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When you play an audio or video file in your computer, your media software uses a codec to produce output that you can hear or view. Codec is short for Compressor-decompressor. Codecs are needed for encoding (converting to) and decoding (playing) audio and video. In the old days, the popular video codecs are for playing AVI (Microsoft), MPEG/MPG (mpeg-1, mpeg-2), MOV/QTV (Apple Quicktime), and RMV (Real Media). Now we have tons of video codecs which, unfortunately, produced a lot of videos in different formats.

Why do we need Codecs installed in our computer? So that we can view different formats of videos we bought downloaded off the internet. If we don’t have a particular codec for a particular video format, we won’t see the video in our media player. Sometimes it just plays the audio, and the video is blank.

Regarding audios, most computers have a pre installed audio codec that can play various formats. MP3 and AAC are the most commonly used encoded audio in video files because it produces smaller and compressed files.

Videos, however, has many formats. These are the most common ones:

• AVI – .avi is a ‘container’ format; meaning two AVI file can have different video codecs. The most popular is DivX (3/4/5/6) and XviD codecs. So you will need to have both of the codecs in your computer to be able to play most of the .avi files. This type of file can be played in most types of media players. This is the format most commonly used by subs/dubbers of animes, j-doramas, etc.
• MPG/MPEG – .mpg is an old video format. It is rarely used nowadays because, compared to avi, its file size is bigger and the quality is still just the same. If you insert a VCD in your PC, you will see a file named AVSEQ01.DAT, this is the video file and the pretty much like MPEG. The MPEG codec is pre installed in most computers so you have to worry about looking for this.
• MOV/QTV – .mov is Apple Quicktime format. You need to have Quicktime installed in your PC to be able to view files like this. It is also embedded in your browser so you can view videos that have the same format, like those trailers from Apple’s website. (Add note: If your Quicktime copy is registered (Quicktime Pro), you can convert videos to other format. But I strongly advise you it’s totally worthless because the resulting video output has poor quality.)
• WMV – .wmv is Windows Media Video. If you have a PC running Windows then you already have the codec. This video produces a very small filesize, but has poor quality. I, personally, don’t like this format. What good is a video if the quality is bad.
• RMV/RMBV – Both are created by RealMedia, .rmv is commonly used in streming videos, while .rmbv is for videos stored in your PC. You need a Real player to be able to play videos of this format.
• MKV – .mkv is Matroska video is also a ‘container’ like AVI. The video can have multiple codecs used in the file. I’ve only seen this in a few anime subbed videos, so don’t worry about needing a codec for this one.
• OGM – .ogm is OGG Media File. There are a few of this ‘container’ formats roaming around torrent sites. Anyway, what I like most about this format is its multi-layer capabilities. I have an anime video that with a right-click of a mouse can change the “audio” dialog from Japanese to English, without needing a subtitle. How cool is that? VERY!!!
• H.264 – is a standard for video compression. It is also known as MPEG-4 Part 10, or MPEG-4 AVC (for Advanced Video Coding). Hight quality and good compression, both are an advantage in a video format. This is an MPEG product that is now being also used in MOV (Apple Quicktime), DivX, AVI, and other video formats.

Usually, those who need all of these codecs in their PC are the ones who regularly download videos from the Internet, especially if their are subbed/dubbed. Installing each and everyone of these codecs is troublesome if you want the complete set. Fortunately we have what we call Codec packs. These packs contain almost all of the various audio and video codecs known and used as of today.

For the past couple of years I’ve been using CCCP (Combined Community Codec Pack), but up until recently I found out that the DivX decoder from their pack is messing up the video output in my Windows Media Player. Although if I use a different player (like Media Player Classic), the output is just fine. I tweaked the settings, but still the same messed output. I installed a separate DivX codec (from the official DivX site) just to fix the problem, but it is slowing down the response of the video because every time I play and AVI (DivX) file it loads both CCCP and DivX. So I, uninstalled both, and installed a new codec pack. This time it was from K-Lite, and it works perfectly, without screwing up DivX videos. With K-Lite as my complete codec pack, I uninstalled CCCP, DivX, XviD (I used this for encoding), Windows Encoder, Intel Indeo, and other separate codecs that are installed in my PC.

I recommend you use either CCCP or K-Lite, but don’t install both. It even supports .FLV (Flash Video Files) downloaded from YouTube or any other video site that uses Flash Videos. And both have an included Media Player Classic that plays “all” videos, including Quicktime (MOV) and Real Media (RMV/RMBV), so you don’t need a separate player for those format.

(I was planning to make a guide on converting and encoding video to different types and formats. But since this is a Codec topic, I’ll just post it in another day)

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