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H.264 vfw codec install: What you need to know about the VfW version of x264 encoder



These codec packs are compatible with Windows 7/8.x/10/11. Old versions also with XP/Vista. The packs include both 32-bit and 64-bit codecs, so they work great on both x86 and x64 variants of Windows!




H.264 vfw codec install



Note: the Basic version does NOT include a player You need to use it together with an already installed DirectShow player such as Windows Media Player. For playback issues with WMP please read our F.A.Q. for solutions.


Important note: The K-Lite Codec Pack does not expand the import abilities of professional video editors such as Vegas Movie Studio or Adobe Premiere. Those applications often only support importing a small set of file formats, and do not support using the type of codecs that are included in the codec pack (DirectShow/VFW). Modern editors often only use their own internal codecs or only support external codecs of the Media Foundation type.


In the File Transfer area, from the Video Compression drop-down list either leave None (the default setting) or select one of the supported codecs for compressing the selected video files prior to transfer. The available codecs depend on the version of Nexus you are using:


In Nexus 2.13 and later, you can select only the H.264 codec to transcode captured video files, and you can choose from five quality options, ranging from Best Quality/Largest File to Lowest Quality/Smallest File. The H.264 codec is compatible with Theia.To load and play back offline existing Nexus sample data .avi files that were encoded with ffdshow, ensure you have installed the 64-bit version of the ffdshow codec (DirectShow filters only, not the VFW drivers). This also applies to any codecs that were used for transcoding in previous versions of Nexus: to decode and display the relevant video, the 64-bit DirectShow filters must be installed.


For versions of Nexus earlier than 2.13, we recommend that you use the FFDShow codec. You can download it from the Third-Party Plugins page on the Vicon website. For information on installing and setting the correct options for the FFDShow codec, see Install the FFDShow codec.


Unless you are using Nexus 2.13 or later, we recommend the FFDShow codec for transcoding your raw video files. (In Nexus 2.13 and later, you can use only the H.264 codec to transcode captured video files.)


ffdshow is an open-source unmaintained codec library that is mainly used for decoding of video in the MPEG-4 ASP (e.g. encoded with DivX or Xvid) and H.264/MPEG-4 AVC video formats, but it supports numerous other video and audio formats as well. It is free software released under GNU General Public License 2.0, runs on Windows, and is implemented as a Video for Windows (VFW) codec and a DirectShow filter.


ffdshow does not include a media player or container parsers. Instead, after installation of ffdshow, compatible DirectShow or VFW media players such as Media Player Classic, Winamp, and Windows Media Player will use the ffdshow decoder automatically, thus avoiding the need to install separate codecs for the various formats supported by ffdshow. The user configures ffdshow's audio and video settings by launching the ffdshow video decoder configuration program independently of any media player.


For playing transport stream files such as AVC(H.264) an additional mediasplitter should also be installed. There are several free mediasplitters available such as the LAV Filters and Haali Media Splitter.


ffdshow can be configured to display subtitles, to enable or disable various built-in codecs, to grab screenshots, to enable keyboard control, and to enhance movies with increased resolution, sharpness, and many other post-processing video filters. It has the ability to manipulate audio with effects like an equalizer, a Dolby decoder, reverb, Winamp DSP plugins, and more. Some of the postprocessing is borrowed from the MPlayer project and AviSynth filters.


The post-processing video filters of ffdshow can be used in video editors such as VirtualDub or AviSynth, by configuring the VFW settings. In these editors, ffdshow can also be used to encode MPEG-4 video compatible with Xvid, DivX, or x264 codecs, as well as lossless video and a few other formats supported by libavcodec.


The main developer was Milan Cutka. When he stopped updating the project in 2006, new maintainers opened the ffdshow tryouts as a fork, where bug-fixes, stability fixes, new features, and codec updates continued. Development of ffdshow tryouts was discontinued in 2012 with users recommended to use LAV Filters instead.[7]


For loading your AVI with audio you need (1) a VfW (Video for Windows) codec to open (that is decode) your video in AviSynth and an ACM (Audio Compression Manager) codec to open your audio in AviSynth. For many video and audio format such codecs are available, but certainly not for all of them. Some possible formats (as well as where to download the required codecs) are given below:


It is not always possible to load your clips in AviSynth using AviSource (or one of the other previously discussed plugins). Examples are non-AVIs which are clips contained inside a different container, like MKV, MP4, RMVB, OGM or ASF/WMV. In that case DirectShowSource is your last bet. It might also be possible that you have an AVI, with an appropriate VfW codec installed, but you want to use DirectShow codecs to open them in AviSynth. In that case you should also use DirectShowSource.


