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Mac OS and Windows are equally powerless in the face of codecs

post #1 of 23
11/17/09 at 1:57am
Thread Starter 
I know the whole Mac vs. Win debate will range until time immemorial, but when it comes to having the right codecs to play video and / or audio, both Apple and MS do a piss-poor job at ensuring that their OS' are able to play a vast amount of file types right out of the box, without having to spend several hours on the web figuring out how to play different formats.

For my MacBook, I spent a few days searching for what would eventually be the most useful tool: Perian. For Windows, I just spent 2 hours finding an audio / video codec pack which allowed me to smoothly run a 1080P mkv video with H.264...

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post #2 of 23
11/17/09 at 2:23am
Quote:
Originally Posted by imageWIS View Post
I know the whole Mac vs. Win debate will range until time immemorial, but when it comes to having the right codecs to play video and / or audio, both Apple and MS do a piss-poor job at ensuring that their OS' are able to play a vast amount of file types right out of the box, without having to spend several hours on the web figuring out how to play different formats.

For my MacBook, I spent a few days searching for what would eventually be the most useful tool: Perian. For Windows, I just spent 2 hours finding an audio / video codec pack which allowed me to smoothly run a 1080P mkv video with H.264...


Watching watersport vids in HD is its own reward...
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post #3 of 23
11/17/09 at 2:23am
VLC couldn't do it eh?

I can't even play HD rips on my system... lagged to hell.

And the other day I got a WMV file with DRM enabled... can't watch it either and can't find any software to remove the DRM.

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post #4 of 23
11/17/09 at 2:26am
Quote:
Originally Posted by imageWIS View Post
...both Apple and MS do a piss-poor job at ensuring that their OS' are able to play a vast amount of file types right out of the box, without having to spend several hours on the web figuring out how to play different formats

They have greater financial incentive to promote their own codecs/containers/formats/etc.

So, what's the problem with VLC/mplayer?
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post #5 of 23
11/17/09 at 2:26am
Thread Starter 
VLC was choppy like no tomorrow. I ended up downloading a full codec pack that included the newest version of media player classic (which I used to play the video) and that solved the problem. Of course, I downloaded the newest bios, and audio / video drivers as well just to cover all bases. Windows Codec pack: http://www.free-codecs.com/download/...codec_pack.htm
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post #6 of 23
11/17/09 at 2:00pm
VLC (Mac/Win) or Combined Community Codec Pack (Win) have never failed me. Some people also swear by GOM Player or however you spell it.
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post #7 of 23
11/18/09 at 4:22am
ffdshow for Windows is great. The newer builds even have multicore decoding capabilities.

Also, MediaPlayerClassic Homecinema has built in codecs for most popular formats, including h264, Xvid and DivX.
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post #8 of 23
11/18/09 at 4:36am
A: Someone who takes hours/days to find a codec does not know how to use the internet. B: You are blaming the operating system for not including codecs for third party media formats that they are essentially in COMPETITION with? How does that make any sense? +1 to never having any problems with MPC, nor VLC.
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post #9 of 23
11/18/09 at 4:53am
Even I have Perian and I'm about as technologically savvy as Grandma Moses on her deathbed.
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post #10 of 23
11/18/09 at 6:25am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jumbie View Post
VLC (Mac/Win) or Combined Community Codec Pack (Win) have never failed me. Some people also swear by GOM Player or however you spell it.
It was all choppy, and from what I've read its a problem that VLC has when decoding H.264 bluray files, because it uses an internal codec instead of ffdshow.
Quote:
Originally Posted by willpower View Post
ffdshow for Windows is great. The newer builds even have multicore decoding capabilities. Also, MediaPlayerClassic Homecinema has built in codecs for most popular formats, including h264, Xvid and DivX.
The link I posted in an earlier post on this thread has media player classic and all the codecs.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tokyo Slim View Post
A: Someone who takes hours/days to find a codec does not know how to use the internet. B: You are blaming the operating system for not including codecs for third party media formats that they are essentially in COMPETITION with? How does that make any sense? +1 to never having any problems with MPC, nor VLC.
A) My friend who works at HP also spent quite a while searching for audio / video codecs, and he was just using one OS, I'm using 2. And I wasn't finding just codecs, I was finding codecs that actually made movies watchable (i.e. I downloaded VLC first but when that didn't work is when the search began, especially considering that I barley use Windows as it is). B) Your argument would make sense IF MS / Apple did not link to 3rd party software from their websites. However, they have some (in other words: not all that one would need) codecs / software / plugins made by 3rd parties available for download directly or linking from their websites. Since you are so much better at searching the internet than I, perhaps you can find a solution as to why when I connect the laptop via HDMI to my Sony 60XS955 TV all the way on the left side of the screen there is a perfectly straight 1/4 black bar? I.e. instead of the screen filling in to the end of the left side there is a rail-thin black line, which does not occur when watching digital cable via HDMI or DVD's.
Quote:
Originally Posted by cminor View Post
K Light codec pack?
See above mentioned link in previous post.
Quote:
Originally Posted by LabelKing View Post
Even I have Perian and I'm about as technologically savvy as Grandma Moses on her deathbed.
Well, we knew that from your posts on the bluray thread in Fine Living, Home, Design & Auto.
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post #11 of 23
11/18/09 at 9:55am
I use gom player. Pretty darn good even on my old computer with a 3650 radeon installed output through hdmi to my 32"? tv. The only issues arose when playing bluray rips which would be laggy.

