last modified: July 9, 2004