looking to find out the standard in video codecs that are used by default

[rickywh]

I would like to know what video codecs does windows xp, windows vista and windows live all come with by default on windows default install?

Maybe the question is too generic or something, but curious if there is one audio codec and video codec that I can use to create my web videos. My goal is to use an audio codec and a video codec that does not require windows users to install anything to view the videos.

[greyfalcon]

Your best option when dealing with Windows OS running from XP to current is always going to be .wma for audio & .wmv for video simply because Microsoft supports their own at all cost out of the box.

New OS versions run newer versions of Windows Media Player but they all support the Windows Media 9 format from Windows XP to current.

[AlanHK]

Use Flash. It isn't part of Windows, but it's almost universally installed, and designed specifically for streaming web videos.

[jagabo]

For web streaming only Flash is the best option. But even though Flash may be installed on most machines it's only as a browser extension. If you want people to be able to download your videos and watch them locally XP won't know what to do with an FLV file unless an FLV reader/splitter is installed. Most of the decoders that come with XP are very outdated and crude. About the closest thing to universal and capable of any quality is MPG1 with VCD resolutions in an MPG container. But that's not really suitable for online streaming. Universal to Windows systems is the older WMV1 and WMA1. Old versions of XP will not have WMV3, VC-1, and WMA2 decoders installed but WMP will automatically download them if set up to do that (that's the default setting).

[rickywh]

Can flash do high def resolutions?

What if i have recorderded a 30minute 1080p movie that id like to make it look fancy with text on the video and also things like a blackscreen on the beginning of the movie(disclaimer). Oh and maybe some fade ins effects. Is all these things easy to do?