Dumb codecs that fail to download

Can someone tell me where I can find the DivX codec for Windows Media player? All I get is sound and no picture and I just can't find the codec file on my XP machine where everything seems to work.

I don't want to download 13megs of crap software just to get a codec that Windows Media player fails to download, like here:-

http://www.divx.com/divx/divx_v6_me98.php

Help! :)

Get VLC player instead and you'll never have to worry about missing codecs again. Unless you want to play Microsoft or Apple propriety formats, I have yet to see something that doesn't just work.

I use VLC for everything obscure in the video and audio department too. At least where windows is concerned.

For me VLC player doesnt do audio right - it plays so loud that even if i turn the volume down to the lowest possible Most of the sound is way over the max volume so it clips, and sounds all staticy wierd.

Ohwell, I just use media player classic.

I downloaded a codec pack for windows media player, and it now causes most video files to perform illegal operations, in all movie playing program, except VLC. So, i'm sticking with it :D

http://www.sourceforge.net/projects/ffdshow

codecs for nearly everything in one neat package...

Cheers, I tried VLC player and it works a treat, although since i installed it, Windows MEdia player magically works again now. Typical.

It's possible that VLC installed a DirectShow codec that it's using, or redirects other DS compatible players to use VLC's routines.

Or you have a voodoo machine - still on Win98? Anything goes.

I was going to suggest XviD, but this threads seems to have run it's course, so just ignore me. =]

I wouldn't install codec packs, they may install al ot of crap. DivX 5 intaled the Google Toolbar silently, known to be sypware. When I installed XviD, The Indeo 5.04 Codec didn't work anymore.

BTW there's alternative Codec for quicktime and for Realmedia,so you don't have to intall the original software.

Have a look at free-codecs.com

Sounds good what you say about this VLC player. So I can play DivX Avis with it? But does it also allow other apps to use the DixV Codec to ENcode Avis? (eg. Video Editing apps). And how deas this work, will this VLC app update its codecs automaticly or somthing?

Yes.

No. It only has decoders.

No.

Codecs are like a couple of k. It's annoying that companies try to make it as hard as possible for you to get these codecs so you have to install crap. My digital camera records these oddly codeced files and I had to look for ages to find which file the codec was as it was difficult to view these files unless you installed the digital camera on the machine you wanted to play them on.

I hate PCs sometimes.

Oh, please, that's a load of toss.


Did you install Koepi's build? It's the only 'official' build I know of... and have never had a problem with it. God knows what other installers are capable of...


I highly recommend these - they are just DirectShow wrappers for the offical dlls, but without all the bloatware attached.


Most companies expect you to use their codec as an intermediate format only; to convert them to some other format before you distribute them.

Toby, the shocking bit was the fact that DivX 5 installed the Google Toolbar silently. I mean what style is that? They must have some kind of joint venture agreement with google. And finally it's all about money, especially with Google. So, when it would ask "do you want to install Google Toolbar", it wouldnt be a problem. But this way it smells of spam - no matter how useful the toolbar actually may be.

Not sure what XViD version I used to install, but since I downloaded it from free-codecs.com I guess it was Koepi's. After its deinstallation the indeo 5.04 codec worked again.

<shrugs> I agree installing that sort of thing is weird/tacky, but I see plenty of major companies forcing Yahoo! Toolbar on me too and I'm pretty sure that's probably not chockas full of spyware either.

As for XviD, free-codecs has three versions. One of which is Koepi's. One by some random guy calling himself Nic (and boasts that his codec can read DivX and MPEG4 movies as well! As if the other XviDs can't) and just a vanilla XviD distro, which in itself is a lie, because the XviD team don't release binaries, so anyone could have compiled this and put in what they please.

Worrying also, is that their version of Koepi's codec installs the latest stable -AND- unstable binaries. I didn't think that was possible, but there's room for problems there as well...

In short, free-codecs might be a good resource for finding what kind of codecs are available, but the only safe way is to go to the actual source of those codecs.