I hear newer cards do the decoding on the gpu depending on the codecs?

I have problems with finding certain less used codecs. I was trying to find a decent .ogg and what's that lossless format for itunes or some other player and decided to ditch those. Most online searches and forums let me know whether or not to give up in the first 10 minutes or so though.
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post #12 of 23
11/18/09 at 11:01am
Quote:
Originally Posted by unjung View Post
VLC couldn't do it eh?

I can't even play HD rips on my system... lagged to hell.

And the other day I got a WMV file with DRM enabled... can't watch it either and can't find any software to remove the DRM.


VCL opens most files.

I do not like WMV, always slower than other formats. Funny that VCL opens them quicker than Windows Media Player.
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post #13 of 23
11/18/09 at 11:50am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Toiletduck View Post
I use gom player. Pretty darn good even on my old computer with a 3650 radeon installed output through hdmi to my 32"? tv. The only issues arose when playing bluray rips which would be laggy.

I hear newer cards do the decoding on the gpu depending on the codecs?

I have problems with finding certain less used codecs. I was trying to find a decent .ogg and what's that lossless format for itunes or some other player and decided to ditch those. Most online searches and forums let me know whether or not to give up in the first 10 minutes or so though.

Bluray rips were what I was trying to watch, which is why they were all choppy. And I'm pretty adamant about finding a solution, so if I need to spend several hours finding it, I will.

Quote:
Originally Posted by baseball_guy View Post
VCL opens most files.

I do not like WMV, always slower than other formats. Funny that VCL opens them quicker than Windows Media Player.

It opened the H.264 MKV files, but they were unwatchable.
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post #14 of 23
11/18/09 at 12:22pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tokyo Slim View Post
A: Someone who takes hours/days to find a codec does not know how to use the internet. B: You are blaming the operating system for not including codecs for third party media formats that they are essentially in COMPETITION with? How does that make any sense? +1 to never having any problems with MPC, nor VLC.
+1 It's not really the responsibility of the operating system (either mac or windows) to have bundled support for every codec known to man, and the same people that complain about lack of support would probably complain if they did load them all on install. That said, Windows 7 has pretty damned good out of the box support. I can play all of the movies I've downloaded over the years. I obviously haven't downloaded any blu-rays though. Aside from that, i never had a problem with k-lite codec pack, though I haven't installed it under windows 7.
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post #15 of 23
11/18/09 at 1:49pm
Modern graphics card offer the possibility to decode partially or completely a video stream using DirectX Video Acceleration (DXVA), in order to reduce CPU usage dramatically. MPC-HC includes an embedded video decoder that uses this technology, to decode H.264 and VC-1 with hardly any CPU time required. http://mpc-hc.sourceforge.net/DXVASupport.html Watching h.264 videos using DirectX Video Acceleration (DXVA). http://nunnally.ahmygoddess.net/watc...os-using-dxva/
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