Video Playback
I’ll be posting some links for a personal comprehensive list for video playback. I’m also not a fan of software with embedded codecs/filters like VLC media player. It’s quite a heavy download (~17MB), and its codecs are stand-alone hence they can’t be updated. One very good thing about VLC though, it almost plays anything and everything without much need for customization or calibration of the software.
However, being a geek at heart, I’d rather tinker, tweak and just plain play with my own software. I think I’m an avid MPC fan, however, I had some problems with it during playback, sometimes it just crashes on my old computer. I eventually migrated to MPC-HC, which to my surprise, is quite stable. I also installed the AC3Filter on my system, because from memory I knew I needed it. Initially (and up until yesterday), I used the DivX codec for .avi/.mp4 playback, but eventually I switched to Xvid. It was a love/hate relationship on my first few videos, but after tweaking it a bit (ie. played with some settings on MPC-HC), I made it work. I also used CoreAVC (you have to buy this!) with the Haali Media Splitter for HD playback, since it’s really efficient! As backup, I still have the DivX installer and FFmpeg, just in case my settings fail me.
Without counting my backup video playback software, my total filesize download (excluding site navigation and google search) is just 9.5 MB. And on the plus side, I also had fun tweaking the software I’ve installed.
Cheers!
Tags: ac3filter, avi, coreavc, haali, matroska, media player classic, media player classic home cinema, mkv, mp4, mpc, mpc-hc, videolan, vlc, xvid, ► Codecs