HELP: computer related issues

[Neil]

K-Lite is damn good, if you read up.

It installs MPC as standard and nothing untoward.

Horses for courses, saves a lot of headaches.

I'll say it again, because it needs saying again, codec packs are just quick and dirty, and of benefit for the lazy. They encourage people to just use the shotgun approach, and can often introduce problems themselves.

If you need a specific codec, then get it from the proper source, don't just throw paint at a wall.

 

[highlandsflyer]

K-Lite is damn good, if you read up.

It installs MPC as standard and nothing untoward.

Horses for courses, saves a lot of headaches.

I'll say it again, because it needs saying again, codec packs are just quick and dirty, and of benefit for the lazy. They encourage people to just use the shotgun approach, and can often introduce problems themselves.

If you need a specific codec, then get it from the proper source, don't just throw paint at a wall.

À chacun son goût, as my family motto dictates.

However, if you are dealing with an end user who would struggle going through the motions to ensure removal and renewal of drivers or codecs these options are there. Some actually do what they say on the tin.

Have installed K-Lite hundreds of times over the years and it is an effective distribution of essentials, and quite a time saver.

 

[Neil]

K-Lite is damn good, if you read up.

It installs MPC as standard and nothing untoward.

Horses for courses, saves a lot of headaches.

I'll say it again, because it needs saying again, codec packs are just quick and dirty, and of benefit for the lazy. They encourage people to just use the shotgun approach, and can often introduce problems themselves.

If you need a specific codec, then get it from the proper source, don't just throw paint at a wall.

À chacun son goût, as my family motto dictates.

However, if you are dealing with an end user who would struggle going through the motions to ensure removal and renewal of drivers or codecs these options are there. Some actually do what they say on the tin.

Have installed K-Lite hundreds of times over the years and it is an effective distribution of essentials, and quite a time saver.

That's as good as it gets, though, with codec packs - quick, easy, and saves time.

Depending on whatever else is installed, though, and how pure the source, can either cause clashes or break existing stuff - more as an accident - or if the source ain't so pure, cause issues and break stuff on purpose.

Usually, it's a scatter gun approach, that's akin to using a piledriver to crack a peanut. And as a policy for the less techie audience? A risky rationale to buy into.

 

[Rusty Scrubber]

 

[drcarlos]

If you have admin rights delete the sound drivers and let windows re-detect and install them, literally delete the sound device from device manager and then right click the system icon at the top and select detect new hardware option. I have had some odd issues with sound on XP on a laptop that my son has and this usually cures it. However it is probably not the issue. I don't think this is a codec related issue either as Flash is merely a container for media delivery and the audio and video contained within will be decoded by the same codec used for local playback of files so if it was either soundcard drivers or audio codec local playback would be effected too.
It could be the network card issue described in the link as it does sound suspicious but it could also be flash as well. There are two flash variants, the active x plugin for IE and the regular player used by Firefox and Chrome and you will need to remove and reinstall both to truly get a fresh install.

Carl.

 

[Magsy]

Neil, I wrote a post almost word for word like yours, including shotgun and devil several times

However, I thought maybe I should look before I hit submit and tbh it has moved on.

K-lite looks ok and is kinda slim. It is no Shark codec pack of old. It has ffdshow, lav and haali plus a cpl bits that are no big deal (basic version)
I agree with you though, normally the worst thing you can do, besides 7 can play most things just lacks the file associations and/or splitter.

The reference in serious htpc is lav and madvr anyway, so it could be worse.

 

[highlandsflyer]

K-Lite is damn good, if you read up.

It installs MPC as standard and nothing untoward.

Horses for courses, saves a lot of headaches.

I'll say it again, because it needs saying again, codec packs are just quick and dirty, and of benefit for the lazy. They encourage people to just use the shotgun approach, and can often introduce problems themselves.

If you need a specific codec, then get it from the proper source, don't just throw paint at a wall.

À chacun son goût, as my family motto dictates.

However, if you are dealing with an end user who would struggle going through the motions to ensure removal and renewal of drivers or codecs these options are there. Some actually do what they say on the tin.

Have installed K-Lite hundreds of times over the years and it is an effective distribution of essentials, and quite a time saver.

That's as good as it gets, though, with codec packs - quick, easy, and saves time.

Depending on whatever else is installed, though, and how pure the source, can either cause clashes or break existing stuff - more as an accident - or if the source ain't so pure, cause issues and break stuff on purpose.

Usually, it's a scatter gun approach, that's akin to using a piledriver to crack a peanut. And as a policy for the less techie audience? A risky rationale to buy into.

I am not advising someone with a problem with their hard drive to reformat it or something, just a codec pack that actually works.

I agree with your general advice, this just happens to be one I can recommend as it does work well.

 

[Neil]

Neil, I wrote a post almost word for word like yours, including shotgun and devil several times

However, I thought maybe I should look before I hit submit and tbh it has moved on.

K-lite looks ok and is kinda slim. It is no Shark codec pack of old. It has ffdshow, lav and haali plus a cpl bits that are no big deal (basic version)
I agree with you though, normally the worst thing you can do, besides 7 can play most things just lacks the file associations and/or splitter.

The reference in serious htpc is lav and madvr anyway, so it could be worse.

I'm sure there's some codec packs that are light and fairly innocuous.

However, there's the mindset thing - encouraging people who aren't particularly technically savvy, to go down the throw-paint-at-a-wall approach. Plus as a generalism, it's normally a poor approach - a scatter-gun to fix a specific.

And in years gone by, I've had to fix problems for people who've installed k-lite, and it broke the packaged encoding app they relied on and used frequently (conversion app that tended to rely on specific versions of particular codecs). And in that scenario, installing k-lite had no upside, it was entirely unnecessary - they'd only done it because somebody else advocated it, and they were easily led.

 

[highlandsflyer]

I think they 'may' have messed around and tweaked it then. I have installed it literally hundreds of general use PCs and multimedia PCs and it has worked a treat.

On this one I will happily take it on the chin. I know you know your onions.

Me, knowing it would sort things out in 99% of case, I would rather that than talking someone through removing a specific codec and reinstalling it/updating it.

But I am a lazy get.

Flash tends to just stop working. Specific info about problems tend to be ambiguous.

Most often the reinstalling Flash routine does the trick, and I think that is how they want it.

Failing that, looking at the codecs and wholesale reinstalling them can work.

It is not the case that Flash automatically uses the same codecs as everything else, these are configurable case to case.

 

[drcarlos]

It is not the case that Flash automatically uses the same codecs as everything else, these are configurable case to case.

You say I am wrong then? How do you configure flash to use say a different MP4 codec to WMP, can you tell me where they are stored on the harddrive as well? (This could be useful information as I am doing a lot of work with Citrix HDX Flash offload and different platforms and hardware).

Carl.