Order of the Bath

The way Audio Visual playback works on a PC is that your player software of choice looks at that the file and decides what format it is from a 4 character code in the headers. This will tell it what codecs are required (they are separate for video and audio). It will then read the data from the file and pass it to the relevant codec. This will decode and expand the data stream and pass it back to the player software for display. The decoder parts of the codec have standard algorithms so, assuming they have been coded correctly, it doesn’t matter which one you use.

The best known codecs types are

MPEG-1—used on Video CDs.
MPEG-2—used on DVD and SVCD.
MPEG-4—used on HD-DVD and Blu-ray.
Sorenson3—used by Apple QuickTime videos.
WMV—Windows Media Video sponsored by Microsoft.
Realvideo—now used mostly for streaming video.

but there are subdivisions such as mp42 and mpg4 which are both MPEG-4 codecs.

The best known audio codecs are

mp3—the generic and (probably) public domain codec.
WMA—Windows Media Audio which compliments the Microsoft video codec.

Some codecs do other things like the splitter which separate the audio from the video content. There are also surround sound decoders, subtitle extractors, language separators for multilingual files, chroma-key generators and digital signal processors for sound and picture manipulation. Even Audio and Video hardware drivers are considered as codecs by some applications.

Codecs come as installable packages, often in bundles, and are stored in C:\WINDOWS\system32 as .dll or .drv files.

How to find out what you need

AVI Codec Analyser tells you what you have installed and what you need to play any particular file but I can’t relate the two and it doesn’t seem to recognise QuickTime at all.

GSpot is popular doesn’t seem to recognise many for me.

MediaInfo gives similar information in a much more readable format (with many options) and supports QuickTime.

Finding missing codecs

If you find you need a missing codec, the best way is to search for them by name. Many will be found in the K-Lite package from codecguide.com

In part 2, I described a method for getting the three primary applications installed safely on your system. You should be able to run any media files that you come across with it’s optimum application. In the case of generic files such as .wav, .mp3 and .mpg you may not have assigned a player, in which case, ask for the list of options when prompted and select which one you would like to handle it. At fist un-tick the box “Always use the selected program” until you have a feel for which player is best for you (and which ones work!) If you change your mind later, open a file with the right mouse option “OpenWith …” and chose an alternative.

DVD Playback

Note that none of these are actually capable of playing a DVD by themselves. They still needs the relevant codecs from a third party. If you go to The Plugins option table and click on “Look for Plugins on the Internet” you will be taken to a sales page with a number of options (Roxio, CyberlLink, InterVideo and nVidia at present). Fortunately you will find that you probably already have one which came with the DVDROM drive. If not then there is a freeware alternative available called DScaler.

The other thing that you will notice is that whatever you set earlier, Windows Media Player or an application that came with your DVD/CD drive may be the application selected automatically when you insert a disk. This is not directly related to the application itself but the Autorun features set on the drive. What I suggest is that you go to My Computer, right click on the drive icon and select preferences. On the Autoplay tab select each media type In turn and tell it to “Prompt me each time to chose an action.” This will give you a chance to think about it and make your decision later for each type of disk.

Online

One feature that you do want that comes with all the players is the browser plug-ins that enable inline and streaming content to be handled correctly. This is what the question about MIME types was about on the real Player install. Fortunately all three now come with plug-ins for IE, Firefox and, I think, Opera. There is a fourth application that I haven’t mentioned yet which is important in this context—Adobe Flash Player. This doesn’t present too many complications, it is a single function application unlike the others, only works from within the browser and comes with its own codecs built in.

Part 4 will talk about troubleshooting problems.

As we saw in the first article in this series, in order to play all formats of auto and video files we may come across we need to have three separate Media Players installed. It used to be the case that the bickering was intense and the players would steal control from competitors without consulting the owner of the PC. I am glad to say that this has largely died out but you still need to install the programs with care so that you retain control (and your sanity). Note that these pieces of software are not those that you can accept all the defaults and let them rip, you do need to read all the information presented to you and make some decisions.

Unfortunately one of the features of these programs is that they have many configurable options and no good information about what they mean. Each of the applications does a lot more than just play music or video. They come with library organisers, instant messages about new (media) releases, online information about performers, graphical visualises for music, online radio stations and shops where you can buy stuff. Although you may want some of this, you are unlikely to want three different versions so these guides explain how to minimise them. You can always change you mind later.

Windows Media Player

You will find that you have this installed already but it is worth getting a recent version (I would suggest version 10 at present even though 11 is available) partly for security reasons and partly to benefit from its less aggressive attitude.

During the install (or afterwards by going to the Tools—>Options menu) you get some choices to make. I would suggest looking carefully at the privacy options and also the file types that it handles. On this last point, this is the list of types that it will set itself up as the default player overriding other competitors. I would suggest allowing it to handle it’s own proprietary types (asf, wma and wmv) but it is your choice what other more generic types you would want it to play, particularly mp3, mpeg and CD & DVD disks.

Quicktime

The Apple Quicktime format is very popular for internet video files, partly because of the popularity of the Mac with production houses. There is a very good independent install guide for it at Codec Guide but it still needs some modification for general use as that was written for a particular purpose. The software can be downloaded from the Apple web site. At the time of writing, this is version 7.2 Be sure to get the version without iTunes unless you particularly want that software.

