media player help (and other clean up questions)

[elianamoran]

okay, so i know enough about computers to be dangerous. mostly, i know general maintenance and what questions to ask.

i use primarily use windows media player, but really only for music. the library organization makes the most sense to me and i like the way i can rate the songs. i have my annoyances with it, but i know it and am comfortable with it. i've used real player in the past but prefer media player.

when it comes to watching videos, i generally just click open the file and watch it in whatever player opens it. in addition to windows media player, i have divx, vlc player, and quicktime on my computer. most of my video files open in windows media player, but i have at least one avi file i downloaded that opens in divx

i've never really had enough videos to care about organizing them in a library before. they're in their files and that enough, but my collection of family videos is growing, so i'll probably be handling it a bit differently.

i've downloaded mp3s that automatically open with the vlc player from their file location, but i figured out how to add them to my windows media player library.

also, in the interest of watching/downloading tv from the internet, i've collected k-lite codec pack 5.2.0 basic with ffdshow [rev1723]; media player codec 3.9.1; tvsersity codec pack 1.2 (which came with tversity media center that i've never used); and openmg secure module 4.7.00

i had applian flv player, but i removed it when i realized that vlc player played flv files.

i have mp4 to mp3 coverter 6.2 from maniac tools to play itunes music in media player (though it didn't convert some files, the m4p and m4a files)


my question is this: do i need all this? i don't need two media players. i don't want two media players. i want my computer as clean as i can keep it. can one of my players convert the mp4 files? do i need all the codec packs or is there one that covers the others? ffdshow has codec settings that i don't understand, should i enable it to decode formats that are disabled by default or would that have negative effects for some reason (i don't understand why they are disabled by default)? i want to be able to watch most videos i find online and any that i download. do i need quicktime player on my computer to watch quicktime videos online (even though i'm not running into them as much as i used to)? i have no idea what microsoft silverlight is but i have it. do i need it? i don't build websites, i view them.

for that matter, do i need hp dvd play?

and i have cyberlink dvd suite for editing and burning discs (i've never used it, because i've never done anything more complicated than photo editing and straight file transfer to discs, but it looks friendlier than muvee reveal, which i had and removed, also never used, or the hp programs that came with my computer, and all i'll really want it for is rotating my videos 90 degrees) so do i need windows dvd maker or windows movie maker?

and what's the difference between windows media player and windows media center?

have i asked too many things at once?

[elianamoran]

oh, maybe i should say, i know nothing about lime wire or gnutella, i did a search on vlc player vs media player and you came up. you looked like you knew what you were doing so i thought i'd ask. sorry if i asked too much.

[elianamoran]

sorry, i'm trying to get this all in one place, organized, and done.

google gears, is it worth it? i have it, but the description

A Geolocation module, which lets web applications detect the geographical location of their users.

worries me a little and i have no idea what it does, never having used it unless it runs in the background somehow

and i have adobe flash player, do i need a program on my computer like applian or vlc player to watch flv files? i guess i was under the impression that adobe flash player enables my computer to play files on the web but not if i download and want to know if i was wrong.

do i need adobe air and flash or is flash part of air? is air useful if i don't actually build or edit website stuff?

and i have a file that is called acrobat.com and is version 1.1.377 what is it?

i swear i'm done now, and i really did set out to ask just the media player and codec questions.

[Blackhorse 70V]

Howdy e,

Welcome to the Gnutella forums!

fyi: Limewire is a peer-to-peer file-sharing program that enables users to share files via the Gnutella network. You use LW to search other users' computers to see what content they are sharing. It's a great way to share movies, music, etc with others.

LW was officially shut down in the US and is now going the way of Napster. The good news is that there are pirate copies of LW available free (links can be found on this forum). You really ought to check it out (there's nothing illegal with using a pirate copy of LW).

Players: I believe many will agree with me that WMP and QuickTime are both quite bloated. There is a QT alternative available free from places like download. com, though I haven't had a need for a QT player for quite awhile.
I haven't gotten rid of WMP, (don't know why), but I disabled it's ability to automatically connect to the internet (don't know what it sends to Microsoft, and I want to make sure that it can't be used by a trojan). To organize your music collection, download cover art, and edit tags, there are quite a few free apps available. MediaMonkey comes to mind, but I know there are others that I thought were even better.

I play everything with VLC. No need for additional CODECs that I've found so far (and I watch a Lot of movies!). For those times when I just want to play a few songs I use 1by1 (free, small, & low overhead).

Before you go removing any software based upon my recommendations, I suggest you wait until others have had a chance to respond, just in case I am in error about something. While you wait, you might find this interesting: http://www.gnutellaforums.com/downlo...ad-issues.html

[elianamoran]

thanks. you've definitely given me stuff to look into. i'm tempted to remove all my codec packs and then reinstall them if i ever find the need.

[townie2]

FormatFactory is good for converting to different types of media, and is free, and I've just recently got BS Player (i got the Pro version though they also have a free version) that friends recommended to me, and i love it, light, and plays pretty well anything.

[ukbobboy01]

Hi elianamoran

The questions you ask are somewhat difficult to reply to with a definitive answer, however I will give you answers based on my own experience. First of all, you asked:

i need all this? i don't need two media players. i don't want two media players. i want my computer as clean as i can keep it.

I have four media players, GOM, VLC, WMP and Quicktime. I use GOM when VLC can't play or play properly a film media file. I use WMP primarily to play MP3s I purchase from Amazon and finally I use Quicktime to play film trailers of new films, like those hosted by "Rotten Tomatoes". Are they necessary, I believe so because no one media player can play all the media files you will come across.

You also asked

i have no idea what microsoft silverlight is but i have it. do i need it?

Silverlight is an underlying video technology that allow you to play certain videos, like Flash allows you to play YouTube videos.

I can't say what videos you need it for in the US but here in the UK silverlight is used by certain TV companies so that you can "Catch Up" on programmes you have missed by using their particular player, e.g. ITV Player.

I've tried to answer a couple of your questions and I will try to get back to the others as soon as I can.



UK Bob

[elianamoran]

thanks guys, you're being really helpful!

[ukbobboy01]

Hi elianamoran

The last question I will try to answer is:

do i need adobe air and flash or is flash part of air?

Air and Flash are two different things but both are developed by Adobe. Flash, as you now know, is needed so that you can watch FLV videos online. However, Air is something more fundamental, it is an enabling technology that allows other online software to work. In other words, if you can imagine these applications as working in layers then they would be like this, 1 - Your O/S, 2 - AIR, 3 - Flash, 4 - Browser and 5 - Internet/Web player (like YouTube) or special application.

Here is the link to Adobe's AIR page web application, desktop application | Adobe AIR

Hope this helps



UK Bob

[elianamoran]

thanks, that makes sense