runtime360.com

I did a bit of investigation concerning codecs and their compatibility with Transcode 360 (T360) and Windows Media Encoder in general.

To get my PC as clean as possible the first thing I did was to remove all video codecs capable of rendering MPEG4/DivX/XviD video, since I was only interested in video codec compatibility (being satisfied with the default MP3 decoder built into Windows coupled with AC3 filter).

I used three tools to do this:

DirectShow Filter Manager 0.5
Updated: 10 Aug 2005 | Mirror | 262KB
GSpot Codec Information Appliance 2.21
Updated: 12 Jul 2003 | Mirror | 212KB
GraphEdit
Updated: 08 Oct 2001 | Mirror | 129KB

When I was done I used GraphEdit to render an MPEG4 video, confirming that it was unable to find a suitable decompressor. My system was now clean! I used the GSpot utility to take some screenshots of my video and audio codecs as a baseline.

I then installed ffdshow, just the video codecs, remember I was happy with my two audio codecs so I did not install any audio codecs when ffdshow prompted me.

ffdshow
Updated: 03 Feb 2006 | Mirror | 3.7MB

Here are some screenshots I took during the installation process: Snap1 Snap2 Snap3

After I was done I used the GSpot utility to take some more sceenshots of my video and audio codecs as they are now. I also used GraphEdit to render the same video file so you can see what codecs are being used.

Update: I also noted ffdshow has a tray icon, best to disable it like I did here. Also, it would seem that ffdshow can only be used by Transcode 360 when assigned the permissions of the current user, that means you cannot get by using the “local service” account.

I tested the configuration with Transcode 360 and I can confirm video and audio playback perfectly: DivX, XviD, MPEG1-4, H264, etc.

If you’ve been having problems with codecs, give your system a thorough clean out - I was amazed at some of the crap I found lurking around!

Ironically of all the codecs I tested, XviD’s official codec is the only one I couldn’t get to work - that said there are plenty of other codecs (like Nero Digital Video, DivX 6.1 and ffdshow) that will enable you to playback XviD files.