The Correct/Best Codecs For The PC...

[Makeitso]

Can ANYONE pls tell me what the best codecs are for me to install on my PC?
I am Tired of not being able to watch some movies because they are upside down, and others, usually avi's completely Black! 700Mb of no picture! Also, countless ones that just wont play, because they are not supported.!!!
I have tried the Nemo codec pack, various others that I found on the tools page, and some on the net.
Some I know wont work in conjuction with other codecs...blah, blah blah!
Just when I think I've got it right, and I manage to view movies that I couldnt before, OTHER filetypes screw up!

Sorry, but this is driving me mad!
PLEASE, PLEASE, somebody tell me what to do.

[Tivo Homer]

This doesn't really answer your question, but it may give you some ideas as to which codec you need.

Download the AVI INFO utility @ http://www.divx-digest.com/software/terabits_avi_info.html When you load it, you can right-click on an AVI file, choose AVI Information and it will give you some info on what type of compression was used. It doesn't have an answer 100% of the time, but it's still useful.

Good Luck.

Tivo Homer

[jkl]

Download the AVI INFO utility It doesn't have an answer 100% of the time, but it's still useful.

if you don't have the codec it will only show a blank.
i.e.- if you use it on a divx encoded avi and you don't have divx installed then it will show "unknown" for video compression.

personally, xvid,divx(5.02 and 3.11 alpha) and huffyuv are the only extra video codecs i install. divx, ac3 and ogg vorbis are the only extra audio codecs i install. with quicktime, realone and windows media player-if a file doesn't play, i delete it.

if you tried nimo and still have problems, the missing codecs are probally "tmd or smr", both of which i stop using about 8 clean installs ago. the quality of these type of encodes are usally horrible annyway.

[locco]

Can you guys kindy stop asking ppl to download NIMO...its a pile of shit for SP1...it used to work great but in SP1 XP it doesnt know where to put the damn upgrades...please stop the insanity!!!!!!!

[Prospero424]

It worked fine for me when I installed it after SP1 and for many people I have talked to. This is the first I have heard of any issue between XP SP1 and Nimo. If you have had an issue, post the problem and try to figure out where it lies, maybe you're right and everyone, including Everwicked (who created Nimo) should know about the problem. If not then we can get some good information out anyway.

Prospero

[thxkid]

downloading video files from the net specially from P2P you will run into Fake Files, broken files, corrupted files and files that are not completed, but if you have Divx 3.11, KS Divx, 5.02, huffy are the bare min. you need installed, others are just a bonus to have then you should have no problem playing 70-80% of all AVI's and MPEGs out there, providing the files are uncorrupted or complete.

[locco]

which one of those codecs you mentioned are for mpeg2?

[locco]

what is ks divx and arent you forgettnig ac3 filter?

[Prospero424]

I think jkl was assuming that he had a hardware DVD decoder, if not Makeitso, you will also need an MPEG 2 codec for viewing MPEG2 formats like DVDs and SVCDs, like the Elecard codec available here:

http://www.elecard.com/products/mpeg2decoder.shtml

Otherwise, I completely agree with jkl, although I was able to play the VIDEO on all DivX files just fine after installing only the DivX 5.02 package on a fresh machine.

You have to keep in mind though that these codecs and Directshow filters are never tested on ALL hardware and software configurations, and you very well may run into problems even installing the perfect, bare minimum amount of codecs and filters. If this is the case, just post what specific problems you are having and we'll help you get around them.


Good Luck,

Prospero


How about being helpful Locco, that's what these forums are for.

[locco]

Yes....I just installed the 5.02 codec from the DIVX.COM site...I used the one that was free with adware, is that the right one? It, coupled with the AC3 filter playes all my DIVX perfectly...some are a little slow starting up but once they start they are fine....One problem Im having now is jerky picture with the POWERDVD mpeg2 and mpeg1 codec...I usually use POWERDVD or WMP for my mpegs, they seem to jerk around however I do have 4 downloads giong and 1 upload...and the file is on my HD...is this the problem cuz the drive is trying to seek all these positions? Also, what codec is better for mpeg2 POWERDVD or ELECARD?

