Select Components
On this page in the installer you can choose which components from the pack should be installed. At the top of the page there is a dropdown menu where you can select predefined profiles of components. You can completely customize the installation by simply selecting those components that you want to install.
In some cases you must choose between one or more alternatives. The recommended choice is always selected by default.
Player
This pack contains an advanced player called Media Player Classic (MPC). We recommend using this player for watching video. If you prefer using a different player, such as Windows Media Player, then you could deselect MPC. Later during this installation you can create file associations for your preferred player. Even when you choose to install Media Player Classic, it is still possible to make a different player the default program for opening audio and video files.
DirectShow filters explained
Most players use the DirectShow framework for playing audio and video files. A DirectShow filter can be seen as a small building block. Several filters are chained together into a graph when opening a media file. Each filter in the graph performs a specific task. The first filter in the graph is the source filter (also called a parser or splitter). The source filter reads the file and splits the data into one or more streams. For example one audio stream and one video stream. Each stream is forwarded to another filter in the graph, usually the audio decoder and the video decoder. The decoded audio gets forwarded to the audio renderer, so you get sound from your speakers. The decoded video gets forwarded to the video renderer, so that it gets displayed on your screen.
This pack contains source filters for many different file formats and decoders for many audio and video formats. Everything you need to be able to play all common media formats in your favorite DirectShow player.
DirectShow video decoding filters
The difference between ffdshow and LAV video decoder:
We recommend using LAV for all video decoding. It is a very good decoder with excellent performance, stability, and compatibility. It is a little bit better than ffdshow.
The advantage of ffdshow is that it offers several options for processing the decoded video. These extra features are mostly only useful in specific situations, or for advanced users. You should use ffdshow only if you need any of its extra functionality.
H.264:
An option called "Use system default" will be visible when the pack detects that you already have a commonly used H.264 decoder installed. Examples of detected filters are: CoreAVC, Microsoft H.264, DivX H.264, DiAVC, and the Cyberlink H.264 decoder.
The recommended choice is LAV, even when another decoder is already installed. An advantage of LAV compared to other decoders is that it has full support for H.264 video that uses the Hi10p profile. LAV also offers several forms of hardware acceleration (DXVA2/QuickSync/CUVID).
ffdshow also supports Hi10p.
MPEG-2:
An option called "Use system default" will be visible when the pack detects that you already have a commonly used MPEG-2 decoder installed. Examples of detected filters are: DScaler5, Microsoft MPEG-2, Cyberlink MPEG-2, Purevideo, and InterVideo MPEG-2 decoder.
MPEG-4:
The default choice is LAV Video decoder. If you want to perform post-processing, such as deblocking, on the video, then the recommended choice is ffdshow.
DirectShow audio decoding filters
AAC:
The Monogram and LAV decoders support AAC audio streams that have LATM headers. LATM is sometimes used in digital TV broadcasts. You will rarely find it in normal AAC streams.
DirectShow source filters
These filters are used for reading various audio and video file formats.
AVI:
It is recommended to use the system default AVI source filter from Microsoft. That filter has the best compatibility.
The LAV and Haali splitters have an internal stream switcher. This is needed for proper playback of AVI files that contain multiple audio streams. Without a stream switcher Windows Media Player will play all audio streams simultaneously. So if you have dual audio AVI files, then you should use either LAV or Haali splitter for AVI files.
The Gabest splitter has better support for incomplete and partially downloaded files than the other splitters.