Audio Codec Tag 161

This message is not so common today but still comes up often enough in the online forums for me to put up this page!

This error occurs when there is a missing Audio Codec on your PC, so that the audio part of your video can not be played.

BUT it is simple to resolve - just install the codec!

It's important to understand that video and audio are two separate things, which when combined make up movies.

Getting The Correct Codec

A movie consists of a video stream for the picture and an audio stream for the sound. Codecs are what makes it possible to decode the audio and video stream, but it there are so many of the in existence, you may not have the correct one installed on every occasion. Even if you have popular ones installed like the DivX download or even have every possible media player installed.

If the sound in a movie isn't working you have to find out which audio codec is missing and install it.

To find out which audio codec you're missing you should download the GSpot codec utility and open the movie you are having problems playing. The program will give you information about what codecs are needed to play the movie and if you have them installed on your computer.

However, please note that even though GSpot might say that you have compatible codecs installed this information isn't always correct. To see which codec is actually used to decode the audio, use the "Render" option at the bottom of the program.

If GSpot says "Rendering failed" or "Partial failure" then you don't have any compatible audio codec installed, so you need to use audio codec name to lookup the codec you need in Google to then find and download it onto your PC.

In the case of the Audio Codec Tag 161 here is a link to the file you need to download and install:

Audio Codec Tag 161 (a DivX Audio Compressor)

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