I meant to type up something bigger on this, but I got distracted and it has been on my drafts list for way too long now so I just need to publish it.
I cannot stand having Quicktime or RealPLayer on my computer (I hate obnoxious adware and nagware). In addition to that, it is tiring to get all the right codecs. Plus, we use a lot of flash video around here and I like having a viewer for it.
That is why I have installed the K-Lite mega-codec pack, and I love it.
Then, I was listening to a Mac user complaining that Mac’s have trouble playing certain video types. One of those is the type of avi created by our security camera system. I think I may recommend Perian for the Mac users. I just hope they can figure out how to install it themselves.
You should try the VLC-media player. It’s free and open source and tends to be my default player for “weird” formats that won’t play in other players. It is very very rare for me to run into a video that won’t play in VLC, so it might be a good alternative for you guys:
http://www.videolan.org/vlc/
It will also play FLV’s. (except for the 8+ formatted)
I tried VLC Player (0.8.4a, not the more recent 0.8.5) and had a few problems with it. I just stuck with the Media Player Classic that comes with the codec pack.
It is nice to have lots of options, though. The more available options the more the leaders get pushed to keep improving.