What Windows Codec Pack to choose for your Video player?

ffdshow tryouts revision 2527 on Windows XP

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Codec Pack to choose for your Media Player

If you really having trouble playing your videos and audio on your media player, then better start updating your codec because media players rarely update themselves. It also depends on the media player you use and what type of format you want to play.

Video formats had been abundant these days, from the latest web video formats, to the evolving Blu-ray disc films, we all have to find a real media player that stays. Well, if you have a pc windows media player can play all your video formats with the right codec that supports it. There are several codec packs out there, but you only have to choose one from them to get you going.

 

Featured Codec packs are:

  1. K-Lite Codec Pack and K-Lite Mega Codec
  2. Matroska Pack
  3. XP Codec Pack
  4. Community Codec Pack
  5. Satsuki Decoder Pack

The codec packs are featured on free-codecs.com get the codecs from their site.

 

 

The K-Lite Codec Pack has a couple of major advantages compared to other codec packs:

•        It it always up-to-date with the latest versions of the codecs.

•        It is very user-friendly and the installation is fully customizable, meaning that you can install only those components that you really want.

•        It has been very well tested, so that the package doesn’t contain any conflicting codecs.

•        It is a very complete package, containing everything you need to play your movies.

 

There are three versions of the K-Lite Codec Pack: Basic, Standard and Full.

 

• K-Lite Codec Pack Basic contains only the most essential things. It contains everything you need to be able to play the most popular and widespread formats. It is small enough to fit on a single floppy.

• K-Lite Codec Pack Standard contains everything you need to play all the commonly used formats. This package should be enough for the average user.

• K-Lite Codec Pack Full contains even more codecs. It also has encoding support for the various formats. This package is for power users and people who do their own encodings.

 

With the K-Lite Codec Pack you should be able to play all the popular movie formats and even some rare formats. This package is mainly for power users and people who do their own encodings.

If you don’t like the three of them, but instead want a full featured pack then use the K-lite Mega, the name says it all.

Features of K-Lite Mega Codec Pack 7.7:

Player:

– Media Player Classic Homecinema [version 1.5.3.3705]

– Media Player Classic Homecinema [version 1.2.1008.0]

– Media Player Classic [version 6.4.9.1 rev. 107]

DirectShow video decoding filters:

– ffdshow [version 1.1.3978]

– LAV Video [version 0.33 build 2011-08-25]

– XviD [version 1.3.2]

– On2 VP7 [version 7.0.10.0]

– DScaler5 MPEG-2 decoder [version 0.0.6.0 IVTC mod]

DirectShow audio decoding filters:

– ffdshow [version 1.1.3978]

– LAV Audio [version 0.33 build 2011-08-25]

– AC3Filter [version 1.63b]

– CoreVorbis [version 1.1.0.79]

– MONOGRAM AAC decoder [version 0.9.6.0]

DirectShow audio parsers:

– madFLAC [version 1.10]

– CoreWavPack [version 1.1.1]

– MusePack (MONOGRAM) [version 0.9.2.0 | 0.4.0.0]

– Monkey’s Audio (DCoder) [version 1.0]

– OptimFROG (RadLight) [version 1.0.0.1]

– AMR (MONOGRAM) [version 1.0.1.0]

– DC-Bass Source [version 1.3.0]

– AC3File [version 0.7b]

DirectShow source filters:

– Haali Media Splitter [version 1.11.96.14]

– LAV Splitter [version 0.33 build 2011-08-25]

– AVI splitter (Gabest) [version 1.5.3.3705]

– CDXA Reader (Gabest) [version 1.5.3.3705]

DirectShow subtitle filter:

– DirectVobSub (a.k.a. VSFilter) [version 2.40.3705.0]

• Other filters:

– Haali Video Renderer [version 1.11.96.14]

• VFW video codecs:

– ffdshow VFW interface

– XviD [version 1.3.2]

– x264 [revision 2008]

– On2 VP7 [version 7.0.10.0]

– Lagarith [version 1.3.25]

– huffyuv [version 2.1.1 CCE Patch 0.2.5]

– DivX [version 3.11]

ACM audio codecs:

– MP3 (Fraunhofer) [version 3.4.0.0]

– MP3 (LAME) [version 3.98.2]

– AC3ACM [version 1.9]

– Vorbis [version 0.0.3.6]

– DivX WMA [version 4.2.0.0]

Tools:

– Codec Tweak Tool [version 5.0.8]

– Win7DSFilterTweaker [version 4.6]

– MediaInfo Lite [version 0.7.48]

– GSpot Codec Information Appliance [version 2.70a]

– VobSubStrip [version 0.11]

– GraphStudio [version 0.3.2.0]

– Haali Muxer

– FourCC Changer

– Bitrate Calculator

 

 

The Matroska media files, .mkv the mkv format is built for direct play for movies with subtitles and full compression. It allows playback from most modern video formats on any DirectShow player, even with Windows Mediaplayer 6.4/7/8/9/10. For this reason theMatroska Pack Full has gathered some attention from the video compression scene, and has established itself as a very slim and intelligent alternative to the usually overloaded codec packs out there.

