One player to rule them all....

F

Feileung

Limp Gawd
Joined
Oct 15, 2005
Messages
251
Does this exist?

I've been reading about various playback/frontend software and it all seems a little bit awkward. It seems like people switch from player to player depending on the file type they're viewing?

I'll do this if this is just how its done, however, I'd really love to find software that, however much setup it needs, just runs what I want to play once its been configured. Can any package handle various codecs and run the appropriate one based on my settings for a given file type?

Again, I'm content to spend as much time as necessary to get plugins installed and settings set. I'd just like to minimize the "computer" part of the experience once its all up and running.

Does anyone have any recommendations?
 
I install CCCP, and uncheck the additional media player it tries to install. It sets up the codecs and FFdshow filters to support virtually all formats direct through the built in windows media player.

H.264, MKV, FLV, divx, xvid, etc you name it it plays it natively in WMP without any other player.

Alternatively a lot of people like VLC.
 
Gotcha, thanks. I'll look into FFdshow. Could you also set it up so that a program like Windows Media Center was the default player? I like the integrated concept of WMC and I'll definitely be using the NetFlix plugin.
 
... don't get FFdshow.. get CCCP, google it. It will setup FFdshow filters.

CCCP registers all the necessary codecs in Windows, so yes, anything that pulls from that system will read virtually all video types, Windows Media Center included.
 
Great, I'll download it when I get home from work. If this is so easy, why do so many people seem to use various players for various media types? Have they just not hit on this solution?
 
I dunno who you've been talking to, but around here CCCP is very widely known *shrug*
 
I'm sure it is. I think I was just swamped with all the info out there (some of it old).
 
I set mine up with CCCP as well. Haven't failed to play a file yet.
 
cccp is out of date though. i used to love it, but they dont update enough. haali inside it is not current enough for win7 mc for one thing.... even though you can update that yourself it kinda takes away the convenience of using cccp.

if youre using win7 x64, this is the package i put together to deploy on my pc's. it will allow most any video or audio files to be viewable and playable in windows media center.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/587032/Media%20Center%20Files/Win7%2064bit.zip

don't need to use MCDU, thats just to experiment with stuff. and MPC-HC is only for files that dont work otherwise- that, or if you want to use DXVA for a certain file then itll do that. MPC-HC uses a variation of FFDSHOW as far as i know....

you dont need to install the FLAC stuff either, thats just if you want to use those audio formats.
 
even the beta is out of date. no word at all from the cccp guys when/if there will be an updated package.
 
I use Windows 7, with MPC-HC Video Decoder and Matroska Splitter and AC3 Filter for audio...along with media center and media browser, haven't found a file I can't play yet...

Super clean/small install, I use the standalone filters and then register them with regsvr32, works perfect... DXVA w/ H.264 hardware GPU decoding works perfect, everything.

I love it :D
 
I went ahead and installed krupted's pack. I haven't tested it yet but I'm a little bit confused. In that pack was an installer for Windows Media Player Classic, which I installed. How does this interact (if at all) with a front end like WIndows Media Center, etc?

As I understand it, the codecs register with Windows so any program that calls on them can use them. What is the purpose of WMPC in this set up? I'm just trying to understand, this video/audio stuff is all brand new to me.

Thanks.
 
Feileung said:
I went ahead and installed krupted's pack. I haven't tested it yet but I'm a little bit confused. In that pack was an installer for Windows Media Player Classic, which I installed. How does this interact (if at all) with a front end like WIndows Media Center, etc?

As I understand it, the codecs register with Windows so any program that calls on them can use them. What is the purpose of WMPC in this set up? I'm just trying to understand, this video/audio stuff is all brand new to me.

Thanks.
Click to expand...

MP-HC is just for files that wont play. however, blazestorm is claiming the MP-HC filters work fully in WMC, so if you want, try using MCDU.exe to check "Mpeg Decoder" in the list. that will make windows media player and media center both use the MP-HC filters. blazestorm just downloaded the filters alone, but there is no harm in installing the whole player because it is nice to have as backup in case nothing else works.

edit- i just tried again and it doesnt work. im not sure how blazestorm has it configured... and i wonder if he can still watch livetv or not. what are the specific mp-hc filters youre registering blaze? and are you just running a simple regserv to register them?
 
