I received a reader email recently asking for a solution to this problem: how do I play any media file without worrying about codecs? Media codecs are something the online world has been struggling with as recently as January when Google announced that it was removing H.264 support from its upcoming Chrome OS. H.264 is about as popular as a codec gets, but for reasons best known to Google, it’s decided to remove it, most likely in favour of its own WebM format. And that’s the problem — every company seemingly has its own codec to push or vague patent issues cloud the use of others.
The open-source community supports options such as Xvid, but some will tell you these aren’t unencumbered with patents either. Google promotes WebM, Apple pushes H.264 and Microsoft flogs WMV. In short, it’s a real mess that no-one’s really on top of. So what if you just want to be able to watch any video you happen to come across without worrying about codecs? Personally, I can’t find a perfect do-everything solution. However, the method I use comes reasonably close to perfect.
Media players and codec packs
There are two basic options: you separate the media player from the codecs and look for separate solutions that can work together, or you go for an all-in-one solution that does everything. Everyone will have their opinion of the best media players, but my two favourites are Media Player Classic (MPC) combined with the ffdshow codec pack and VLC Media Player. Between them, I haven’t found a media file I can’t play. ffdshow is a media codec pack that’s fast enough to enable 720p (1,280 x 720-pixel) H.264 video to play on my 1.6GHz Atom N270 netbook. It also handles a huge range of codecs.
Another option I pull out occasionally is Media Player Classic – Home Cinema. This is a breakaway of MPC that adds in hardware acceleration for some codecs (including H.264), so if you have a decent graphics card, you can get faster video playback that relies less on the CPU and utilises the horsepower locked up in your system’s graphics chip.
VLC Media Player is pretty close to the perfect do-it-all media player and is big and hairy enough to handle even DVD movie playback. The latest version will also play Google’s WebM format straight off the bat. Personally, I prefer the old MPC interface to VLC’s, which is why I have both.
If video encoding is a hobby, you don’t mind playing around with different codecs and trying different options. But if you think of video formats as a means to an end, you’re after a quick no-fuss solution that gets you watching your videos. VLC, MPC and ffdshow are as close to perfection as I’ve found.
Your media playback toolkit
The tools described here are all available free to download:
- Download ffdshow (4MB)
- Download Media Player Classic (2MB)
- Download Media Player Classic – Home Cinema 32-bit (9MB) or 64-bit (5.3MB)
- Download VLC Media Player (20MB)
Play Flash files with VLC
Here's a tip: While H.264 videos at 720p will play using FFdshow and Media Player Classic, you'll be using close to 60% of your CPU. One thing that will help reduce the load is to use a different codec - standard MPEG-4 (DivX) is less complex than H.264 so converting your videos to a different codec can reduce demands on your netbook.
Still, as it is, netbooks can't natively show 720p video anyway given most only have 1024x600-pixel screens. The most efficient option is to convert your videos to 1024x600-pixels - this way, you don't save any more or less pixels than needed, maximising quality while minimising the amount of storage and processing you need at the same time.
A year ago neither Windows 7's Media Centre, Media Player nor VLC or Classic would play TS mpg files from my Topfield PVR.
Only SMPlayer would.
Now they all do. I guess regular updates have changed them.
But it is worth mentioning that media players like the Western Digital TV Live HD have this ability as their reason for being.