Comp geek needed?
I downloaded Mistral Committed - Reloaded. 344meg on dialup and it took 23hrs
please don't tell me I can't watch it 
PC doesn't recognise a .mp4.
I have XP, latest Win Media Player (auto update with service pack2) and no good.
Anyone?
How are you trying to open it Mark, double clicking on the file, or pointing media player at it with >file>open?
There's a file associate menu somewhere, tells windows what app to use for different extension types, think it's in control panel- files, or something. Not using windows at the moment so I can't be more specific.
I tried "forcing" Win MP to play it and it won't.
Tried to open it in quicktime as in File --> Open but quicktime doesn't even recognise it (ie go to My Documents and it doesn't even show the file).
Aaarrgghhh
Bertie's on the money.
Download VLC, and you should be right. Just think how good it will be to watch it after all that effort!
344 meg in 23 hours is pretty good for dialup, I'm impressed 
(I'm on bluetooth mobile phone access until the ADSL gets connected, 150 MB a month is just painful 
)
you need an mp4 codec for windows media player
Google it
Alternativly just download a decent media player like VLC
Another vote for VLC.. it will play pretty much any format known to man, and does it well.
Alternatively, if you have Nero (and a DVD writer), you can burn it to a DVD movie and watch it that way.
The easiest method to play mp4 files is with quicktime seeing as ISO (International Standards Organisation) chose the quicktime format as the foundation for MPEG-4. Just make sure you have the latest version installed. When I d/l committed it played fine on mine.
If you still have issues, just send me a pm and I will send you a copy of the movie as I have burnt it to dvd.
support.apple.com/kb/DL837?locale=en_US
To permanently associate a file extension with an application, open Windows Explorer and click on the file with the right mouse button ("right", as opposed to "left", not opposed to "wrong").
You will see a drop-down list, with an "Open with . . ." option. This leads to a "Choose Program . . ." option. Select this, and find the application you want. There is a check box with the caption "Always use the selected program to open this type of file". Check the box.
When you click on the OK button, Windows will remember the association, and Robert is your father's brother. 
you can do as bertie said
and
you can also download the ffdshow filter if you want to play back the video in windows media player. It looks like a single codec but actually contains dozens of codecs in one module which it can switch between. (not to be confused with the virus/trojan riddled so called codec packs) admittedly, to get the best from it u need to be a little computer savvy to set up though
www.free-codecs.com/download/ffdshow.htm
it will let u play and encode h264 / avchd, mp4 etc. and alot of the other most recent compression types that are being used on the web
h264 is the best codec going at the moment for great quality movies at small file sizes
its just a really smart codec that benefits from the most recent advances in compression technology.
Most filmakers releasing anything online use h.264 - usually in quicktime -to preserve the lighting, contrast and camera movements they work so hard to achieve- so getting your computer set up for h.264 is important these days.
Quicktime player is free -Just having the latest version of itunes means you will have it.
Or the third party options mentioned above wrk well too
WMV is a joke by comparison.
To give some perspective : comparing 2 10mb video files (say with around 2 mins of video in each ) - the wmv version will look like youtube (washed out color, macroblocking) , while the h.264 file will maintain many of the colors (with no or little macroblocking) and full frame rate.
The idiot proof 'works everytime method as most above have said is VLC. Plays almost everything and is idiot proof. You can't go wrong.
