Achieve The Perfect Movie Experience Every Time

Neil Mohr takes you on a tour of video codecs for the ultimate theater-quality experience

- Neil Mohr

Why is Playing video so complicated? Why does it play smoothly in one program, but not another? Why can you play it on this system, but not that one? Why does it stream OK, but not play locally? How can the video play, but not sound? How do you get subtitles to display? Why is the audio only in stereo, not surround? How come the colors are drab? All those questions have come from the mouths of people who had the audacity to try to play video.

Before you throw your PC out the window, we’re offering you a masterclass in video playback. We’ll explain the complexities of the Windows video pipeline (you’ll see why things can become so difficult to diagnose), and discuss what software you need to get the best playback without the hassle, along with how to install and tweak it to perfection. Along the way, we’ll see what hardware acceleration you can use, discuss the madness of the codec world, ensure sound isn’t neglected, and cover 4K and HDR content, too.

You could very easily argue that local video playback has become redundant anyway, because streaming services have pushed content online, and that’s where most people consume their entertainment. We’re not going to argue with that, but if you still want to retain ownership of your paid-for movies and video, the only true way to do so is to have a local copy, otherwise you’re really only borrowing it from a copyright holder under the guise of a license. We don’t want to get bogged down in the philosophy of it all, so instead we’re going to get bogged down in codecs—this should be fun....