Divx Codecs

Nil_IQ

<div class="IPBDescription">And the getting therof</div> Ok, i've had it.

Every time I download a file, I find I don't have the right player for it! I have quicktime, windows media player (i know....), Winamp, DivX and Realplayer, but I STILL find files I can't play!

Most often I find Winamp will play a file, if not, I usually resort to DivX. And I usually recieve the all-too-familiar message; "Unidentified video format" or something along those lines, and it usually suggests I need a new codec.

Whatever that is. Personally I thought a "codec" was that little radio thing Solid Snake uses but meh.....

So is this a case of "OMG n00b j00 just downl0ad teh c0d3c!"

Or "Yuor play3r is b0rked, get "LEETPLAYER 8.1111one"

And finally, is there a universal player that plays (almost) every kind of audio and video file? And if it exists, why doesn't everyone have it?

And finally finally, why can't everyone just use the same audio/video format? I know it would make MY life simpler at least....

I realise that every single one of my posts lately has contained leetspeak. I really must cut down....

Gwahir

reasons for multiple file types:
1. business
2. different needs for different media. Certain file types are better at providing certain services.

The only movie file types I have trouble playing (and really don't care enough about) are old versions of mpgs. Then of course there's realplayer, which I simply ignore (down with Real). Other than that, what do you need. mov, versions of avi., mpg, etc.

Nil_IQ

Well the specific three I can't play are AVI's, which I never have trouble playing usually.

[WHO]Them

any 1 player is only guaranteed to play every format of file that was made BEFORE the player was released. Everything after that is fubar.

codec is a multipurpose word, standing for "COde/DECode", so it's anything that changes something from one form to another and back again.

And the reason why not everyone uses the same file format is actually a very broad answer.

1. File size: different codecs will reduce file sizes in different ways. Some are "lossy" which means that you literally lose some of the data. And some are "non-lossy" but will never make a file smaller than a lossy style. Now these lossy styles are all different, so different codecs produce different qualities in your encodes, such as high contrasts, able to handle lots of scene changes. All sorts of stuff like that.

2. Encoding speed: different codecs take different amounts of time to work. A highly tweaked divx encode can take all night. A simple avi->mpeg2 can take less than an hour.

3. Playback speed: different codecs have different buffering capablilities that affect playback in too many ways to mention

4. People don't know any better: sometimes people use hard to find legacy codecs because they simply don't know that something better exists.


So meh, deal with it, hopefully someone will eventually come out with a tool that works like all those antivirus products that auto-update and knows exactly what codecs (audio and video) you need to play any 1 file and actually knows the correct place to get it.

Cereal_KillR

codec stands for coder/decoder. that's what snake has. That's what codes something/decodes something on your PC as well. Google for "nimo's codec pack" and download that. That's quite some codecs in there.

Now all you need is not to download any files from a random format almost nobody uses apart from the creator.

DOOManiac

Generally a codec is like a different type of the same file... like yes its an AVI, but there are several "types" of AVIs. There's the classic uncompressed AVI, there's Intel compressed AVIs, etc but in the past there was no reason for there to be new codecs other than the ones that came with Windows, so unless you worked with video editing you more than likely had no idea there even were different types of AVIs...

Divx is one such different type of AVI (so radically different that most people give it its own .divx extension), but there's dozens (if not hundreds) of other types.

There is some codec download site out there that just has downloads of all kinds of codecs, although I can't remember what it was in particular. I bet you could find it fairly quickly w/ google though...

Also Windows Media Player can attempt to download some of the more popular codecs automatically from ms's server (although divx/xvid types are not there).

In all honesty though, I've never had any problems w/ videos not playing as long as I had the latest version of Divx and Xvid

[edit]
Gah, can't even make one post w/o other people beating you to the punch. :P
[/edit]

BlackMage

kazaa lite codec pack. downloadable from the same place you can get k-lite.

Nil_IQ

Thanks Black mage!

Now there is no file that I cannot play! Soon I will use my knowledge of the internet to rule the world! MWAHAAHAAHAA!

Ahem. Thank you. I would recommend everyone downloading it at <a href='http://home.hccnet.nl/h.edskes/finalbuilds.htm' target='_blank'>this</a> site, unless it is considered warez (since it is from the Kazza K++ page.....), in which case, feel free to hit me with your locking stick.

*edit* There's a space in "Black Mage".... *edit*

esuna

I would personally advise against using codec packs (ACE, etc). They install a lot of crap you will never need or use, and if there's an error you can't pinpoint it because it's installed so much stuff you haven't even heard of.

I have three main resources for all my codec needs.

First and foremost is <a href='http://www.headbands.com/gspot/' target='_blank'>G-Spot</a>. It's a utility that analises the .avi file for what codecs it uses (Video and audio.) and will tell you if they're installed, not installed or if there's an error. I find this program hard to live without when it comes to codecs.

Next up is <a href='http://www.doom9.org/' target='_blank'>doom9.org</a>. It's a great resource for codecs and utilities, you can usually find what you're looking for here.

And last, but not least, is <a href='http://www.google.com/' target='_blank'>google.com</a>. If you can't find the codec on doom9, simply google for the exact codec name that G-Spot gives you and you will almost certainly find what you're looking for straight off.