The reason I installed the VFW X264 codec is because I could only render short (well under 1-1/2 hours) projects with the Sony & MainConcept H.264 codecs (even when rendering from Cineform intermediate with no cuts, no filters, no nuthin'.). I have no idea why. Jan 18, 2014  Using record with MSI afterburner VFW mode Codec:x264 size: 122MB 1080P bitrate: 19Mbps playtime: 0:48.

To decode use a recent build of FFDShow or a player that supports H.264 internally like MPlayer (there are few interesting frontends for Windows: MPlayerUI, MPlayer Frontend) and VLC (VideoLAN Client).

x264 Full package come with an installer and contains both VFW and CLI with MeGUI.

Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0, AVISynth and DGIndex are required to use MeGUI but NOT included.

Encoder features:

• CAVLC/CABAC
• Multi-references
• Intra: all macroblock types (16x16, 8x8, and 4x4 with all predictions)
• Inter P: all partitions (from 16x16 down to 4x4)
• Inter B: partitions from 16x16 down to 8x8 (including skip/direct)
• Ratecontrol: constant quantizer, single or multipass ABR, optional VBV
• Scene cut detection
• Adaptive B-frame placement
• B-frames as references / arbitrary frame order
• 8x8 and 4x4 adaptive spatial transform
• Lossless mode
• Custom quantization matrices
• Parallel encoding of multiple slices

Advanced settings:

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• Enabling Cabac: approximately 10% bitrate reduction without loss in quality, but is slow.
• Enabling De-blocking Filter: smooths out visible blocks during an encode (rather than by using post processing to smooth out blocks while decoding). Is a good idea to enable for low bitrate encodes.

x264 limitations:

• 'x264 doesn't support the error-resilience features of baseline and extended profile, not the alternative colorspaces of high profile. Properly dealing with adaptive interlacing in all cases takes lots of code.
• x264 doesn't support interlacing.

What's New:

• Prevent VBV from lowering quantizer too much
• This code seemed to act up unexpectedly sometimes, creating a situation where in 1-pass VBV mode, a frame's quantizer would drop all the way to qpmin and then shoot back upwards to qpmax, causing serious visual issues.
• This change may decrease bitrate in VBV mode, but that is preferable to the artifacting produced by this code.
• Improve subme7 at low QPs and add subme7 support in lossless mode.

• 221 votes
  A highly portable and popular multimedia player for multiple audio and video formats.

  • Freeware
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  A highly portable and popular multimedia player for multiple audio and video formats.

  • Freeware
  • Windows/macOS/Android
• 61 votes
  Highly portable multimedia player for various audio and video formats.

  • Freeware
  • macOS

Many media codecs are included in Windows Vista, but as technology changes daily, it is important to know how to install new codecs for the Windows Media Player. Codecs are important in the Windows Media Player world because you need a codec to translate different kinds of media files into data that WMP can understand.

A codec (short for coder-decoder or compressor-decompressor) is a small program that converts data from one form to another.

Unfortunately, filename extensions don’t tell the whole codec story. For example, WMA files can have a WMA 7, WMA 9.2 or WMA 10 format. It’s up to Windows Media Player (or Winamp, which also plays WMA files) to look inside the file and decide which format was used to create the file. After the determination has been made, WMP (or Winamp) hauls in the right codec to decipher the file. You don’t need to lift a finger.

Sometimes, though, Windows Media Player doesn’t have the correct codec on hand to play a particular file. For example, AVI is a popular file format that can be created using a particular kind of video-encoding technique called DivX. Although DivX files are gaining in popularity, Windows Media Player still doesn’t include its codec. So, in order to play a file using this format, you need to install a new codec.

1Double-click a video or audio file.

When you try to play a media file that WMP doesn’t understand, WMP helps you find the codec. In this case, WMP can’t find the codec necessary to play The Cabinet of Dr Caligari_xvid-belos.avi, so it shows this message.

2Click the Web Help button.

Windows Media Player fires up Internet Explorer (or your default Internet browser) and connects to a Web site that specifically identifies the missing codec. It needs the Xvid MPEG-4 (Xvid) codec.

3Click the WMPlugins link.

The WMPlugins Web site — which is owned by Microsoft — gives you a link to the Xvid codec.

4Click the link to the codec download site.

In this case, we click the Xvid Codec Download Site link to find the missing codec. Microsoft shows a disclaimer that Microsoft is helping you leave a Microsoft site and that the site you’re going to — the one with the codec — isn’t associated with Microsoft.

5Click I Accept.

WMPlugins transports you to the download site.

6Click the link to download the codec.

Internet Explorer goes through the usual file download routine.

7When the download is done, click the Run button.

You may have to click through some scary-looking dialog boxes saying that the publisher couldn’t be verified and allowing the installer to run. Eventually, you get to the codec’s setup wizard or something similar.

8Follow the installer’s instructions.

If it tells you to close all other applications, click the red X to exit the umpteen Internet Explorer windows.

9Go back to Windows Media Player and click the Close button on the original codec notice, and then click the red X to exit Windows Media Player.

Ultimately, the codec is installed.

10If you closed Windows Media Player, double-click the video or audio file again.

This time, The Cabinet of Dr Caligari_xvid-belos.avi plays like a champ.