Ace Mega Codecs Pack

[goo-dru]

Hi,

I downloaded Ace Mega Codecs Pack about a month ago, a video/audio codecs. Ever since I installed it, video capability is significantly lowered. When I play video files with Windows Media Player or DivX Player, half of the files don't work. Real One Player still works decent. Most large video files encounter a problem. Sometimes, the player freezes, shut down the program immediately, noise on the screen, etc etc.
Does anybody know how to fix this problem?

Thanks,
goo-dru

[Harry]

Yes, uninstall the Ace Mega Codecs and install the K-lite Codec Pack. That pack has just about every codec you could ever need. It also comes with a player that has a nifty slow motion feature which you can make go slower and slower by first using the 1/2 speed and then Decrease by 10 Percent option over and over again. It came in handy for viewing the Janet Jackson exposure which all happened in about 5 seconds but which that slow feature extended to about 2 minutes.

You can download this Pack at the following Web site.
The first two A links on the site don't work and some of the others on the page don't work either but the b1 link should work.

Here is the address:

home.hccnet.nl/h.edskes/mirror.htm

[reboot]

Then you can uninstall the k-lite pack, because of incompatible codecs, and unregistered ones, and get the Kristal codec pack (Google it), which actually registers every one of it's codec's with the Windows registry, warns you of duplicate installs, and won't cause WMP9 to crash.

[goo-dru]

Thanks Harry and reboot. Actually I've already uninstalled Ace Pack and reinstall DivX and Windows Media Player hoping they will reinstall the exsisting codec. However, codecs left by Ace still tries to run those files.
I will try both k-lite pack and Kristal codec pack, because they both have possibilities of working/not working on my PC (meaning, hardware compatibility, conflict with junk files I have, etc etc... anything can go wrong with my PC. =(
I'm going to upgrade my PC and format HDD soon, so I just want to see which codec suits better to me.
I will post the update and give my opinion for the codec packs.

goo-dru

PS. Again thank you for the input for both of you. =]

[goo-dru]

I've just tried both Kristal codec 4.3.3. and k-lite codec 2.2.0.f.
The bottom line is that my PC is already contaminated by Ace Codecs Pack somehow. (I've already uninstalled it.)

I tried two files which previously didn't work (both mpeg).
First I used Kristal, it played one of the file, then didn't work on the other one.
Then I used k-lite. It came with BS player (media player). Both files gave pop-up saying "Overlay Failed!" then it played both files without any problem. BS player's seek bar is really light. It seeks instantly unlike media player like Real One Player. However BS player couldn't open avi files I had. I still could open them with DivX.

Overall, I'd prefer K-lite since I can use BS player only for the files which can't be opened with DivX player and Real One Player. The fast seek bar by BS player is also a big plus to me.

I guess that's everything I can write for now.

Thank you both =]
goo-dru

[SonicVanguard]

The K-lite codec pack is a re-hashed Nimo Codec Pack - it's full of hacked and unregistered codecs - just like the Ace pack. And that's the problem with all three - they don't properly register their codecs so half the time videos don't play.

The Kristal codec pack doesn't have hacked codecs or unregistered codecs - it's the best codec pack of the bunch by a long shot.

Dave.

[grasshopperbe]

I also had a few problems with codecs in the last weeks, and i also installed ace codec pack. I can only say stay very far away from all of these. if you want your pc to run properly, dont install any of these, it will mess up your register and install undeletable codec configurators no one understands nor needs. Im going to try and clean all the mess up a bit and then simply install wmp9 , realone , quicktime, and if really necessary divx and for the rest, if it doesnt play, i'm not even going to try anymore.

[goo-dru]

Personally, I recommend installing WMP, DivX, quick time player and real one player. For the most of the time one of these programs can open video files with no problem.

Install codec pack ONLY IF you are willing to take a risk.
In any circumstance, you MUST stay away from Ace Codecs Pack though.

goo-dru

[reboot]

I NEVER recommend installing Quicktime or RealOne. They both suck.
Get and install the codecs in this order:
Get WMP9 codecs at http://www.microsoft.com/windows/win...cdownload.aspx
Get DivX from www.divx.com
Get Kristal, and install it, saying NO to overwriting the divx ones.
That's all anyone should need, except for maybe AC3 (if the Kristal one doesn't work) and mpeg4 (which is included with all DVD players).

