This article covers downloading and installing additional resources that allow your computer to work with a wide variety of video file types.  For an overview of what problems these might solve, and an explanation of why codecs are so important, please see the section below titled 'Background Information - Why do I need these??

Download and Installation Instructions

PLEASE FOLLOW THESE INSTRUCTIONS FULLY AND CAREFULLY TO ENSURE PROPER FUNCTIONALITY WITH MEDIASHOUT.

Download the K-Lite Mega Codec Pack and then carefully follow the instructions below to install it.  (Click on the 'Download This Version' area as shown here:

PLEASE NOTE: There are advertisements on the page that will appear after clicking on the Download link; DO NOT CLICK THOSE ADVERTISEMENTS or you will not get the software that you need. Your browser will indicate that you are attempting to download a file by flashing a bar near the top or bottom of the screen or popping up a dialog.  Follow that prompt and save the file to your computer, then follow the installation instructions below.)

NOTE: There are advertisements on the page that will appear after clicking on the Download link; DO NOT CLICK THOSE ADS or you will not get the software that you need.

Please make sure that you ONLY download and use the 7.20 version of K-Lite.  Later versions have different components and adware installers.

 NOTE:  If you are using MediaShout from within a limited or standard user account in Windows, it is possible that some codecs will not work correctly unless this codec pack is installed from the user account in question.  To do that, change the type of account to an administrator account, install K-Lite, then change the account back to a limited account.
 

Here are the installation instructions: 

1.       Choose 'Advanced' installation when prompted, and click next twice.

2.       Choose Profile #8 from the drop-down list of options at the top of the install page.

3.       Scroll down and find MPEG-2, DVD.

4.       Select ffdshow (libmpeg2) and continue the installation using the default settings on all other pages.

5.      Follow the instructions below and check or adjust the settings of the MP4 and MOV source filters.

You may experience an error in MediaShout when using Quicktime (MOV, MP4, H.264, etc.) video files.  By default, K-Lite may configure some codecs needed for playing these files to use the 'Haali' codec.  This does not work well with DirectX 9, so you will need to change those settings to use the 'Gabest' codec. 

To correct this, follow these steps:

1.  Open the Codec Tweak Tool (Start > All Programs > K-Lite Codec Pack > Tools > Codec Tweak Tool).

2.  Click the button for 'Manage source filters' and click 'Next'.

3.  Make sure that 'Gabest' is selected for MP4, HDMOV and MOV (see illustration below; you may not have all options shown).

4.  Click 'Apply & Close' and then 'Exit'.  You are now finished!

In the past, we have recommended that some customers might need to install the Quicktime Alternative.  With recent improvements to the K-Lite Mega Codec Pack, we no longer believe that this will be necessary.  If you have Quicktime Alternative installed, and you are experiencing difficulty with Quicktime files, please uninstall it and see if that resolves the issue.  MOV files can contain many different types of compressed video, and if the file needs a codec that is proprietary to Apple there is likely no way to play it from within MediaShout version 3.  Version 4 has a module that will allow Quicktime to process these files, so you may want to consider upgrading to take advantage of that feature.

Background Information - Why do I need these??

Codecs are a common cause of several problems or errors in MediaShout.  They are the components that allow a computer to decode or encode video and audio files.  Codecs for many of the most common audio and video formats are included with Windows, but which ones -- and the capabilities of those codecs -- varies depending on which version of Windows you have, what software was bundled with your computer, and a number of other circumstances.  The most common issues caused by codecs are:

• No sound when playing a DVD cue
• An error such as "The file C:\... can't be loaded" when attempting to play a video or sound cue

Sometimes the problem is not that there is no codec for the type of file, but that the codec that is installed is not capable of processing the file using the components of Windows that MediaShout calls upon -- most notably DirectX 9.  This can cause confusion because in these situations the file can be played by a player (or other software) that is not utilizing the more advanced functions of DirectX, but the codec will not support the functions that MediaShout needs.  In some cases another piece of software may have installed a competing or incompatible codec, and Windows is attempting to use the wrong codec when playing the file in MediaShout.

There are a couple of easy things to check to help determine if you need to install additional codecs:

• If you can see video when playing a DVD cue, but cannot hear any audio, first check your audio control panel and mixer in Windows to be sure that the correct hardware is selected and that it isn't muted or turned down.  Can you hear any other audio/sounds from your computer?  If you can hear other sounds, but not the DVD, then you very likely need a more advanced codec.
• Check the type of file that you are trying to play.  If the file is a Windows Media Format (WMV, WMA, etc.) or MPG (most common MPG files are MPEG-1 files), then the problem is likely to be elsewhere.  (Windows Media Player versions above 9 need to be installed for MediaShout to work correctly, so make sure your installation of WMP is up to date.)  If your file is not one of these file types, you will likely benefit from installing additional codecs. 

It is possible to cause more problems by having too many codecs installed.  Therefore, we recommend that you use the default codecs that are already installed in Windows from the factory first.  If you do run into codec issues, then we recommend following these instructions for installing a package of additional codecs (this is a free download):

NOTE:  MediaComplete is not affiliated with K-Lite or Apple/QuickTime and does not provide technical support for their products or services.