Codecs and movie file problems

[mig]

For all of you who are having trouble with codecs, either not being able to play a movie you've downloaded or not having any sound/picture, this guide should help you.

The Easy Quick-Fix Method
For the lazy people amoung you who want the simplest possible solution, may I present Video LAN Player (VLC), it's a good video/audio player and comes with all the codecs you will need (at least, all the ones you will likely meet in your p2p travels) and has many features making it my player of choice.

[mig]

Short of a full tutorial update, which I plan to do sometime soon, here is a brief update to "The Other Method".

The (New) Other Method

The Combined Community Codec Pack (CCCP)

Firstly, before doing anything, please make the effort to go through and remove ALL existing codecs on your system. This is in order to ensure that no conflicts or problems arise because of codecs left on your system, kinda defeats the point of installing this particular codec pack.

To do this download CCCP Insurgent and check to see if you have any other codec packs installed, if you do uninstall them first. Remember, do not touch the buttons in the bottom right, you could fuck things up.

Now, once you are sure you have removed all existing codecs, download and install the latest version of the CCCP, restarting if prompted.


The whole reason I recommend this codec pack is because many knowledgable people have spend many hours tweaking settings here and there and testing various different combinations of codecs in order to get the ideal setup. Designed to support most of the common codecs you will encounter without problems, it is the best choice at the moment. I realise this was designed by various anime guys for anime releases, but this doesn't matter as everything works equally as well for regular movies and tv shows.

Also, reading my original post above you may find the bit where I lay into codec packs, this was before I was told about CCCP, which unlike (virtually) every other codec pack was tweaked and tested to ensure conflicts are avoided and problems don't occur. This is where most other codec packs fail, they just throw lots of codecs together and don't care about compatability or conflicts and can cause problems.

CCCP comes bundled with MPC and Zoom Player, this is because again the CCCP guys have put in time and effort and have determined that these are the 2 best media players and have no known playback issues. Obviously you should use either of these 2 players to play movie files or else again you have defeated the purpose of this codec pack.


^^^Not the current cccp website address

[mig]

The (Old) Other Method
For those of you who either don't want VLC or CCCP, or prefer something else that gives you more control over the codecs you have installed (if you like to have the latest ones installed maybe?) then get yourself a good video player, and I can only recommend the one player for this:

• Media Player Classic

I cannot under any circumstances recommend Windows Media Player, it's a piece of shit and should be nuked from existense, so get yourself Media Player Classic instead. Most other players are fine, but none are as good as MPC (read the page in the CCCP wiki about the various players available for more info).

I would recommend uninstalling all codecs and codec packs you already have installed. This will help avoid conflicts between codecs and keep things organised and keep you in control. I'm not a fan of any other codec packs apart from CCCP, I find that while they do the job for new users who don't know much about these things, they can be problematic down the line.

So, here are links to where you can download the latest codecs:

The most common codecs you will come across

• AC3 (audio)
• DivX
• XviD
• FFDshow

Just remember, you only need one of the 3 video codecs, I recommend ffdshow over XviD/DivX.

And some of the less common ones

• 3ivX
• Huffyuv

In the event you still have problems...
If that doesn't solve your problem, you will need to download a program called GSpot, ignore the name it has nothing to do with sex, its a program that will tell you what codecs a file uses and what codecs you have already installed. It will also tell you if you already have the required codec installed.

Install and run GSpot, now next to the path box theres a button with ... in. Click this and find the movie file you can't play. Theres a box to the right with video as the heading.

Now under this is the word Stat, if it says you have the right codecs (x compatable codecs installed) then your video is fine. Do the same for the audio, although apart from the AC3 codec you will very rarely find any other audio format, except for mp3 of course.

If you find you need another codec not listed here, then head over to Google and search for it.


If for some reason that still doesn't solve your problems, try VLC, or failing that post in support, someone will be happy to help.