A comprehensive guide to everything you need to know about codecs and how to not destroy your system using them.
* you are using your pc to watch movies?
* another codec pack destroyed your system?
* you hate quicktime and real media players?
* you look for 101% legal software for watching divx/xvid/dvd?
* you have some problems with new web multimedia content?
* you feel that you install more than you really need?
* you think those opensource geeks doing a good job?
* you do care about what you install?

Read The Zero Codec Pack Guide (Website Temporary Unavailable)


GOM Player | Screenshot |
GOM Player supports most popular codecs (AVI, DAT, MPEG, DivX plus many more) with its own embedded codec system that you won't have to look for appropriate codecs everytime you can't play a certain video format.

What's good: Very nice interface; support for many, many media file types.
What's bad: Very dubious EULA. GOM Player comes with DRM


RulesPlayer | Screenshot |
rulesPlayer is a clean and easy-to-use GUI for MPlayer under Windows, written in D and DWT. rulesPlayer supports most popular media files (AVI, 3gp, ASF, FLV, Matroska, MOV QuickTime, MP4, NUT, Ogg, OGM, RealMedia, DivX plus many more) supported by many native, XAnim, and Win32 DLL codecs. You can watch VideoCD, SVCD, DVD, 3ivx, DivX 3/4/5 and even can watch video files while you are downloading them!

What's good: rulesPlayer is a hidden gem among multimedia applications. rulesPlayer cover all existing video files (Real Media, Quicktime, DivX etc..) without any codec pack. Also rulesPlayer offers a basic menu and hotkeys, giving you quick access to the playback functions.
What's bad: I don't know if is really a bad thing: to install rulesPlayer a good internet connection is required not because of his size (1.1mb) but because it automatically download all the necessary codecs.


KMPlayer | Screenshot |
The KMPlayer is a versatile media player which can cover various types of container format such as VCD, DVD, AVI, MKV, Ogg Theora, OGM, 3GP, MPEG-1/2/4, WMV, RealMedia, and QuickTime among others.

What's good: Pleasant & elegant interface; support many, many media file types.
What's bad: Maybe KMPlayer is a little bloated for my taste ? Too many options and too many tweaks ?


VideoLan | Screenshot |
VideoLAN is an excellent multimedia player with it's own plugins for playing different formats, so it doesn't need any codecs to be installed. It works great for previewing partially downloaded files too as well as DVDs, VCDs, and various streaming protocols. It can also be used as a server to stream in unicast or multicast in IPv4 or IPv6 on a high-bandwidth network.

What's good: VLC will play 90% of your media files shoutcast streams included. No install package (zip) available.
What's bad: VLC doesn't support Real Media & Quicktime; some problems with subtitles.


FFDShow
FFDSHOW is a DirectShow decoding filter for decompressing DivX, XviD, WMV, MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 movies. It uses libavcodec from ffmpeg project for video decompression, postprocessing code from mplayer to enhance visual quality of low bitrate movies, and is based on original DirectShow filter from XviD, which is GPL'ed educational implementation of MPEG4 encoder.

What's good: FFDSHOW is just great! Should be used with a media player of choice like Media Player Classic or Windows Media Player.
What's bad: Nothing, it's the perfect decoding filter.


Media Player Classic
Media Player Classic is an extremely light-weight media player for Windows. MPC has, for instance, a built in DVD player with real-time zoom, support for AVI subtitles, QuickTime and RealVideo support (requires QT and/or Real player), and lots more.

What's good: Media Player Classic it's a great Windows Media Player replacement. Support for hundreds of different media files.
What's bad: Emmm, hard to find something bad in MPC. Maybe some speed issues but this depends exclusively by your PC.


Koepi's XviD Codec
XviD codec allows you to watch and create MPEG-4 compatible video files. Most new movies and videos are being encoded with XviD. XviD is an MPEG-4 compatible codec, which produces very good video quality -- something that really competes with DivX.

What's good: The original XviD, nothing better has been inventend yet. To be used with Media Player Classic or Windows Media Player.
What's bad: Yet another ''Emmm'', personally i didn't found any bug in XviD. It's a decoding filter not a Antivirus, it does what it says.


