LANMA: The Leicester Anime and Manga Club

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Codecs

Short for compressor/decompressor, a codec is any technology used for compressing and decompressing data, in this case the video and audio data used in the AVI and MPEG files that fansubs are distributed in. Without a suitable codec, you might not be able to play back that file that you've just downloaded or borrowed from the library.

Most of the files in the library have been encoded using either the DivX codec, or the XviD codec. Be default, Windows 98/ME/XP will not play these files, since Windows does not come with a suitable codec (MPEG is included however).

I have four copies of a codec disk that contains the installation files for the DivX and XviD codecs, along with a few useful utilities for identifying which codecs are needed to play an AVI file.

However, if you want to get ahead and install the codecs now, then they are available at the following web pages:

DivX - http://www.divx.com/divx/download/
XviD - http://www.koepi.org/XviD.shtml

Worth noting that XviD plays both codecs, so you can get away with just installing that codec.

What's becoming apparent though, is that more fansub groups are starting to release or experiment with different codecs and containers, a few groups are starting to use H.264 codec for video, and the MKV container file (instead of AVI container).

MKV has some advantages over AVI, in that it can support multiple video, audio and subtitle streams (cute recent example is Koi Koi ep 1, where a sub group has released an MKV with an alternate sub stream for a "pantsu" flash counter :-)

At the moment, to handle newer formats would mean adding extra installation files to the codec disk for H.264 codec, and MKV, and possibly a playback program for one or the other.

Or it would have, until I caught up and found the Combined Community Codec Package (cccp): http://cccp.kickassanime.org/

Basically a single package that covers Divx, Xvid, H.264, MKV etc. in one easy installation. CCCP has been devised & developed by a dozen or so fansub groups with the intention of providing an easy install and setup to watch fansubs. Having tried it out myself, installation with defaults is a breeze, and so far, no playback problems. The package includes two optional players (Zoom Player, and Media Player Classic), but it is also possible to playback using Windows Media Player (WMP). I've been very pleased with how the supplied programs handle subtitle steams in MKV files.

CCCP doesn't conflict with existing Divx/Xvid codes per-se (although you might want to uninstall them first). Instead it'll take over the ownership and decode them itself, there are instructions on the cccp wiki if you absolutely want Divx to decode Divx only and Xvid codec to do Xvid only.

Anyhoo, I'm considering replacing the multi-file codec CD with just this single installation file (or directing folks to the cccp website).

Thoughts?
Andrew

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