Add Codecs Column to Details in XP

[DarrellS]

How can I add Codecs View for Details in Windows Explorer XP?

I know that XP does not have Codecs under View in XP but I had it listed somehow before. I reinstalled XP and lost it. I don't know which software that I had installed that made codecs show up in Details.

Is there a registry hack to add the Codecs column to Choose Details or a software that will do this? As usual, Google isn't very helpful.


Solved: Uninstall Haali Media Splitter and install older version (2007) making sure the option to integrate shell extension is ticked. All video column options are restored.

[aedipuss]

maybe it was a program like mediainfo or gspot that added it? never heard of a hack that would.

[DarrellS]

I've got both of those installed. I installed media monkey thinking that might've been it but it wasn't. Neither was XNView which puts a thumbnail in explorer right click.

If you right click and choose properties and then summary, you can see...

Image

Width = 720 pixels
Height = 304 pixels

Audio

Duration = 2:29:40
Bit Rate = 448kbps
Audio Format = AC-3 ACM Codec

Video

Frame rate = 23/frames/per second
Data Rate = 2044kbps
Video Sampla Size = 12bit
Video Compression = XVID

So there has to be a way to see that info if you hover your mouse or put it in a column. I could've sworn I could've hovered my mouse over a file to see that info before, also.

[DB83]

Did you have any codec pack peviously installed ?

[Ruut]

Darrell, did you mean AVIcodec perhaps?

[jagabo]

I have the Codecs option in Explorer on some of my XP computers. I don't know what I installed that added it.

[DarrellS]

I put a different boot drive in and installed an image of the OS from May and I've got it back. I have no idea what put it there.

Here is a list of programs that are on this drive that aren't on the other drive (Swiff Player and Movie Maker may be).

Arcsoft Photo Studio
Driver Sweeper
Flv to AVI
KMPlayer
Movica
Movie Maker
Swiff Player
VideoLan
WMP 11

I'll put the other drive back in and install these programs and see what happens.

I just noticed that K-Lite codec pack (I just use the tools to show thumbnails and don't install codecs and splitters) is not on this drive so it could be K-lite that killed this option.

[DarrellS]

Well, I installed all those programs and uninstalled K-Lite and it did not show up so I don't know what added Codecs in details.

[DarrellS]

It's a miracle. I opened up Choose Details under View in Explorer to create a Dimensions column and low and behold, Codecs was suddenly listed in the drop down list. I have no idea how it got there. I didn't install anything that would make it appear. Well, I did uninstall the XviD codec and installed a different version. I also used a registry hack to get thumbnails to show a different frame other than the first frame. I wouldn't think either would make Codecs appear in the list.

I believe that dBpoweramp is supposed to create the Codecs column in Explorer but something was keeping that from happening. I better make a system backup right now before I lose the column again.

[omahony]

I think I've figured this out once and for all.....
I'm pretty new-ish to the scene. I've dipped in and out of it over the last couple of years.

I do remember at one point I was able to view - In "Detail View" when listing media files in Windows (XP) Explorer, there was an option when right-clicking on one of the column headers at the top (like name, filesize, date modified etc.) where you could add all sorts of 'other' columns... some are there by default from windows, but not all. One of those 'other' columns to add as an option was 'Codecs'.

It was fantastic as it showed in detail view (eg, of a .avi file) that a file's codecs were XVID, MP3 for example. I knew it wasn't actually a part of Windows XP by default, I figured it was a shell extension that one of the codecs or codec-packs I had installed added. Since I had installed quite a few codecs and codec packs before I noticed that option, I had no idea what software added that (I guess I'll call it an) Explorer Shell Extension. I lost it since, through various XP re-installs and (naturally) new, more up-to-date codecs/-pack installs. But have from time to time, had another look to try and find out how to get it back.

This morning I got it back.....

I used to have the K-Lite codec pack on my XP PC, so I removed that through control panel, and installed an old version of Cole2k codec pack.....
logged out of windows XP (not restart)
logged back in to windows XP
Voila!!! Back!!!

It was :
Cole2k.Media.-.Codec.Pack.v6.0.6.-Advanced-.Setup.exe (16.7MB)
that I installed. It's pretty old (circa 2006) but it brought back the option.

Anyway, after that, I installed a newer version of Cole2k:
Cole2k.Media.-.Codec.Pack.v7.9.5.-Advanced-.Setup.exe (22.9MB)
which I think is recent enough (circa 2011?)
And again, logged out of windows XP and back in again.... And the option is still there.
Whoppeeee!!!
hope this helps anyone else who's been searching for this.
I decided to sign up to this forum just so I could reply to this 'cos it's been annoying me on and off for a couple of years now.

[jagabo]

It would be more helpful if you detemined what component in the old Cole2k codec pack gave you the codec shell extension. Installing and removing codec packs willy-nilly is a recipe for disaster.

[omahony]

Willy-nilly!
Cheers.
I'll leave the detail up to you. I think I've at least pointed out the right direction.