My suggestions for the various prompt windows you get are
Destination Folder—un-tick the box for “Apple Software Update”;
Configure Files and Mime Types—in much the same way as for WMP, only allow it to handle it’s own proprietary types (in fact it won’t allow you to remove one of them). Also un-tick the “notify me” box at the bottom.

Once it is installed I think you need to do some further configuration. In the system tray you will find the blue Q icon. Right click on this and select QuickTime preferences. On the Update tab, check that “Check for Updates” is not selected. On the Streaming tab set your internet speed and un-tick the “Enable Instant On” box. Finally, on the Advanced tab, un-tick the “Install QT in system tray” box and click OK. Now start QuickTime, eg. from the Start menu or the desktop icon. Go to Edit—>Preferences—>Player Preferences (note that Quicktime Preferences is also available here if you need another look). Tick the “Use high quality” box and un-tick the “Show Content Guide”. Now, next time you start it you will have a clean, unobtrusive and really quite good media player.

Real Player

Now that any serious allegations of spy-ware are past them, this is a player like any other and one that you may like; it plays more formats than the others. You won’t, however, come across much video material on the internet in proprietary Real Video format but quite a lot of audio streaming sites, such as the BBC, use the Real Audio formats. There are some candid recommendations on how to install it from one of the company’s engineers on a forum. The software can be downloaded from the Real web site and be sure to go for the free version.

When I installed it I un-ticked all the boxes on the Desktop Settings prompt and on the Universal Media Player click “Select media Types”. This is a similar process to the other two and, again, I would suggest only selecting the native proprietary formats to start with.

Once it is installed, start it up and go to the Tools—>Preferences menu item. On the General tab set it to display the player only on start-up, Set your internet speed on the Connection tab and take a look at the Privacy options. I have lost my notes now but I think there is also a Configure Message Centre tab, and I would suggest un-ticking all the boxes, the same on the Auto Update tab.

The third in this series will cover using the players in practice.

One of the trickiest problems to solve with computer software is interactions between different products and nowhere is this more difficult than with “media” software. By media software I mean the programs that play video & audio files, CDs & DVDs. For the moment I am ignoring the creation of these files and disks which includes recording sound and video, writing disks, ripping files and conversion. What I am looking at is playing what you have got or can download. Later I will be looking in more detail at the playback for presentations such as we use in Church.

What makes this so complex is that there are at least three competing systems, each with their own proprietary formats and which largely refuse to talk to each other. These are Microsoft Windows Media Player, Apple Quicktime and Real Player. What is worse is that these programs have a reputation of bickering and fighting over who has control of the PC that should be yours. You don’t have a lot of choice about the file formats because others are creating them, so what I have been looking at is how to achieve the maximum capability with the minimum of annoyance.

I will state at the start that I am not an expert in this field, I am trying to make sense of it so if you have any useful insight I would welcome hearing from you. It is possible to get into quite a mess with this and on more than one occasions I have had to un-install everything and start again.

The reason that the problem exists at all is that, if nothing was done to media files, they would be absolutely huge. I am sure you can do the maths but even a small 320 x 240 video at 25 frames per second and 24 bit colour depth generates a huge file in no time (44Mbps). This is what analogue VHS recorders did and why the media was relatively bulky (and poor quality). The situation for audio is similar; though the data rate should be lower, we are less tolerant of errors so the files can still be large. For example a CD samples at 44.1 thousand times a second at 16 bit resolution on each of two channels (1.3Mbps). Analogue audio recording could be good, arguably better than digital. What was done to reduce the quantity of data in both cases was to compress the files eliminating bits that were thought to be unnecessary. A certain amount of lossless compression can be done but most of the methods involve some compromises of quality over space. It is these algorithms which compete and some of them are proprietary.

The software that handles this compression/de-compression is abbreviated to “Codec” and there are hundreds of them. The way that they are supposed to work is that they are first registered with Windows and then any media player that needs to use one sends the raw data to it and it comes back processed. The media player decides which codec it needs by looking at the identifiers on the file. This is where the system breaks down. Some of the media players refuse to even look at competitor’s files, so Windows Media Player will not play Quicktime .mov files however hard you try and only Real Player will look at .ram files. In fact Real Player is one of the better ones and will play most things sent to it if the codecs are available. This is the second problem—the proprietary codecs are only generally available with the corresponding company’s player. If they were charging for this software then there would be a good case for challenging them on competition grounds but they are, at least in basic form, given away free. So, for Real Player to process a Quicktime file, Quicktime itself has to be installed, even if you don’t use it. Finally WIndows Media Player is one of those programs that comes pre-installed with Windows and is difficult, if not impossible to remove.

So, how should this be resolved. Well, ideally, the manufactures ought to be a bit more sensible about this. In the codec, only the “co” part is really proprietary. The “dec” parts have published standard algorithms and should be freely available; after all they want us to view the films coded with their software. The coding part, the creation of files, is a business matter and if they want to hold onto and/or charge for this, it is up to them, but in that case the creators have a choice of which format they want to use. Secondly they should get off their high horses and make the players acknowledge that there are other good things out there and start recognising each other’s files.

In the short term we need to make the best of what we have got and that is what I will look at in the second article in this series.