Codec packs - which is the best?

Having just received my new (and first ever) laptop, I undoubtedly have much to do in order to get it up and running. However, as it has been some time since I last had to download a whole bunch of codecs at once, I was wondering if anyone might have a suggestion for which codec pack is the best. I am most familiar with K-Lite Codec Pack, but the "Full" version seems to include way too many programs and codecs I will never use. (No, I do not do encoding.) The Standard seems to leave out DivX and XviD, and was hoping to find a unified pack for all my video/movie watching needs. Anything else worth taking a look at out there?

Thanks in advance!

 

K-Lite is an option, but as you said the full version is bloated, and even the lite version runs into conflicts now and then.

If you must use a unified pack, CCCP is unquestionably the best. The latest release is very stable, and even the beta versions that are released quite often work quite well.

EDIT: CCCP = Combined Community Codec Pack. Sorry, I just assumed people would know what it meant.

 

Combining the ffdshow codec pack with Real Alternative (which includes media player) has allowed me to play virtually any media file I've ever encountered.

Of course, VLC does the same out of the box, but until the default interface includes a better taskbar, it's going to remain my plan B, and not plan A, for films.

 

The Combined Community Codec Pack is definitely the best codecs pack out there.

The only format it doesn't play is the Real Media, but that can easily be solved by installing Real Alternative Codec into the system.

 

VLC doesn't do softsubs well, so if that's a concern for you, avoid it. Also as Overclocker mentioned, unless you use one of the skin2 skins, the default control bar does not allow instant skip in Windows. Also, since it's entirely self-contained, it won't allow you to use its codecs with any other program.

One thing about the CCCP (Combined Community Codec Pack as Znender mentioned - I forgot some people might not be familiar with the initiailsm) is that it offers great decoding speed and functionality and most of all, compatibility - i.e. with the exception of real media (ugh), it will not give you any conflicts or whatnot.

However, since it uses ffdshow, it's not the *fastest* or most efficient out there for decoding high res h264 movies or blu-ray rips. (yay core!)

Still, as far as packs go, it's the best out there bar none.

 

Yeah, but who would want to play anything Real-related anyway, hah. Unless I'm confusing Real Player and related formats with this Real Alternative mentioned...

Thanks for the suggestions! I'm checking out CCCP right as I type this. VLC is nice for its ability to play anything without hassle, but indeed the interface is shameful. I'll probably re-download VLC as my backup media player, as was the case on my desktop PC.

 

I don't know why they haven't redesigned it yet. I hear version 9 will have an incremental skip, but until it does, it's never going to be a go-to player. It's a basic feature every media player worth its salt should have.

 

I do watch a lot of videos with subtitles and had a tough time at first figuring out how to load subtitle files. It would be nice to have auto-loading (not sure of the actual term?) sub support as is found in Windows Media Player with vobsub installed.

 

You can do this with CCCP to set the default language and audio tracks (it'll autoload one anyway by default even if you don't set it - you just can customize it more if you want), and you can easily switch as well if you decide to change tracks.

CCCP was basically created for anime watchers and is probably the "officially" supported codec pack of most fansubbers. I guess since everyone was asking "how do I watch that h264 mkv file with subs" they decided to band together and create a pack that would solve all those problems at once.

 

On another note, I'm trying out some movies on my laptop and find the quality to be somewhat poor and rather pixelated. I'm watching on a 14" WXGA+ (1440x900) laptop screen. I'm playing the videos through VLC, though I suppose because their respective resolutions are far below the 1440x900 native resolutio of my screen, they are getting stretched to fit. Any way to correct this besides lowering the resolution of the screen to match? I typically save movies to a flash drive and then play them through my Philips DVD player's USB port, onto a 27" CRT TV and the quality is great that way. Of course I won't have this luxury as I'll be moving soon, and only with my new laptop.

 

I use K-Lite Mega Codec Pack, but only because I just do not understand why I cannot play real files with CCP

Anyway, I have been configuring ffdshow under K-Lite for playing back my DVDs. Wanted to see what difference there would be from VLC. Anyone know any newer or often updated config guides for ffdshow? I found this and this but they are older and ffdshow has evolved since then

Of course I am tempted to lay down moolah for Zoomplayer or TheatreTek for DVD playback, but that's a different story

 

So not all media players are created equal? I guess I assumed that once you have the proper codecs installed and your media player program is capable of playing back your video file, the quality is a standard sort of thing, dependent on the file itself and perhaps your display/speaker setup.

Many of my files are DivX or XviD DVD rips, and playing them on my new Inspiron 1420 I do not find the quality to be as clear as on my 27" CRT. Does this mostly have to do with the larger CRT being of a much lower resolution than my 1420's WXGA+ display?

 

Actually LCDs still cannot touch CRTs. They cannot display as big a range of colours and the viewing angles on CRTs is better. But that's a different topic

As for the players, I am doing research for optimal playback of the DVDs and am going into HTPC forums (mainly for software config info). Seems a lot of people use Zoomplayer

btw, in tweaking ffdshow, I did notice some improvement to my image quality. Try doing the same and watching the real time differences

 

Yea, I use zoomplayer and mpc on windows (they just happened to come with CCCP preconfigured ).

Zoomplayer is nice - you have to pay for DVD playback, but you can just use vlc or mpc when you're watching DVDs and use zoomplayer for everything else.

 

I understand Zoomplayer is only a frontend. Any perceivable image quality difference once you have added codec packs and configured it?

 

Zoomplayer actually suggests people add codecs individually as needed through its own interface instead of using packs, I never did that though.... CCCP was always enough for my needs. But I guess adding and customizing them yourself is probably better.

I actually haven't noticed any drastic changes in quality per se, although I recall certain settings and certain versions of ffdshow made watching h264 movies a lot more processor-intensive - this was especially noticeable on my old desktop, which could barely run h264 movies as it is.

These days I'm always in OSX though, so my needs are all met by mplayer or vlc or perian.

I wonder when CoreAVC will come to OSX officially..

 

Personally, I use K-Lite for my codecs and Media Player Classic (love that thing) as my movie player. I do have some problems, but they are rare.

 

After installing CCCP, all my videos seem to be playing fine now, and I've been running them through Windows Media Player. Zoomplayer seems to make the picture more pixelated than WMP or MPC though.

 

Try Media Player Classic. It's better than WMP.

 

I suppose WMP is a bit bloated, with all the "buy this" and "purchase tracks of that" stuff now. Thanks

 

a little old but does CCCP use windows media player classics as the defalt player?

and do you guys think the vista codec pack is better?

 

Yes it does.

I haven’t used Vista codec pack, so I cant say anything about that. But CCCP works perfectly under Vista.

 

Is it possible to uninstall Windows Media Player, or is it too much tightly bound to the OS to remove it?
I just hate it.

 

I have been using CCCP with the included media player classic but oddly not all my MP3's work on it. I don't know why...?