Microsoft MPEG-1 (50) Codec Missing

[CaspaR]

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I am getting a Microsoft MPEG-1(50) codec missing error while playing mp3 files in Windows Media Player. I had just recently upgraded the media player and thought it will play the mp3 files as before. But somehow the problem lies with internal codec. It is not playing simple audio files. There is one more audio player installed in my system. That works quiet well with all mp3 files. Where can I find proper codecs for the same.

[Arzhela]

That's weird. Windows Media Player has no issue with MP3 and MPEG files. They work quiet fine. I think there is some problem with the update. Try to add some codecs in your system. You can find relative Windows Media Player codec from web. Download them and run the setup.

[wuntime]

I had this same problem trying to play mp3's on a fresh install of Vista. "Microsoft MPEG-1 (50)" missing error and had hopeless redirection from WMP codec servers. Here's what you need to do if you get this problem; firstly, don't use Windows media player.

Install the free AC3 Filter 1.45b

2,744 KB
nicely bundled audio filters and codecs ... FUN!

Sourceforge & mirrors


And secondly, use a decent media player please:

off the top of my head, here are three ...

VLC (highly recommend this one for all media)
Video Lan.org free download

Winamp (Still going strong)
Winamp.com free download

or even
iTunes (if you like that sort of thing)
iTunes 7.something

Rock on and enjoy my son, crank it to 11, because your eardrums wont last forever

[ekanthika]

Download Microsoft Codecs and that's all. You will be able to play all kind of mpeg files. The codecs are available for free and you can also find them through Windows Update. And if you are not able to find that, then better get some third party codecs. Those will be more helpful in many ways.

[kyna]

I have the same problem with certain MP3s. I also have the obnoxiously obstinate Vista running-platform. Do you use Vista? On an old version of WMP in the XP-platform, the files play just as they should. These particular files won't play in the Vista-platform WMP, though. Yet, they do play in the iPod, irFan, and WinAmp. As you said, the plugin referral site doesn't even have the codex. I've been attempting to discover where the "50" might actually be online. If I find out anything, I'll post it.

[DreaMen]

An easy solution that can help your MP3 file to play in WMP is to open it with iTunes and in the Advanced menu click Convert Selection to MP3. Then after the file is done converting open it again with WMP. It should now be able to play. This doesn't fix the missing codec problem, but it does enable your MP3 file to play in WMP. I tried your suggestion and can now listen to the MP3 music that the WMP originally balked on. Cool, I'm glad I was of some help. But just a little advice, like I said in my last post, this doesn't fix your missing MPEG-1 (50) codec problem...which really shouldn't be ignored...any problem/error for that matter. As zachd had said before me, the codec should already be on your system and that the error is most likely caused by a 3rd party multimedia program.

[vondeliusc]

Try to run system restore if you are not happy with the current version. System restore is the best option to get old settings back and it works quiet nicely. For new version I think you will need a better edition of Windows media player.

[PaulMacFarlane]

The problem with renaming is you might not be able to. I have a user with a CD with one of these files and I can't rename it because is part of a presentation. I've spent over an hour trying to track down a solution, have tried about 8 and none work. Lots of broken links out there - even the WebHelp link from WMP. This whole thing is pretty bad on MS' part IMO. The file is MP3. The problem is that this is a published presentation (with many more to follow) on a CD with slides, etc. So I can't be converting, resyncing and reburning every CD that comes in. Nope - it's on a CD in the law firms legal library. I do not have access to it right now. Thanks - I'll give that a try.

[iceman8766]

Open the folder with the MP3 file in it that you want Windows Media Player to play. Click on "Organize" then "Folder and Search Options". Choose the view tag. Untick "Hide extensions for known file types". Click "OK". Right click in blank area of the folder. Choose "Properties" then the "Customize" tab. Select "Documents" from the drop down menu. Click "OK". You will now see files in the folder with their extensions. Change the extension of the file you want WMP to play from ".mp3" to ".mp2". Double click the file. It will play in WMP. The Codec is there all the time. It is an mp2 codec! Don't waste time looking for a codec that does not exist.

[devdeathray]

Changing the file extensions worked perfectly. I had actually tried to convert the file with a file converter the first time and nothing happened. No error messages, but no music played either. Could someone explain to my WHY this works?

[LifesBane]

Maybe this is related, maybe it's not, but I figure I'd post this fix anyways. I had been tinkering around in the registry to fix some MP3 problems in another program (which I did solve), but it seemed to have messed up WMP's MP3 support for me. I'm using an older version of WMP and I'm on XP, but I was getting the same error messages (including the redirection to the website that had no codecs available). Don't worry about the first instruction that has you downloading WMP11, you may not even need to do that. Just check if you have the l3codecp.acm file first. If you do, check for the two registry entries listed on the page. If they don't exist, just create them (right click -> New -> String Value). Once I created these values, WMP was back to normal. If you don't have the l3codecp.acm file, I'd suggest probably following the last set of instructions that seems to allow you to individually extract that file as opposed to doing a full reinstall of WMP11.

[Huki]

Download and installed Media Player Codec pack in your system. You can find the same freely on web. The setup is not really very complicated. I found one link below. You can get a code installation package from the same.

Codec Installation Package

[DCFung]

WMP cannot recognize what format it is since it has a .mp3 extension. It should be using the already available mpeg codec for differrent extensions(.avi, .mpg, .mpeg, etc.). MP2 is the audio version of DVD format mpeg2 video/audio.