[grasshopperbe]

thanks for the guidelines Reboot

Well the only reason i had real and quicktime installed was because at the time i did not know any other programs that could work with these files.

are these included in the kristal pack?
otherwise these file types just wont work.
i had somthing called "real alternative " that worked with wmp classic, but it needed realone to be installed. deleted it now though, aling with all the rest

i ll try your guidelines, Reboot, but i still have 2 icons in my control panel called mp3 layer setup and somthing v6 that i cannot get removed, but ill post on that in the more appropriate forum.

did you get all your problems solved in the meantime, goo-dru ? since you had the same pack as me.

[goo-dru]

Again before I say anything, I need to mention that my PC is poisened by Ace Codec Pack and somehow unable to clean it up completely.

Right now I have k-lite cocec pack, since there is a file which doesn't work with Kristal codec pack (It's possible that there is a conflict with Kristal's codec and Ace codec.).
Also the reason that I keep using k-lite is there is a media player called BS player along with the pack. It has a seek bar which takes really short time to seek.
As for what SonicVanguard said about hacked and unregistered codec, I haven't seen any obvious problems caused by that issue.

K-lite codec pack might has something funny in it since it's size is way larger than Kristal codec pack.

goo-dru

[grasshopperbe]

Can you explain what is still poisoned? Since i am probably in the same situation as you ( That was the last time i took someone's advice without checking on the pcmech forums if it was correct, i know it was dumb ) . Maybe that can get things solved faster without having to format for the both of us.

I downloaded everything Reboot told me, and gonna put it on disc and see if i can get it solved. (my own pc has no internet, that's why i have to upgrade some things so often)

Btw, I' ve used bsplayer a little bit, and it doesnt seem to bad, but isn't there some kind of skin to make it look more wmp style (with controls "attached" to video window)

[Harry]

I am just curious how Reboot can watch a web cast without RealOne which is used by most webcasters. There are tons of Webcasts on the net which I love watching including even technical PC web casts. I average watching about 20 web casts per month with Realone. No one should exclude themselves from that opportunity. Realone is not perfect but it works even with only my 56k connection.

[SonicVanguard]

Many webcasters use asf/wmv to broadcast along with or rather than RealOne.

I don't look at RealOne as harshly as Reboot does, but it is bloated and it does what to register everything to the RealOne player evene after you tell it to leave your settings alone. But as you pointed out, RealOne's biggest advantage is mulitcast - where it can provide decent quality video on low bandwidth connections.

Dave.

[goo-dru]

to grasshopperbe:

Since I had Ace Mega Codec Pack, large video file became harder to open. For now, all video files can be opened.
But some of them causes an error to shut down media player (whatever is in use). This is common especially among the large ones.
Also (I feel) it takes longer to actually play the large video files.
Windows Media Player can't open mpeg files anymore.

As for the skin in BS player, just click on the smile icon in the control. There are 5 options (including the default) you can choose. One of them looks like Power DVD's control. More skins might be available in the net. Since all I care is a functionality, I don't care much about skin.

The only problem I see in BS player is it sometimes doesn't show control in the windows mode. I can pull the control in the full screen mode with no problem though.

[reboot]

I purposely avoid anything using RealOne, or even RealPlayer, and just use the alternative. If I want a webcast, I search out the wmv ones.

Regarding the codecs, Ace has done something to mess it up.
The k-lite pack isn't much better (and sometimes worse), usually because it overwrites legitimate codecs with hacked ones, all the MS ones, which is probably why mpegs don't play any more.

Download & install ZoomPlayer (a free media player). Click on the Options button (icon with a check mark). Select Manual Filters in the column on the left. Click on Registered Filter Manager in the center panel. Not only will this show you all the CODECs that are installed/registered on your PC, it provides you with the ability to unregister them, or change their merit values.
I use this to remove ALL the suspect codecs, only keeping the ones I KNOW belong to MS (it's obvious when you get in there), then I reinstall ONLY the codecs that I need from Kristal, knowing they'll be registered properly, using the scheme I posted above.

[grasshopperbe]

i've been using zoom player for several months because i like the look and functionality, but i didnt know it could do all that.
i uninstalled it with all the rest though. Maybe i can get all this back in working order without having to resort to a complete format.

Thanks Reboot

[glc]

I hate Real One too. I use Real Player 8 Basic, it's nowhere near as nasty. It's not easy to find any more though and it constantly bugs me to upgrade.

[goo-dru]

Thank you all for the input. I'm going to save this thread for the future reference. =]

[reboot]

I still use Real7basic if I absolutely must, to use with Ordix Mpack, but uninstall it right after I'm done. I do keep the realalternative on my system all the time.