I achieved what I set out to do, and shared that info. After I installed said package I proceeded to 2-pass encode a some files to XviD MP3, with VirtualDubMod.... worked perfectly when played back.
Maybe later on I'll try encode some to DivX5 with AC3-6ch & play them back too, just to make sure most of my needs are covered and nothing is messed up.
If that's willy-nilly, I'll take it.
As I said at the outset, I'm by no means an expert on this, maybe just a baby-step up from a complete novice.
So as far as my contribution goes, you can take it or leave it.
If anyone wants to get the option, I've outlined how I got it back.

[DB83]

As jagabo says, installing codec packs willy-nilly' is sure to screw up your PC sooner than later. If you actually read the forum you would see that you only install the codecs you actually need not a whole shaft of them each that will fight for dominance.

You may find it cool to see this info in Explorer but with one extra click, and from Explorer, you can get that info anyway - and more besides - just by installing mediainfo and that will not threaten your system.

[omahony]

I have mediainfo installed. Another excellent program for doing exactly what it does.
The reason I wanted the codec column option wasn't because it looks cool - I actually turn off those kinds of options (codec, duration, dimensions) when normallly listing a media directory as the OS can be slow to gather such info when listing a directory with many large files.
No, I want it for batch renaming purposes.
I have recently settled upon my own filename convention for media files. It is a real pain to go back and individually rename a large number of files.
With the codec option I can:
Sort the contents of a directory according to A/V codec combination,
Select lots of files with a common combo & Move them to a sub-directory
Batch-rename the contents of that sub-directory to append the codec combination to the end of the filename.
move all renamed files back to their original location.
takes seconds
Repeat as needed for whatever other A/V codec combos are there.

for example, If I have a folder with lots of media files in it. There is a mixture of codecs used in those files. Why? Well over time, newer codecs come out, so older ones are no longer used to encode. Also, audio encoding is something I choose depending on the source, rather than a '1 size fits all'.
So if the filenames are something like....
filea.avi, fileb.avi, filec.avi, filed.avi and on and on and on...
It is cumbersome to repeatedly use mediainfo on individual files from a list , then manually do the following.
filea.avi is encoded xvid video with mp3 audio -> renamed to "filea [XviD MP3].avi"
fileb.avi is encdoded divx3 with mp3 audio -> renamed to "fileb [DX3 MP3].avi"
"filec.avi" is encodeded avc with aac stereo audio -> renamed to " filec [h264 AAC-2ch].avi"
"filed.avi" is encoded xvid with ac3 5.1ch audio -> renamed to "filed [XviD AC3-6ch].avi"
repeating for whatever number of files there are.

I take the point though about the multiple different versions of codecs that could 'fight for dominance', but I did uninstall what was on XP first.
Followed by an install of the Cole2k pack... the install of which allowed the user to "opt-in" by checkbox on the list of codecs it was installing.
I also seem to remember some kind of configurator... was it ffdshow video for windows interface, where you can choose which video Encoders / Decoders are used/enabled? Can't remember, was a little while ago and only used it once or twice.

[DB83]

Fair comment.

I seem to recall a topic on here a little while back where you could use the command-line version of mediainfo display the info without the 'right-click'. I would have thought you could then take that a stage ferther and do a batch rename without any input on your part.

[jagabo]

I take the point though about the multiple different versions of codecs that could 'fight for dominance', but I did uninstall what was on XP first.

But codec packs often don't uninstall everything they installed. It's not just codecs but file readers, file splitters, codecs, colorspace converters, etc. And they often don't undo all the registry changes they made.

[omahony]

But codec packs often don't uninstall everything they installed. It's not just codecs but file readers, file splitters, codecs, colorspace converters, etc. And they often don't undo all the registry changes they made.

Yep, that's a fair point. They certainly don't.... damned windows registry.
But I haven't run into any problems...... yet. (Though I did only go through this literally today so the gremlins could be in the post)

[omahony]

Fair comment.

I seem to recall a topic on here a little while back where you could use the command-line version of mediainfo display the info without the 'right-click'. I would have thought you could then take that a stage ferther and do a batch rename without any input on your part.

sounds interesting,
definitely worth looking into.
Thanks.

[yoda313]

No, I want it for batch renaming purposes.
I have recently settled upon my own filename convention for media files. It is a real pain to go back and individually rename a large number of files.
With the codec option I can:
Sort the contents of a directory according to A/V codec combination,
Select lots of files with a common combo & Move them to a sub-directory

I can see the benefit of this. I was resorting a bunch of downloaded youtube vids for future remuxing or encoding for use in a wdtv or on a xbox 360/ps3.

I haven't gotten that far yet. However as I only have a dozen or two left to sort I don't know that I'm going to pursue this drastic of a step. I can simply right click and do gspot or mediainfo one by one. Its a small enough group to do manually.

