Codecs that kill!

mutantfish01 · Post by **mutantfish01** » Sun Feb 11, 2007 2:11 am

K... I'm no genius on how codecs really work at all. All I know is that ever since I downloaded some random ones from a Windows Codec Pack or something from Microsoft, it turned my computer rabid. Certain audio files, such as wav, DO NOT play on WMP, yet they'll work just fine with Realplayer. At first, DVD2AVI didn't work after that, crashing at every saved clip attempt, but I fixed that by downloading some other codec, or rather, getting a better version of it or something. Sometimes, when streaming a video through WMP from the internet, certain file types lock up WMP after its first play and/or have no audio feed.

Sadly enough, I thought I was done with all this codec business....but I hadn't burned a DVD since then, and to my surprise, my DVD burning program crashes randomly due to some support groups program called Open H.323 (which I had no idea was ever on my comp...much less what on earth it IS!).

So shortly, what I'd like to know is how dowloading a codec can actually screw up a computer, which according to my comp's symptoms, I'd say that is exactly what happened. Also, why can downloading OTHER codecs fix the problems to some degree.

Kariudo · Post by **Kariudo** » Sun Feb 11, 2007 3:24 am

this should be in general video...as codecs are not hardware...

the answer is something like this.
you have a video (or in your case audio) file that is on your computer.
you have codec A, which is already on your computer, and it plays your file.
you get a codec pack that contains (among other things...most probably redundant or useless) codec B.
Codec B can also play your file.
the thing is...when codec A and codec B try to do their things at the same time they interfere with eachother, making it so that playback is either distorted or impossible

the solution: uninstall the codecs/codec pack that you got.

most codec packs are usually put together by people who have little to no idea what they're doing (it seems like Bill's team screwed this one up...what a surprise). One of the good ones is CCCP (useful for playing .ogg, .mkv, .mp4 and some other formats/containers as well)
your computer should already have codecs to handle .wav, .wmv, dvd audio (.ac3 or dolby digital) and some others

Willen · Post by **Willen** » Sun Feb 11, 2007 6:38 am

Click the banner to get the CCCP. You may also want to run a virus and spyware scan.

Good luck!

mutantfish01 · Post by **mutantfish01** » Sun Feb 11, 2007 10:24 am

Yeah, I think that'll help. And I did uninstall that codec pack a long time ago. Now, do you know what Open H.323 is? Thanks for your help so far, I really appreciate it.

Kariudo · Post by **Kariudo** » Sun Feb 11, 2007 2:18 pm

looks like open h.323 is an implementation of some voip protocol
I have no idea why it would be running/causing your dvd burning program to crash though...
unless your audio got encoded by that codec/trying to be decoded by the codec

mutantfish01 · Post by **mutantfish01** » Sun Feb 11, 2007 8:41 pm

Hmm... well Microsoft's not very specific with error reporting. Anyway, the problems solved after getting that codec pack... and now I can actually burn a DVD. Thanks a ton! I understand everything a lot better now.