Useful links for those that cannot play videos on computer.

Viewing 5 posts - 1 through 5 (of 5 total)
  • Author
    Posts
  • February 8, 2006 at 7:14 am #22290
    pidey
    Participant

    I have noticed that with the influx of different  video morphs located here, I thought it would be wise to give out some links that will help people play the video files.

    The first link will allow most .avi files to be played in most players, it contains the codecs needed to decode the file into video.

    For windows 2000/XP/Vista (should be compatible when vista comes out)
    http://www.free-codecs.com/download/Real_Alternative.htm

    I have seen many computers slowed down by real player, it is damn hard to completely get a system rid of real player, please do not download it and help feed the real corporation's profits.

    Mods: might want to sticky this.

    February 8, 2006 at 7:32 am #22291
    sacul
    Participant

    Th4anks 4 teh links

    February 9, 2006 at 3:00 pm #22292
    Pug
    Participant

    Just FYI – I've found Mplayer to be useful – The codecs need to be loaded manually, but it will run just about everything, you can operate it from the commandline, rip streaming video to a file, and it doesn't get it's sticky little fingerprints all over your registry.

    It's originally from linux, so it has that worldview to it, but it's basically pretty easy.

    Pug

    February 13, 2006 at 1:02 am #22293
    Fonk
    Participant

    Thank you so much! I've never been able to find the codec that lets me play .avi files, or make it work if I have, for some bizarre reason. But this is so brilliant. Thanks again! :mrgreen:

    February 13, 2006 at 12:31 pm #22294
    g-man
    Participant

    I find ffdshow (google it, the official site only has sourcecode these days) to be the ideal solution. It acts as a DirectShow filter (like any other codec), but can decode most MPEG-4 content. It also has an audio component, so it can decode most audio too.

    It works rather well with Media Player Classic (http://sourceforge.net/projects/guliverkli/), which also has a few of it's own built-in codecs for audio and video. Together they are a team that can decode a heck of a lot of content.

    If both of those fail, I usually try VLC. The interface is pretty bad, but it can decode a lot of stuff that other programs can't. It can also directly play FLV files downloaded from Google Video or YouTube. And it can stream AVI files via HTTP and FTP. Downside is it isn't very use friendly, which is why I prefer MPC. Link: http://www.videolan.org/vlc/

    And when all else fails, I use the binary of ffmpeg to try to transcode it into another format. ffmpeg is not a player, but a video encoder/decoder. It can decode just about anything. Anything that any of the other programs I've mentioned above can decode, it can decode too. I use it as a last resort, and transcode the problem file into a more standard format.

    For ffmpeg, it is very hard to find a recent ffmpeg binary for Win32. I am not certain where my copy is from, but I think it is from here:

    http://www.videohelp.com/download/ffmpeggui03c.zip

    That's a frontend for it that includes a recent version of it, about Feb '05, I think. So a year old. Like ffdshow, they release lots of source but no binaries. So you either compile it yourself or try to find somebody else who has compiled it.

  • Author
    Posts
Viewing 5 posts - 1 through 5 (of 5 total)
  • You must be logged in to reply to this topic.