Last edited:
Menelmarar said:
I install CCCP, and uncheck the additional media player it tries to install. It sets up the codecs and FFdshow filters to support virtually all formats direct through the built in windows media player.

H.264, MKV, FLV, divx, xvid, etc you name it it plays it natively in WMP without any other player.

Alternatively a lot of people like VLC.
Click to expand...

So this is what people are recommending right? With this setup, does WMP and WMC play most files and does it use hardware acceleration?

I just switched from VLC to MPC-HC since my laptop can't play HD rips without using the video card. It has an anemic AMD X2 1.7 and an adequate Geforce 8600m GS. Now HD rips play smoothly. I tried CCCP's included MPC and it didn't seem to use hardware acceleration...choppy and 90% CPU utilization...
 
krupted said:
blaze- do you enable matroska splitter to open avi files then?
Click to expand...

No for mkv files... it splits the video and audio, AC3 Filter takes over the audio, MPC-HC has a video-decoder which handles the video.

I think Media Browser natively handles .avi's and similar files... I could be wrong, it could be Media Center... either way I've never had an issue.
All I did was copy the 2 filters from the standalone filters pack (MPCVideoDec I think and MatroskaSplitter.ax ) whatever it was into a folder on my C:\Filters\ ... then opened a command prompt in that folder, and typed regsvr32 for both of those it pops up with a window saying something along the lines of "command successful"... I forget... been a while.
Then install AC3 Filter... then that .mkv registry tweak... and finally media browser...

Media Browser can handle mounting .iso's as well if you have something like Daemon Tools installed.

At some point I could write up a tutorial I guess, but I figured this all out from tutorials I found on the net... heh.. ..I might be reformatting the HTPC at some point, and I could write it up then / take screenshots of exactly how I do it.
 
i never tried registering the matroskasplitter.ax, i always just installed their program. maybe thats the difference? its the only difference really!
 
Yea it matters... I don't think VMC will access those filters unless you register them.

I think I made that mistake on my last install, forgot the splitter and it didn't work until I registered it.
 
I use Zoom player to keep all my codec's up to date, it seems i'm a bit out dated...
 
Is there a way to control upscaling and apply filters with any of these components?

I'll probably end up using MediaCenter for playback.

Sorry for the basic questions. I'm reading, its just not clear. Most info seems to be about ffdshow.
 
For those using Windows 7, why install anything other than Haali splitter? Windows 7 has built in support for accelerated h264 playback as well as DDS and DTS decoding, and other codecs like mpeg2 and DivX. In my case, after installing Haali splitter for MKV support, I have not needed anything else for WMP or Media Center playback. I do keep a standalone MPCHC and VLC installation for the random weird formats, however.
 
win7 wont do DXVA... however i still think doing what you do. efishta. is the safest route- for now. i dont recommend anyone use MCDU either, it might be causing my problems.
 
Actually Windows 7 supports out of the box DXVA acceleration for MPEG2 and H264/AVC video. Otherwise my anemic single core Athlon 64 2.0 ghz could not play back 1080p smoothly. With updated drivers for ATI, NVIDIA and Intel of course.
 
i use a mix of vlc and media player classic as vlc doesn't like rm and quicktime files
 
efishta said:
Actually Windows 7 supports out of the box DXVA acceleration for MPEG2 and H264/AVC video. Otherwise my anemic single core Athlon 64 2.0 ghz could not play back 1080p smoothly. With updated drivers for ATI, NVIDIA and Intel of course.
Click to expand...

i did not know that.... i wish HP would update the tx2z drivers, they havent put video drivers up since win7 was released :rolleyes:
 
efishta said:
Actually Windows 7 supports out of the box DXVA acceleration for MPEG2 and H264/AVC video. Otherwise my anemic single core Athlon 64 2.0 ghz could not play back 1080p smoothly. With updated drivers for ATI, NVIDIA and Intel of course.
Click to expand...

What's the best player setup for a Vista 32 computer with anemic processor but modern video card?
 
YellowSnow said:
What's the best player setup for a Vista 32 computer with anemic processor but modern video card?
Click to expand...

Before I get into it, cause i"m tired and I don't want to write something up to apply to every situation, what kind of card do you have and do you want to just use a stand alone player (the easiest option) to play videos as needed or do you want integration with Vista Media Center and Media Player?
 