[locco]

How can someone as helpless as me help someone else?

I do help as much as possible though..why would you say that?

[Prospero424]

Sorry Locco, I thought you were just trying to be a smartass after the first three posts. I see now that you weren't, my bad.

To answer your question, alot of times I see that PowerDVD, on some hardware/software configurations, takes more resources to decode MPEG files than other players, I really haven't been able to find out why, so if anyone knows, let me know. Also, the downloads could be affecting the playback depending on how fast your hard drive is and how fast the downloads are going. I've got a 250 KB per second cable modem connection and two 60gig 7200RPM Maxtor drives in a striped RAID to double the max throughput speed with an Athlon XP 1533mhz, and even at max download speed of a quarter meg a second, it doesn't affect movies. I'm not saying this to brag just to give you an idea of whether your downloads shouldd be affecting your video playback performance or not.

Let me know if you need more info, you can email me or start a new thread going about this. Good Luck,

Prospero

[jkl]

Can you guys kindy stop asking ppl to download NIMO...its a pile of shit for SP1...it used to work great but in SP1 XP it doesnt know where to put the damn upgrades...please stop the insanity!!!!!!!

i don't think that anyone told him to "use" nimo. loco

[Makeitso]

Ok....
Firstly let me thank all of you for all your help.
I do have DVD support with my GeForce card I think...
I'm still a bit confused though.
What I plan on doing is unistall Nemo and try to remove all the codecs that I installed.
However, I see from other posts that you should NOT install all of the codecs in the Nemo pack. Apart from the Matrox G400 one (obviously), which other ones should I NOT install? Furthermore, which other codecs do I NEED to install after the Nemo pack, or should I not install the Nemo pack at all?
Believe it or not, although I'm by no means an expert at all this, I am not a complete Newbie with config on my PC, but this particular subject just gets harder to understand, the more you learn! Does that make sense?
I do appreciate all your help none the less.
Cheers again!

[Prospero424]

Yes I know exactly what you mean, sometimes the more you learn about this stuff, the more confusing it gets.

Anyway I think we have a consensus here on exactly what is necessary as a bare minimum for PLAYBACK of ALL types of files, if you want to start ripping, converting, etc., you're going to need alot more.

Here goes the list as I see it, any contributions regarding something that I have left out (FOR PLAYBACK ONLY) are welcome:


Ogg - http://tobias.everwicked.com/oggds.htm

Huffyuv - http://math.berkeley.edu/~benrg/huffyuv.html

DivX 5.02 - http://www.divx.com/divx/

DivX 3.11 - http://www.divx-digest.com/software/divxcodec.html (Like I said, I didn't need this to play DivX 3 files, just DivX 5)

Mpeg2 - http://www.elecard.com/products/mpeg2decoder.shtml (If you don't have a hardware MPEG2 decoder and if you don't have or don't want to use PowerDVD or WinDVD)

AC3 codec - http://download.divxmovies.com/ac3codec.zip

Xvid codec - http://www.divx-digest.com/software/xvid.html

DivX Antifreeze -
http://www.divx-digest.com/software/antifreeze_filter.html (Only necessary if you have problems with the video playback in certain Divx files locking while the sound continues)

Quicktime Player - http://www.apple.com/quicktime/

Real Player - http://www.real.com/

Latest Windows Media Codecs - http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/9series/default.asp


This is about as simple as I can make it without using a codec package like Nimo, which always invlove risks.

Hope this helps, Cheers all
Prospero

[locco]

Like I said...my MPEGs seem to play JERKY almost like my system isnt fast enough (check my system so you know how fast it is) could it be POWERDVD mpeg encoder that sucks?...also..if i do try and use the ELECARD one should I somehow uninstall the powerdvd one? how would i do this? or shoud i just keep it jerky?

[Makeitso]

Thanks!
It all looks great! I will try them now and let you know how I get on, in a couple of days.
Cheers! :P

[Prospero424]

Locco, see above for my answer to this, and I also edited one of my responses to the thread you started on this, so take a peek at that as well.

Cheers,
Prospero