[Outdated] Media Configuration Guide
 

Suggested Players: (need ONLY ONE)
[updated][rec] VideoLAN Client 0.7.2 (aka vlc) - All-in-one player that can play all formats right out of the box, i.e. no configuration. Availible for Windows, Mac OS X, and all major flavors of *NIX. [Project Page]

[updated][rec] mplayer (The Movie Player for Linux) - All-in one player that can play nearly all formats right out of the box. RealMedia format support via codecs. Availble for Linux (1.0pre4), Mac OS X (16122003) [Project Page], and Windows (1.0pre4) [Project Page].



[Level 0] Suggested Players: (need ONLY ONE)
[rec] Media Player Classic 6.4.8.2 (2000/XP or 98/Me build) [Project Page]
Windows Media Player 6.4 (Start -> Run -> mplayer2)
Any DirectShow aware player.

DirectShow Filters:
In order of greatest to least importance. Install in this order periodically checking if the file plays.

[Level 1] AVI, OGM, MP4, and MKV support:
[updated][rec] ffdshow 2004-07-25 - to decode MPEG-4 video, i.e. DivX/XviD, streams. [Project Page]


[Level 2] OGM/Ogg format support:
OggDS 0.9.9.5 - to parse Ogg/OGM files and decode Vorbis audio [Project Page]
CoreVorbis 1.0 - to decode Vorbis audio [Project Page]

[Level 3] soft-subtitle support (for OGM and MKV):
VSFilter 2.32 - to display "soft" (i.e. togglable) subtitles [Project Page]
(Note: If you have a modern video card, you do not need VSFilter, instead enable VMR7 Renderless or VMR9 Renderless under MPC's output options, and MPC will use its built-in subtitle renderer. If you have an older or laptop video card do not use VMR7 or VMR9 and install VSFilter.)

[Level 4] MP4 format support:
3ivx D4 4.5 - contains MP4 filter to parse MP4, M4A, M4V, etc. files. [Project Page]
CoreAAC 1.0b9 - to decode AAC audio, multichannel and built-in downmixing support. [Project Page]

[Level 5] AC-3 audio support (for AVI, OGM, or MKV):
AC3Filter 0.70b - to decode AC3 audio and variants. [Project Page]

[Level 6] Matroska (MKV) file format support:
Matroska Splitter 1.0.2.1 - to parse Matroska (MKV, MKA, MKS) streams. [Project Page]

[Level 7] other support
RealMedia Splitter 1.0.0.9 - allows RealMedia playback so long as RealOne and/or the appropriate DLLs are installed. [Project Page]
AVI Splitter 1.0.0.3 - allows incomplete AVI files to be reindexed on-the-fly and played back in any DirectShow aware player. [Project Page]
MatrixMixer 0.30a - to downmix multichannel channel audio to a lower speaker config. [Project Page]

Suggested Settings
ffdshow: Use Overlay Mixer
VSFilter (DVobSub): Vertical padding- "Original height", YV12 ranked before YUY2

Change Log

If at any time during this guide your file begins to play, stop following the guide since nothing more needs to be done

0) Make sure the file you have downloaded from BitTorrent is complete and not corrupted. To do this click the torrent link again, and save over the file (don't worry it will not delete it). BitTorrent will then go and check if the file is complete and not corrupt. If it is corrupt or incomplete, BitTorrent will download the missing pieces.

1) Make sure any codecs (e.g. DivX 5 and XviD) or codec packages (e.g. Nimo or K++) are fully uninstalled, restart if anything needed to be uninstalled. (More info.)

2) Make sure you have one player listed in the Suggested Players section. Media Player Classic is highly recommended.

3) Install files in the Level 1 group, namely ffdshow-alpha, and check if the file plays correctly. For most fansubs you do not need to proceed further.

4) If the file still does not play, go to the next group, Level 2, install the files, and see if the file plays correctly. If it does not, keep going (through Level 3, 4, and so on) until the file plays.

3) If the file still does not play, run the file through GSpot and make sure that you've installed the correct decoders necessary for the file. This is to make sure you did not miss an item on the above list.

4) Take advantage of the SEARCH feature of the bulletin board. Please try several searches using different parameters, since the problem may not be listed exactly the same way.

7) If the search turned up nothing, then, and only then, post a thread about your problem. Please include the full file name of the file you're having trouble playing. Also include information on how you obtained/downloaded the file. Finally, post any information GSpot may have given you regarding the file.

How to install DLL and AX files:

If you find that one of the files above is an archive (ZIP or RAR) containing a files that end in ".dll" or ".ax" then follow these instructions:

1. If the downloaded ZIP or RAR archive contains both a "Release" and a "Release Unicode" directory then:
   1. If you're running Windows 98/Me choose the DLL/AX from the "Release" directory.
   2. If you're running Windows 2000/XP choose the DLL/AX from the "Release Unicode" directory.
   
   
2. Extract the DLL/AX file to:
   1. If you're running Windows 98/Me, "C:\WINDOWS\system".
   2. If you're running Windows XP, "C:\WINDOWS\system32".
   3. If you're running Windows 2000, "C:\WINNT\system32".
   
   
3. Go to Start->Run and type in "cmd" and hit enter. This will bring up the command prompt.
   
   
4. Run the following command "regsvr32 filename.extension". Where "filename.extension" is the DLL or AX file. If you receive a successful message, then the DLL/AX has been successfully installed.

If you want to uninstall run "regsvr32 -u filename.extension" and move the file out of system32.

How to install DLL and AX files
 

06/04/2003: Updated the links and version numbers to the latest filters. Filters that do not come with install routines, just use the following CLI command "regsvr32 X:/my/location/filtername.ax.or.dll" to uninstall just add a "/u" to the command. If you're interested in more goodies (and know what you're doing) look here: http://sourceforge.net/projects/guliverkli

06/14/2003: Matroska Splitter 1.0.0.8 adds subtitle support. VSFilter 2.25 (aka DVobSub 2.25) adds UTF support. CoreVorbis 1.0b3 added to correctly play Vorbis in Matroska. Rearranged order, and added necessity levels.

06/18/2003: New Media Player Classic build. Matroska Splitter 1.0.1.0 adds SSA/ASS (formats used in current DigiSubs) subtitle support. VSFilter 2.26 complements this feature. CoreVorbis 1.0b5 corrects incorrect 5.1 channel mapping. Removed my system specific settings, i.e. "Video settings: 1400 pixels by 1050 pixels, 32-bit color depth; System software: Windows XP SP1, DirectX 9.0a"

07/08/2003: Updated Matroska Splitter 1.0.1.1 which now handles Real Media video and audio in Matroska. Added RealMedia Splitter 1.0.0.1 which allows playback of any RealMedia file in any DirectShow aware player. (N.B: Requires RealOne installed.)

07/10/2003: New AC3Filter Build. See Change Log.

07/11/2003: New builds of Media Player Classic, VSFilter (aka DVobSub), Matroska Splitter, and RealMedia Splitter

11/06/2003: Resurrection!!! Change Log missing for past 3 months.

18/01/2004: Updated almost everything... -_-;

20/01/2004: Added multiplatform, all-in-one players now that mplayer-win32 and vlc are mature.

23/02/2004: Updated with new MPC and RealSplitter versions.