List of must-have and stay away from codecs?

[louv68]

Is there a list of "must-have" codecs and a list of which ones to stay away from?

[redwudz]

No, they're all good. On my personal dislike list are Real, MKV, Ogg, older Divx codecs, WMV, Quicktime, old MS codecs, and probably a few others. Mainly because they can be difficult to convert to more 'mainstream' formats. Nothing really to do with quality.

EDIT: And the ones I prefer, Xvid, Divx, DV-AVI, MPEG 1 and 2, HuffyUV and probably a few more. JMO, by the way.

[louv68]

I guess what I meant to say is, are some known to contain malware and/or make your system unstable/conflict with some programs? For example: there are 3 Xvid codecs that I quickly found doing a search, and I'm sure there are many more out there. A list of codecs you should have in your arsenal and a list of ones to avoiod would make for a good sticky post.

Edit: For example, when you say you like the Xvid codec, which one in particular, Nic's, Koepi's, another?

[CBC]

w/ Koepi's you should be fine

[redwudz]

I use Koepi's, I think 1.1.2 for Xvids. Most all needed codecs are in our tools section. I wouldn't download any software from a unknown source, including codecs. Some proprietary codecs like Real and Quicktime and a few others are floating around the net without the blessings or permission of their owners. You take your chances with those.

You can also have too many codecs, or duplicates, and they can sometimes interfere with each other. Codec packs are a common cause of that when they just toss them in indiscriminately. If they overwrite a known good codec, then you may end up with both unusable.

The problem with a codec list is that there are so many of them and so many different versions and variations of each that trying to keep track of which one doesn't 'work and play well with others' is very difficult. Then you need to pay attention to the 'encoder' part of a codec and the 'decoder' part. Unless I need to encode with a codec, I more often use a software player like VLC or similar that has it's own playback codecs, then I don't need to install them at all.

And I don't install any of them unless I have a use for them first. Then I use Gspot to see what I need and just install that one.

[louv68]

Thank you both for your advice.