Matroska Pack Full 1.1.2 contains :

– Haali Media Splitter 11-10-2005

– MatroskaMuxer 1.0.0.9

– Matroska Shell Extension 2.8

– VSFilter 2.36

– TTA 1.0.0.203

– CoreFLAC 0.4.0.46

– CoreWavpack 1.0.3

– FFDShow 15-10-2005 (decoding only)

– RealMediaSplitter 1.0.1.0

– MPEG2 Decoder v0.1.2.0

– MatroskaDiag 1.0.0.62

 

 

XP Codec Pack is one of the most complete codec packs which helps you to play all major audio and video formats. Instead of installing 3 or 4 different players, you get a complete one simple integrated player that plays almost all audio and video files:

XP Codec Pack 2.5.1 includes :

– AC3Filter 1.63b
– AVI Splitter 1.0.0.9
– CDXA Reader 1.0.0.2
– CoreAAC (AAC DirectShow Decoder) 1.2.0
– CoreFlac Decoder 0.4
– FFDShow MPEG-4 Video Decoder 2008.12.19
– GPL MPEG-1/2 Decoder 0.1.2.0
– Matroska Splitter 1.0.3.0
– Media Player Classic 6.4.9.1
– OggSplitter/CoreVorbis 1.1.0.79
– RealMedia Splitter 1.0.1.2
– RadLight MPC Filter 1.0.0.4
– RadLight APE Filter 1.0.0.4
– RadLight OFR Filter 1.0.0.4
– RadLight TTA Filter 1.0.0.2
– The Codec Detective 2.0
– VSFilter (DirectVobSub) 2.39

Features of XP Codec Pack :

– clean & compact
– no spyware / adware / viruses included
– easy to install / uninstall
– easy to use
– 100% legal
– 100% freeware!

 

 

The CCCP (Combined Community Codec Pack) is a filter pack specifically built for playing anime. It has been assembled by some of the most knowledgeable people in the anime world, and one of the primary design goals is to play as much as possible with as little as possible. The CCCP attempts to be as unintrusive on your system as possible.

Combined Community Codec Pack ( CCCP ) includes:

– FFDShow 1.1.3887.0

– FLV Splitter (MPC-HC) 1.5.2.3268

– Haali Media Splitter  1.11.96.14

– Mpeg2 Decoder (MPC-HC) 1.5.2.3268

– VSFilter (MPC-HC) 2.40.3252.2

– CoreWavPack 1.1.1

– Media Player Classic  Home Cinema 1.5.2.3268

 

 

Satsuki Decoder Pack is an audio/video auto-installable filters and decoders for Windows 2000/2003/XP/Vista/7.

The purpose of this pack is to decode most of video files.

This pack contains only filters and decoders (with some exceptions), it avoids conflict.

Satsuki Decoder Pack 4.3 contains:

– Video player – Media player classic Home Cinema

– Multiformats decoder – FFdshow (divx/xvid/x264….)

– Realmedia decoder – Realmediasplitter, HFE2

– Mpeg2/DVD decoder – FFdshow

– VP3 decoder – FFdshow

– VP6 decoder – FFdshow

– VP7 decoder – VP7dec

– Subtitles decoder – VSFilter

– AC3/DTS decoder – Ac3filter

– AAC/AAC+ (v2) decoder – FFdshow

– MPC decoder – RLMPCdec

– APE decoder – RLAPEdec

– OFR decoder – RLOFRdec

– Flac decoder – FFdshow

– TTA decoder – FFdshow

– AVI decoder – Gabest avi splitter

– OGM decoder – FFdshow

– MP4 decoder – Haali

 

 

I prefer the K-lite Mega codec pack, I have it currently installed and I have been using it ever since; first of all, it seems to be updated all the time and very reliable, fully functional and complete with a tools for doing your own coding — the codec tweak tool.


No matter what player you use, as long as you have one of these codec packs, getting to play that video will be a lot easier. Some components of these packs don’t conflict with each other. The installer will block selecting components which may conflict them.

 


 

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