It's a Geforce 8600M GS. I just switched to MPC-HC and on stock settings, it seemed to play a 720p MKV fine (that wouldn't play well with VLC due to my anemic CPU), using my vid card so I think I'm good but I just wanted to make sure there's not something better I should know about, or some setting I should enable disable on MPC-HC.
 
All this codec pack talk is making me nerd rage badly. It has been proven again and again around here they are useless its astounding people are still so ignorant to this.

Thats it... I've had it. Tomorrow I start on a Guide now that w1retap is out of the picture.

(if someone mentions VLC, CCCP, Sharks etc.. one more time I may just slit my wrists...)
 
YellowSnow said:
It's a Geforce 8600M GS. I just switched to MPC-HC and on stock settings, it seemed to play a 720p MKV fine (that wouldn't play well with VLC due to my anemic CPU), using my vid card so I think I'm good but I just wanted to make sure there's not something better I should know about, or some setting I should enable disable on MPC-HC.
Click to expand...

MPC-HC is one of the best full featured, highly configurable video players available, so this was going to be my "quick" suggestion. Beyond setting the Options, Output "DirectorShow Video" to "EVR Custom", which should already be set up automatically, you don't need anything else beyond updated video drivers to support DXVA 2 acceleration in Vista. Since driver version 178.24, your card has been able to support h264 content up to 1080p resolution at level 5.1 of the h.264/avc standard.
 
On a related note, I curious. This only made me notice when trying to play an MKV file, but it complained about something missing related to DirectX. Is it just me or does Win7 not install DirectX out of the box? I installed 64 bit Pro on my main system and 32 Home on the HTPC and they both did this. I just went on over to MS and installed it manually but.....

Just wondering if this is normal?
 
efishta said:
MPC-HC is one of the best full featured, highly configurable video players available, so this was going to be my "quick" suggestion. Beyond setting the Options, Output "DirectorShow Video" to "EVR Custom", which should already be set up automatically, you don't need anything else beyond updated video drivers to support DXVA 2 acceleration in Vista. Since driver version 178.24, your card has been able to support h264 content up to 1080p resolution at level 5.1 of the h.264/avc standard.
Click to expand...

Thank you.
 
PolygonGTC said:
On a related note, I curious. This only made me notice when trying to play an MKV file, but it complained about something missing related to DirectX. Is it just me or does Win7 not install DirectX out of the box? I installed 64 bit Pro on my main system and 32 Home on the HTPC and they both did this. I just went on over to MS and installed it manually but.....

Just wondering if this is normal?
Click to expand...

It doesn't. Just grab this: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...38-db71-4c1b-bc6a-9b6652cd92a3&displaylang=en

Direct X usually gets installed when you install your first game.
 
Criccio, I know you said you're going to write a guide, but, can you explain briefly what you mean?

What is the "they" in this quote?

"It has been proven again and again around here they are useless"

Are you saying codecs are useless? I'm confused.
 
Codec packs. Useless now more then ever. Windows 7 will play anything under the sun and all it needs is a Matroska splitter installed (takes 2 seconds). Windows Media Player and 7MC will play anything and everything after that.

If you don't want to use WMP / 7MC, MPC-HC is ALL you need.

Codec packs are completely dead.
 
criccio said:
(if someone mentions VLC, CCCP, Sharks etc.. one more time I may just slit my wrists...)
Click to expand...

I hated k-lite after I found out about Haali on Win7.

MPC-HP helped, too.

Not only that, my computer can transcode to my xbox360, lol.
 
Interesting, that's good to know. Thanks for pointing it out.

This A/V stuff is pretty daunting to a newbie. There is so much information and it can be hard to figure out whats currently relevant.

I'll uninstall all but Matroska tonight and see how it works for me.

One question I still have though is regarding ffdshow. I've been considering trying it out just because there is so much information about configuring it with filters and whatnot.

If ffdshow is useless in Win7, how can a person go about doing fine level tweaking/filtering in this environment?
 
What I mean by useless is that it isn't needed. Sure you can use ffdshow to replace the built in Win 7 filters but there is really no need.

Also, if you want to use a DirectShow filter such as ffdshow in Windows 7, you need the Win7 DirectShow switcher utility. http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=146910

That will tell Windows 7 to use the DirectShow filter of your choice instead of the default MediaFoundation filter.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top