MPG2 codec replacement?

[madmartian]

It appears the MPG2 standard codec requires a licensing fee. Is there a replacement codec that will play MPG2 files that does not require a license fee? Note that I need something that is legally freeware, not psuedo-free.

[FulciLives]

If you go to the TOOLS section of this website (see links along the left hand side) and go to the CODECS subsection you will find that there are several free MPEG-2 decoders.

If you are looking for a freeware MPEG-2 encoder then I suggest you take a look at HCenc which is excellent although to get the "most" out of it you will need to either use AviSynth or VirtualDub as a front end.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[jagabo]

If you just want to watch MPEG2 video on your computer you can use a media player that has built in MPEG2 codecs. Like VLC or MPC.

[madmartian]

VLC is too buggy - it hickups on video from Womble Mpeg Video Wizard. MPC plays the same video just fine. Unfortunately, MPC has a weird problem in that is will crash after playing a few videos for no apparent reason. I believe it has a memory leak. They don't seem to be updating it anymore, which is another problem. My intention is to use Windows Media Player 11 with a hopefully free MPG2 codec.

There are a ton of things listed in that tool section and I have no idea what works best. What are the drawbacks of HCenc with WMP11 compared to the common MainConcept codec?