Author Topic: Essential Codecs and Filters? (Read 1536 times)

Dizzy · « **on:** January 06, 2006, 04:40:48 AM »

I'm formatting my computer within the next 24 hours (YAY I LOVE FORMATTING). Anyways, usually I download DiVX 3, 4, 5, XViD and OGG, but are there any other Codecs I'm missing? I downloaded an Erika Sawajiri DVD and some JAV movie and both don't work, saying they aren't valid AVI or MPEG4 files. Now within the last week I've downloaded well over 20 codecs and they STILL won't run (one of the reasons I'm formatting) so what do all of you suggest I download? What are newer Codecs that are frequently being used a lot that I might not know about? Any help is greatly appreciated.

~Dan~ · « **Reply #1 on:** January 06, 2006, 05:16:39 AM »

Some people recommend codec packs such as "nimo pack" but that's the worst thing you can do. They work fine with some people but can cause problems.

I installed xp a few months ago and all I installed was the divx codecs and player from divx.com and that's it. Windows media player 9 came with xp and that has codecs with it so get that if you don't have it. I didn't need to install any other codecs and haven't had a problem playing anything.

I use windows media player for most things (inxluding divx and xvid). It's performance was bad with win98 but it seems fine with xp, and I also have media player classic which plays any of the weirder types like matroska or whatever. I used to like divx player with win98 but I stopped using it for xp as it has no error checking, and I had an avi that was wrongly interleaved and it gave my xp it's only bsod-style crash so far.

There's a program called "codec sniper" that you can use to make a list of all your installed codecs, and you can use the prog to delete codecs. Be careful what you delete as you can make things worse if you don't know what you're deleting.

If you have a file you can't play you can download a prog called "gspot" that should tell you what codec you need to play the file. (in fact it's useful for identifying other filetypes - I had an .avi file I couldn't play whatever I tried, and gspot told me it was a .zip, I renamed and unzipped and the avi was inside.)

A possible reason for an avi file not playing is that it might be incomplete or corrupt. As a last resort you can use virtualdub to make a "direct stream copy" and that usually fixes it.

Dizzy · « **Reply #2 on:** January 06, 2006, 06:27:52 PM »

Thank you for your help Dan (^___^)

stoneden · « **Reply #3 on:** January 08, 2006, 09:42:55 AM »

I format my 4 computers about once a year. Just finished one today. I prefer to use K-Lite Mega Codecs Pak. During installation, I have the option to add or remove codecs that I don't want.

If installing Paks is not an option, try my favorite player, VLC. It plays what some other players will not.

Make sure the media file you download is not corrupted or badly encoded. I get files like that sometimes.

vicmu · « **Reply #4 on:** January 08, 2006, 12:18:53 PM »

klite codec pack is my choice coupled with bsplayer (which has a fancy aspect ratio changer thingie for those badly encoded video files that look way too stretched or squished).

for backup or partlially complete files i use VLC which i use for bittorrent files that are ALMOST finished (like 98% with the extra 2 percent going to take an hour or so) or with files I get off mIRC xdcc bots (the really fast ones that download faster than you can watch... why waste time downloading when you could be watching and downloading at the same time?)