Wikipedia:Help with media files

Some Wikipedia articles use sound files. The reason for this page is to tell how to play these files on your computer.

Sound files here usually use the Ogg Vorbis sound type. Other kinds of sound types like MP3 or MPEG are used other places more, but they are patented. Vorbis is free to use.

Wikipedia sound files can be played on almost all home computers. Your computer must have the right software. If your computer does not play these files when you click on them, you can get free software from the Internet. The list below shows software that can play Vorbis files.

Windows

• Illiminable.com/ogg has Ogg Vorbis and Ogg Theora codecs for all versions of Microsoft Windows (click on "Download Now"). After putting this on your computer, Windows Media player (and many other players) should play any .ogg file.
• VLC
• MPlayer for Windows [1] can play .ogg files.
• jetAudio can play Ogg Vorbis and Ogg Theora files, and many others.

Macintosh

• VLC
• Mplayer

Unix (Including Linux, *BSD, Solaris, etc)

• VLC
• libtheora [2] is required for Ogg Theora support. It comes with a demo video player (player_example).
• MPlayer [3] can play Ogg Theora files using a previously-built libtheora. Note: a prebuilt package (such as an RPM) may not include support for all codecs: consult the MPlayer documentation for instructions on compiling it yourself with appropriate codecs.
• Totem [4] is the default movie player in GNOME. It can also play music.