MPUI - The MPlayer Frontend
MPUI is a easy to use GUI for MPlayer, a very powerful & fast open source multimedia player with no installation required. MPUI plays hundreds of different video and audio formats, including MPEG-1, -2 and -4 (DivX), H.264, MP3, Ogg Vorbis and AAC. For most media files, no additional codecs are needed.

What's good: About 3.5 MB in size! No install required, no hassle, no codecs. Works great for previewing partially downloaded files too.
What's bad: It's still a beta. Unknown to the masses, just 3 words: GET IT NOW!


DirectVobSub (Subtitle Display)
DirectVobSub is simply a DirectShow filter which can be used to display subtitle files created by VobSub during playback in Windows Media Player, Media Player Classic, Zoom Player and other players as well.

What's good: A great very easy to use subtitle filter! Lot of languages are supported.
What's bad: Nothing.

Lazy people - Get the most lightweight & legally codec packs:
How To: Install Playback Software
DefilerPak
Divx Total Pack - open source
Combined Community Codec Pack
Tzim's Lite Codec Pack

On The Web:
Codec Packs are evil, don't install them!! by Chris Lanier
VideoHelp.com Interesting Read
Random Codec Packs Are Evil Topics

Already read the ZCP Guide and need even more help? Are you still undecided ? Here's my recipe:
- for Beginners - MPUI or VideoLan or rulesPlayer or a slim codec pack from above, nothing else.
- for Advanced Users - MPUI or VideoLan or FFDshow+Media Player Classic+DirectVobSub or FFDshow+Windows Media Player+DirectVobSub or a slim codec pack from above+Media Player Classic.

NOTE: Has anyone monitored the installation of <snipped> Codec Pack to see what kind of hit it takes on the registry? I don't think, anyway here's an interesting result : Keys added 1330, Values added 805! That's a lot so think twice before you want to install a ''MEGA CODEC STUFF''.

Yes. I'm lazy. I had used DefilerPak above all other codec pack.

I personally use VLC and absolutely nothing else. <snipped>

XP Codec Pack works very well for me.

Added by Fred Derf:

Is WM9Codecs from Microsoft a codec pack? And should I or should I not install it? Will WMP10 be able to play movies when it is not installed?

I use CCCP

Added by Fred Derf:
I cannot find evidence of this being 100% legal/freeware or not so I'll leave it for now.

Yep. I find it very useful aswell with everything one spot. Media Player Classic + Codecs =

Never use em. Always ****s up my computer. Now I just install the codec when needed. I currently only use xvid and divx.

codec "packs" are always a bad idea, its best to stay in control of which codecs you have installed, not just batch install a ton of them.

Interesting read and facts......I never thought about it and didn't pay any atention to it, but this opened my eyes....thanks....
Unfortunately as I read once I installed a codec pack it is almost impossible to redo the changes made to the registry....but next time i reinstall my system I'll follow these advices....
keep up posting things in this manner.... Thanks

Anyone tired of codecs and othe licencing nonsense VLC! -The king of all players
... unfortunately I have to use WPM10- then K-Lite

OK I believe I believe,,but how the hell do you uninstall these evil Codec packs & get your PC back to normal

That's part of the reason why people don't like codec packs.

I used to use Codec Packs, but in reality you only need to use a handful of programs/codecs rather than hundreds of them.

I just use FFDshow, and oh yea that AC3Filter, they seem to do the job.

Ok, thats why I recomend VLC, but to get rid of them (if u cant see them on windows ad remove(with updates clicked)), get Ace Utilityes 30 day trial- the best utlity known to me for very many purposes. In it u'll find uninstall manager(the one that shows everything) and get it removed!
At the same time (once u got it instaled) run ace utility fully- that will be two rabits instead of one pig(or evil)

I used to use K-Lite Codec pack until i realised i don't use the majority of the codecs. So i just use MPC and FFDshow and xvid for encoding.

i dont use codec packs just install Xvid and DivX, and im good to go..
most of the time programs that are used for converting include some sort of codecs, so there really is no need for massive of codecs imo.

I liked the guide, about time a codec guide came for the community. cccp 4tw and videoLAN.

I wrote this article long time back.. might interest you. Check it out:
{Playing media files without any issues (no more codec problems)}
http://ashwinr.com/2006/01/21/playing-medi...codec-problems/

Yeah, the French Tzim's Lite Codec Pack is wonderfull.

Otherwise there are VLC or GOM.

