You have transferred to your phone that movie you wanted to see to be able to endure this long journey of public transport, and when you go to play it, those dreaded words appear on the screen: The file cannot be opened. And the same thing happened to you with the new session of that DJ you like that you downloaded in high quality. Frustrating, right? We show you how to fix it!
But we will not explain how to solve something without you knowing why this happens, that then you do not learn anything and it tastes bad, so we will teach you some theory.
What is the video container?
The video container might be the first thing to get us into trouble, but ... What is the container?, Well, easy, the container is what we usually know as «the format»ie .mp4 for video or .mp3 or .wav for audio. These suffixes that you see added to each of your files.
But my video is .mp4 (the standard format) and it won't play. Why does this happen? Well possibly, because of the codec.
The codec. What's that?
The codec is the method of encoding and decoding the data, and is usually used in compressed files, exactly, like your videos and songs. And yes, even if they are loseless it is compressed, but the codec is usually more efficient. For example, FLAC is a codec that allows us to reduce file size without loss. What codecs allow is encode to store or send and decode at playback time. That is why we can have movies (for example) on our computer or phone, otherwise we would not have enough storage to store it.
There are many different codecs, for both audio and video, and even if your video is .mp4, if your codec is H.265 and your player only supports H.264, it will not play. Then… What is the solution to this? Change your media player
It may sound radical, but if you like to enjoy quality content on your mobile phone and you usually use it as a device to view multimedia, it will save you more than one annoyance. So We propose you some players that will surely help you.
VLC Media Player
Surely you have seen it, you know someone who uses it or you use it yourself on your computer. Yes, the player of the cone, that same one, VLC Media Player. Well too has a version for Android, with characteristics similar to its desktop version, and with support for the same formats. Not bad right?
Its file management is great, of course it is divided between videos and songs, and the songs are automatically divided into genres, artists, albums, etc. and you can create your playlists, so you can have all your music organized effortlessly.
And if you still can't find the file you are looking for you can search as if it were the file browser, without having to exit the application.
In addition, VLC stands out for being one of the players that supports more codecs and formats.
Also includes gestures to increase brightness or volume and to fast forward or rewind the video adapt the video to the screen even if you are with the screen vertically. You have a lot of options.
And also if you are a fan of movies in their original subtitled version, it includes support for various subtitle formats and for multitrack audio.
MX Player
But if you really are one of those who watch everything in the original version with subtitles or, for example, you watch a lot of anime, you might be interested MX Player. A player, which apart from its great options, has very interesting things for subtitles such as searching for them on the Internet, opening a file of your own, or change the text, font and size of the same, so that everything is to your liking.
But not only this, it also allows very interesting options such as background playback, that is, you can directly download the video clip of your favorite song and play it, but if you turn off the screen it will continue to sound. A great option for those who love to have video clips saved on their mobile.
It also offers the typical options such as repetition, random, speed, etc. Although with many different repeat options.
Another interesting thing could be selecting the aspect ratio of the video, so that you can reproduce it adapted to your mobile, or in the relationship that you like the most.
These are the players that we propose, Do you have one to propose with good support for different codecs and formats? Tell us!