When playing a clip in WMP6.4 (mplayer2.exe), DirectShow filters (*.ax) are used to play it. Those are the same ones which are "used" by DirectShowSource. So you need to be sure that you have the appropriate DirectShow filters installed. To find out which filters are used to play the clip, open the clip in WMP6.4 and check under: file -> properties -> Advanced. Here you can also change the settings of the filters. You will get more information about the filters when you open the clip in GSpot. Just open the clip and press "1" under A/V in the "Proposed Codec Solutions and Tests" box. A "graph" is contructed which the filters which are used to play it:


If you got the message "rendering failed (...)", it means that the appropriate DirectShow filters are not installed. Make also sure the file is playing correctly by pressing the "2" under the "1". Because if it is not playing, DirectShowSource can't load the clip. In general, you can have the following problem with this approach: other DirectShow filters are used to play the media file than the ones you installed or you want to use. This can happen because the used filters have a higher merit (playing priority) than the ones you want to use. There are two solutions for this problem:


Load MP4 (video: h.264, audio: aac) using DirectShowSource and ffdshow (aac decoding enabled in ffdshow; when the audio is AC3 or DTS you can also use AC3Filter instead). Your script becomes for example:


An AVI can be loaded in AviSynth provided you have an appropriate VfW codec (...) installed which can be used to decode the AVI. The default codec which is used to decode the Avi is specified in the beginning of the media file (in its header) itself as the FourCC (FOUR Character Code). From v2.55, an option fourCC is added, which lets you use other codecs to load your AVI in AviSynth.


If AviSynth is complaining about not being able to load your avi (couldn't decompress ...) you need to install an appropriate codec. GSpot, for example, will tell you what codec you need to install in order to be able to open your avi.


There are two ways to load your quicktime movies into AviSynth (and also RawSource for uncompressed movs): QTSource and QTReader. The former one is very recent and able to open many quicktime formats (with the possibility to open them as YUY2), but you need to install QuickTime player in order to be able to use this plugin. The latter one is very old, no installation of a player is required in order to be able to open quicktime formats in AviSynth.


Check and adjust the Filter Properties if necessary. Press play to check that the clip is playable by the selected combation of DirectShow filters. This is very important, because if it's not playable, AviSynth will not be able to open the clip. In that case you should select and or install other filters which can play the clip.


Vegas was originally designed to work with camera footage. Many game capture and screen recording programs generate video that does not decode smoothly in VEGAS. Some of them use non-standard codecs or file containers. Amongst those programs known to cause problems in VEGAS have been:


If the program can record using different codecs then try them. H.264 (AVC)/AAC in an MP4 container is a good place to start, if the program supports it. Various VFW (.avi) codecs will work OK if you install the appropriate codec (see below).


Alternatively, OBS Studio is a free, open-source screen-recording application that records video using the x264 codec. It's recommended to update older versions of OBS to the latest OBS Studio. See this FAQ post for advice on settings that work well with VEGAS Pro.


Quicktime files have the file extension ".MOV". VEGAS Pro 14 and later versions read ProRes formats natively, and some other .MOV files containing H.264 (AVC) video will also be read natively by VEGAS. In addition, VEGAS Pro 15 reads iPhone and iPad formats natively. However many Quicktime formats still require Quicktime for Windows to be installed. It is no longer installed automatically with VEGAS.


VEGAS PRO 15 has a new decoder for XAVC-S files and some AVC files. This codec may cause issues such as 2 x stereo tracks decoding as 4 x mono tracks, small audio sync discrepancies, poor performance, or hanging. If your footage is opened by this "so4compoundplug" decoder then you can try disabling it. See this post for more information. If that doesn't help then re-enable it for wider format support. 2ff7e9595c


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