Windows 8 Bible

Watching Video Files

A video file is a file on your hard disk that contains video and audio. These files include videos you capture from video cameras, smart phones, digital cameras, recorded TV shows, and videos you download from the web. Video files come in many formats, and thanks to the Windows 8 Video app and Media Player 12’s support for additional formats, Windows can now play almost any type of video. The following sections will help you understand how to manage and play videos in the Video app and Media Player.

Note

Unlike previous versions of Media Player, Windows 8’s Media Player 12 application does not support playback of DVD movies. For information on playing DVD movies in Windows 8, see Chapter 26.

Using your Videos library

Tip

You can store video files in any folder you want. But to stay organized, you may want to put video files that are private in your user account’s My Videos folder. Video files that you want to share with all users should go into the Public Videos folder. Both folders offer similar features. So before we get to playing videos, take a moment to look at your Videos folder.

To open your Videos folder, start File Explorer. Then click Videos in the Navigation pane. Figure 25.1 shows an example where there are already some videos and other items in the Videos folder. Only the icons that look like thumbnails are actual videos. When you click one of those, it shows in the Preview pane (if the Preview pane is open).

FIGURE 25.1 Videos ...