Well said.

Posts referring to obvious illegal content have been removed. Not every codec pack contains 100% freeware / open-source software.

[Thread Cleaned]

For those who are tech savvy, just use VLC. THAT'S ALL!

Where did you find that stuff?

Anyone know what might be happening with this...with VLC player i sometimes can watch the movie but other times i get a gray screen no picture just sound, anyone know whats happening?

as i've seen a lot of you use it anyone else had this problem?

Total Uninstall

I currently have the <snipped> Codec Pack installed, and have been using the <snipped>codec pack for a few years now.. whats so bad about it except i might not need a few of the codecs?

You say it adds 1330 keys to the registry and 805 values... im presuming thats bad.. but i carnt say its slowed my pc down so does it really matter? if some one could explain

I have found the MPC + ffdshow combination to be the best for me. VLC and GOM used more system resources to play the same media files that MPC did. It's unlikely that I'll ever switch.

Update
GOM Player
RulesPlayer
KMPlayer

VLC is a great one for me. divx is installed as well.

Question on GOM : Why the DRM are a problem for this software? I mean, we won't play a divx or mov when we want?

@Apul

I hope this reply helps:
http://www.videohelp.com/forum/archive/t316366.html

Woaw, understood.


Thanks for the reply Copernic!

What is bad about Codec packs? I didn't know they were bad. I just installed CCCP and it seems fine. Do they waste ram or something?

I'd like to know that too.

I also use the <snipped> codec pack, and I don't see any problem with that, because when you're installing it, it's asking you exactly what codec you wish to install.
So if I choose to only install Media Player Classic, ffdshow and DirectVobSub, it should be the same as installing them separately, right?

has anybody tried kmplayer and is it any decent compared to vlc (as in performace wise, memory etc). Cause the only thing I dislike about VLC is their inability to play Real Media files.

I totally disagree. I am all for codec packs. Installs 99.99% of all the codecs you will ever need (for decoding and encoding purposes) and you will always see the video file regardless if you use WMP/Winamp/VLC/Media Player Classic etc. I personally use <snipped> pack

i also dont see the problem with coodec packs as long as they dont install loads of unneeded stuff and are easy to remove. i noticed that the first post list MPUI as a mplayer frontend, maybe the poster could also add SMPlayer it seems to have a few intresting features that were not in the last build of MPUI i tried.

References to warez-based codec packs have again been removed from this thread. Keep it legal please.

GOM developper replied to the EULA question:

CCCP works for my needs It has all the Required Codecs Certain Anime use I then install Flac and Xvid and im fine

KMPlayer is quite an excellent player, it's built using elements from several open-source projects, such as Gabest, FFDShow, FFMpeg, Mplayer, etc... But it only has RealMedia splitters, not RealMedia codecs. The only legal alternatives to RealPlayer that I know of are: JetAudio 7 Basic (they apparently license the codecs from RealNetwroks), and the console-based Mplayer, for which there are several GUI's, like MPUI, SMPlayer, RulesPlayer. A good Mplayer package that plays everything, including RealMedia streams, can be found here: http://mulder.dummwiedeutsch.de/home/?page=projects#mplayer

FFDShow might play RealMedia files from your hard drive but not streams:
http://ffdshow-tryout.sourceforge.net/

I believe VLC does offer limited support for some RealMedia formats including streams.

After reading the topics, i just removed the "famous" codec pack and installed FFdsfow, Haali splitter and MPC. But the famous "alternatives" are still installed, cause i don't like the original Real or Quicktime stuff. They are nothing but system hogs.

And after experimenting for a while, i decided to go back to my good old codec pack. Why ? Because it installs just exact same stuff i install induvidually, and it automatically registers file extensions, and saves me time and work. So there is no point of rejecting all the codec packs, if you know which one installs what, like me.

I've been using one of the packs we are not supposed to mention here for years and never had a problem related to it. Content can be licensed, but never the decoders needed to play it.

Yey, it came back! : http://impulse7.com/zero/

Good stuff. Just one nitpick: VLC supports Quicktime now. Still no Real though.

Same here , they do most of my stuff for me , that too on Vista

I disagree with this thread entirely.

Codec packs are good. They are a guaranty that your system will play any type of video file. Just that codec pack with VLC and/or MPC and you are good to go