Best source for codecs

[VibrantLife]

Hello,
What's the best source of codecs for Win7?

 

[PhilFrisbie]

What type of codecs? Video, sound? For Windows Media Center or some other software? For just decoding, or do you also need encoding?

 

[photonboy]

www.free-codecs.com
I have the following installed:

1) K-Lite Codec Pack Standard 32-bit
2) K-Lite 64-bit Pack
3) VLC

Details:
1) K-Lite 32-bit pack installs audio and video codecs for use by many programs including Windows Media Player. I usually use the include WMPC-HC
2) hardware acceleration is available in WMPC-HC and VLC if your graphics card supports this (WMPC-HD-> options-> internal filters-> AVC, MPEG2, VC1 if supported). You MUST compare video quality to ensure no issues. Strangely my HD5870 using hardware acceleration hasn't looked right since drivers 10.8 or 10.9. so I leave it disabled thus using my CPU only. It doesn't matter what program I use so the issue is in the updated Catalyst drivers. If I rollback to v10.7 hardware acceleration works and looks exactly the same as software codec decoding.
3) the 64-bit pack is ONLY needed for Windows Media Center which I never use. (why they use 64-bit codecs for WMC and 32-bit for WMP I'll never know. obviously you need 64-bit Windows)
4) VLC by default uses its own INTERNAL filters and doesn't install them for other programs.
5) I've had no issues with K-Lite for several years but now I'm having issues with some videos (perhaps not coded correctly?) Those videos play fine with VLC so I've been using VLC more and more.

***You can get by nicely by running ONLY the program VLC. One way to assign which program starts a video (aside from the initial setup) is to right-click the video in Windows Explorer and say "open with->..." and "always use the selected program"

Encoding:
There are several programs and many are quite bad. DVDFab has some good ones though they cost. Handbrake is an excellent program mainly optimized for DVD encoding but has other uses.

 

[4745454b]

Just use VLC and GOM for anything it can't handle. No need for Codecs.

 

[thearm]

The CCCP codec pack I've been using for a long time. It's clean and never causes issues that codec packs sometimes cause. Not a lot of bloat like K-Lite use to have (haven't used it in years).

 

[megamanx00]

http://www.google.com

 

[photonboy]

Boxee Box is also an option depending on how you use it. It adds a nice interface for movies and TV shows complete with descriptions.

The Windows version hasn't been updated in a long time. The Boxee Box has been. It's a very nice piece of equipment. Most people should get a hard drive (the 2TB WD Elements is probably the best drive).

 

[VibrantLife]

What type of codecs? Video, sound? For Windows Media Center or some other software? For just decoding, or do you also need encoding?

What type of codecs? Video, sound? For Windows Media Center or some other software? For just decoding, or do you also need encoding?

Great questions, sorry I did not think to provide more details in the first place. At this time, I would say audio and video, mostly decoding (playback). At some point I'll also do some encoding, but not quite there yet in terms of my learning curve ... learning some other things first. Software ... I'm open minded. I have a few products from CyberLink (OEM editions) and I suppose I could install this and that player (QuickTime, Real, etc.)

But ... is there a player (or two) that covers the ground SO well that all that other stuff is just not needed?

Everyone else ... THANK YOU!!! I have seen VLC come up again and again for video playback, I'll definitely look into that one. Does VLC work for BluRay?

The CCCP codec pack is new to me ... hmmm, interesting logo and color scheme (and name). Is it updated to provide Win7 native 64-bit support?

Thank you all!

 

[SHAHEEEN]

i am using k_lite 590 meda edition

 

[DouglasThurman]

Hello,
What's the best source of codecs for Win7?

I use K-Lite. It works the best that I've found.

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

http://www.videohelp.com/tools/Win7codecs