Which Codecs to install on my new PC

[targus]

Guys

I finally got fed up with waiting for my old PC to render video and treated myself to a nice new dual core jobby with 4 Gig RAM and a 1Tb hard drive.

Anyway, my last PC was totally cluttered with so many codecs that I lost count (my fault entirely)and this caused problems with at least one of my programs TMPGenc 3 was a real problem and I had a hell of a job sorting it out.

So with my fresh start I would like to limit myself to only the essentials although I'm sure I'll need to have something to handle Xvid for starters.

Just wondering if anyone can recommend the most essential codecs (and which flavours of them are the best) so I can install only the bare minimum and try and keep some control this time.

Thanks in advance for any advice.
\T

[ROF]

I'd only install those codecs you need. Since your needs are probably vastly different from my own I can offer no suggestions.

[Baldrick]

ffdshow for playback of all kinds of video.

koepis xvid codec for xvid encoding.

done.