However if I had a lot more I can certainly see the benefit of having it stated visually in a column in the folder to know which codec is with which video if you have a lot.

Fortunately most of my vids from youtube are h264. I still have some that are in flv containers and I will be slowly remuxing them to mp4 for the greatest playback support.

[omahony]

I had a lot of files as over time I've been backing up my box sets of tv shows to preserve the discs from frequent use damage (cracks in the centre anyone??? very annoying).
But as they span a few years for numerous shows, there many files with different (newer) codec combos as I got a wee bit better at it & knew a bit more what I was doing. For the renaming, this is by faaaar the quickest way I have found to do it so far. Literally takes a few seconds to "sort/move/rename/move back" dozens of files.
As others have said though, gotta be mindful of codec clashes with the method I used. But I did have enough mind to do it on a PC other than my main PC (used my old XP box). That's what backup PCs are for.

[DarrellS]

After what seems like years of searching for an answer to my problem, I finally figured it out. The newer version of Haali media splitter removed the option to integrate the shell. Download the 2007 version from here. Uninstall the new version and install the 2007 version, making sure the option for shell integration is ticked. All of the video columns that we used to have in XP Explorer are back. Codecs column, Dimensions, Bitrate etc...

[jagabo]

Haali media splitter... the 2007 version... All of the video columns that we used to have in XP Explorer are back. Codecs column, Dimensions, Bitrate etc...

Ah, that's what added all those options. I knew some piece of software added them but never knew what.

[DarrellS]

I never thought about a splitter adding those features. It wasn't until I read a thread somewhere that stated that the only reason that K-Lite Codec Pack works is because they use the older version of Haali to show thumbnails and if they updated the splitter to the new version that it would not work anymore so I decided to roll back the Haali Splitter.

This has been driving me crazy forever, doing thousands of Google searches and trying different software including Windows Explorer replacements.

[Cornucopia]

Yes, but what do you lose by going back to an earlier version? Certain codec support? Certain container support? Bug fixes? Compatibility with Win7/8 or 64bit?

Scott

[DarrellS]

Yes, but what do you lose by going back to an earlier version? Certain codec support? Certain container support? Bug fixes? Compatibility with Win7/8 or 64bit?

Scott

The fix is for XP Windows Explorer. Windows 7 shows all this information by default and I assume that Windows 8 does as well so there is no need for a special software or splitter to get this information. I never had any problems with the older version before and I doubt I'll have problems now. Jagabo should know since he has the older version on a couple of XP machines.

Sometimes newer isn't better. I remember having all kinds of problems when I updated MKVmerge a couple of years ago because of header compression. None of those MKVs would play on my WDTV.

If the creator of Mediainfo would make a column handler for Explorer with all the info he has for his program then there would be no need to use the older splitter but he has stated that it would be too labor intensive for him to do without a sponsor. A guy has created a free plugin for Total Commander from the Mediainfo dll that will show all the information that Mediainfo does in columns but I couldn't find any instructions in plain English to show how to get this plugin to work in Total Commander (a Windows Explorer replacement) or to even create custom columns in Total Commander.

As far as I can tell and myself and others have searched relentlessly, this is the only way to get the columns in XP Explorer without installing codec packs that use the same older version of Haali Media Splitter unless you know how to program and create your own column handler in XP. I may revert back to an older FLV splitter because I used to be able to get this information for FLVs also but now cannot.

[DarrellS]

OK, I figured out how to get the columns back with the new version of Haali Media Splitter. Copy the mmfinfo.dll from the older version (January 2009) and place it in the new version's Matroska Splitter folder. Then register the dll...

regsvr32.exe "C:\Program Files\Haali\MatroskaSplitter\mmfinfo.dll"

I also found a program called MatroskaProp which gives a column handler and a context menu for MKV files. Maybe there is a way to hack the registry to get it to do this for more file types. It offers a little bit more info than the Haali splitter.

It would be nice if there was one that could list Video Frame Rate.

[xLexLuthorx]

OK, I figured out how to get the columns back with the new version of Haali Media Splitter. Copy the mmfinfo.dll from the older version (January 2009) and place it in the new version's Matroska Splitter folder. Then register the dll...
regsvr32.exe "C:\Program Files\Haali\MatroskaSplitter\mmfinfo.dll"

Sorry to bump an old thread but I've been searching for this fix for years. The above quoted method worked great. Thank you videohelp.com.

You guys are awesome!

[DarrellS]

After upgrading to Windows 7, I found that Microsoft had gotten rid of column handlers. Well, you can still install programs that use column handlers but Windows 7 will ignore the column handler so Haali Media Splitter's mmfinfo.dll (or any other column handler) does not work in Windows 7.

I installed the Icaros Configuration Tool which shows a little more info in the bottom box in Explorer, including Video and Audio Codecs but still doesn't help with the columns. Don't know how to get that info into the columns (if it's even possible) or to get rid of the 200 or 300 some odd other columns that are totally useless and only serves to make finding a useful column more difficult.