Need info and Getting lost is a sea of searching.

[95Solster]

Ok first off I'm New here so Hello.

Anyway I have multiple PC's and as of this moment two of them are a clean slate's (Codec wise) and on that only has VLC installed.

What I'm looking for is the best Setup of Codec and Software for the PC's. I have always used Codec packs and or VLC in the past.

I'm Now looking into Encoding Audio and Video but No matter what I have used I always end Up with out of Sync AV. I understand that Codec Packs are the Worst thing I could use. and that is why I'm asking here.

Also I have noticed that the Video output of my PS3 when playing video files

(same AVI File, Same Display Device both connected by HDMI at 1080p) I get a Sharp Clear Image from the PS3 but my PC is always fussy looking.

I'm not holding out for the same Level as the PS3 but close would be nice.

Once again i'm a Noob to alot of the Codec side of AV. and please if you cant offer any thing useful or helpful Please Don't Post.

Sig was not showing on my side so here is the System Specs.

HTPC
Win 7, Gygabyte GA-MA770-UD3, AMD Phenom II X4 940 Black Edition 3.0Ghz, 4Gb DDR2 1066Mhz, Raid 0 2X Samsung SATA III 7200RPM 32Mb 500Gb Main drive Raid 0 2X Seagate SATA III 7200RPM 64Mb 2Tb Storage Drive

Laptop
Satellite L775D-S7340
Win 7, AMD A6-3400M APU, 6Gb DDR3, 640Gb HDD

[Baldrick]

Fuzzy looking on PC/laptop monitor or TV or both?

If you are outputing to a TV be sure to try use same resolution as the TV (called pixel mapping).

[Hoser Rob]

In the tech support section of the microsoft site it says specifically you should not install 3rd party codec packs on a windows 7 system. They're right ... it can be gotten away with, but it's just a kettle of worms. Many of them have compatibility problems and cause conflicts. I seriously think the guys who write that crap spend more time learning search engine optimization than video.

Unfortunately many noobs reflexively go for codec packs if they're having any problems and just make things worse.

There's no reason I can see you shouldn't be getting video quality just as good or better with your pcs, and codecs are not the issue. VLC has its own internal codecs ... as it should be ... that work very well.

It's not my favorite video player. You can't set up a local file cache anymore, and that really affects performance. I use smplayer (which also uses its own codecs) with an 8192Kb file cache setting, and the video performance is much better than with vlc. Actually I only really use vlc anymore when smplayer won't handle some encode made with one of those weird not really compatible codecs. That works both ways ... vlc is not really the "play anything" player everyone thinks it is. But they're both damn good at it.

Rather than loading up a windows machine with all those codecs the best way is to use multiple players with their own codecs. For windows I'd use smplayer and vlc and potplayer ... the latter a distant 3rd IMO but not bad either.\

Beyond that I'd try baldrick's suggestion. As usual.

[95Solster]

Ty Rob i'm going to give SMplayer a try as i have never even heard of it before. and it sounds like the best option for me at this time.
I didn't see alot of info about the Different Versions So i got the 64bit Ver as I run 64bit OS. I did get the 32 bit as well just incase it's better for some reason.

Baldrick if i understand this correctly all i have to do is set the Rez on the PC to the same as the TV so like on the laptop the Toshiba list it as a 1600X900 16X9 ratio Native support for 720P content. that being said i should always run the resalution at 1600X900 for the best video playback.

if i'm not correct please let me know.

the TV on the HTPC is a Vizio 120Hz 42" model SV420M the Native Panel Resolution is 1920X1080 so i have the Res of the pc set the same.
Also the Video card detected the SV420M and Set my display type as SV420M loking my out of alot of res options and auto setting the res to the native 1920X1080.

http://store.vizio.com/sv420m.html