There are many necessary evils in this life including queues, rain, and, perhaps most annoyingly for computer users, RealPlayer.

The latter of the three has traditionally been cursed for its slow buffering times and the fact that it comes rammed with all manner of obnoxious advertising and intrusive web links. Unfortunately the application has always been the only tool available to play streaming media files in the rather arcane RAM format, in which many sites still insist on encoding their video and audio in. Luckily, there’s a saviour around these days, in the shape of Real Alternative, which is designed to play these files with less hassle.

The program is a streamlined advertising-free application designed to easily play most media content, including RealAudio (.ra .rpm), RealMedia (.rm .ram .rmvb .rpx .smi .smil), RealText (.rt), and ReadPix (.rp) formats, along with as non-Real media content such as MP3s, MPEGs, AVIs, QuickTime movies, and CD/DVD content. You can also use the program to stream media embedded in web pages.

In terms of performance, Real Alternative beats the pants off RealPlayer, and for that matter, Windows Media Player, playing all the files we tested smoothly and virtually instantaneously. The app contains enough features to keep more serious users happy, including the useful ability to bookmark favorite files, adjust volume in the window, track progress of the file, and more. Although not as quite as fully loaded with tools as its more established rivals, we can live without all manner of channel guides and visualizations in exchange for a much slicker playback experience.

There are some areas where Real Alternative falls down, such as its inability to handle .smi files or its lack of support for CDDB look-ups. But if you’re looking for something that will play audio and video quickly and without interruption, you can’t fault Real Alternative. There are programs, such as KMPlayer, which also offer superior playback quality, but Real Alternative excels in the way it handles streaming media, making it a worthwhile addition to your PC’s arsenal of programs.

Download Real Alternative 1.9.0 in Softonic

Some players come loaded with too many features and too many codecs - not MPCStar. MPCStar is a universal video player that can play most formats of films downloaded from the internet. MPCStar has been developed using open source libraries, so it's highly customisable if you have any programming knowledge. One of the best features however is a pop-up blocker which prevents pop-ups appearing that sometimes come loaded with films.

To ensure smooth playback and not get weighed down with too many codecs, MPCStar contains only the major codecs including Media Player Classic, FFDshow Codec Pack,
RealPlayer Codecs, ActiveX controls, QuickTime Codecs and DirectVobSub (a.k.a. VSFilter). The only problem is that these codecs are regularly updated and there appears to be no automatic update function but overall, this is one of the simplest and most powerful players I've tried since VLC player.

Download MPCStar 3.1 in Softonic

The K-Lite Mega Codec Pack is an invaluable resource for anyone looking to enjoy video and audio on their Windows PC. Frequently updated, it includes all the codecs available in three of the most popular codec packs available on Softonic.

As video and audio encoding develops, it can be really hard to keep abreast of the latest compression techniques and codecs. K-Lite Mega Codec Pack does this for you by putting pretty much every codec in use, on your computer.

The K-Lite Mega Codec Pack combines the contents of three codec packs:

• K-Lite Codec Pack Full
• QuickTime Alternative
• Real Alternative

Essential for anyone using audio or video apps on their PC.

Download K-Lite Codec Pack Mega 4.1.7 Full in Softonic

There's nothing more annoying than downloading or ripping a film and then reaslising you don't have th right codecs to play it.

Or worse, the codecs that you have are corrupt and don't playback properly. If you've found yourself in this situation then m5Studio Codec is a neat little package which brings together most of the most important codecs you'll need. m5Studio Codec includes all the major codecs you'll need to make sure that you'll never have problems playing a film again.

Among the codecs included in m5Studio Codec are DivX or XviD, Ogg Vorbis or Cinepak or AC3 plus some some lesser known ones such as CoreAVC and Fraunhoffer IIS. Installation is simply a matter of double clicking EXE file and you've got a few configuration controls to control exactly how you want the codecs to perform.

m5Studio Codec is a useful codec package that will be able to playback most of the major formats that you can download or rip films to.

Download m5Studio Codec 8.3a in Softonic

I'm very picky when it comes to installing codec packs on my PC: I don't like bloating the system with useless files and tools that won't be of any use or will only cause incompatibility issues.

Luckily I don't have this problem with XP Codec Pack. This compact, handy codec pack has always been my first choice whenever I need to install codecs or upgrade them on any PC. Why? Well, I like the fact that XP Codec Pack focuses on the most popular formats, and so it's not overloaded with codecs most computer users will hardly use. Secondly, it's dead easy to install and lets you choose exactly what you want, both for codecs and tools. Finally, it's incredibly stable and highly compatible: I've never had a single problem with codec since I use it.

Of course, I'm by no means saying that XP Codec Pack is perfect. There are a few flaws that should be pointed out. The most demanding users will surely miss a wider array of formats, as well as more codec-related tools like the ones you find in other codec packs.

XP Codec Pack is a great choice for those who don't need a massive selection of codecs and prefer a simpler, hassle-free codec kit for the most popular audio and video formats.

Download XP Codec Pack 2.4.1 in Softonic

Sometimes when you try to play music or a movie in your computer, you may find that either the image or the sound are not being properly played. These issues are probably a question of codecs, and you can solve them all with K-Lite Codec Pack.

This comprehensive kit includes all the codecs you need to have on your system if you want to play all audio and video formats without any problems. The full package includes quite a bunch of codecs, but the good thing is that you can choose which ones to install and which ones to leave out during the installation process.

Besides codecs, the K-Lite Codec Pack also includes several utilities that can come in very handy when dealing with audio and video files. Among others, you'll find tools to tweak and fix codecs, work with subtitles and obtain detailed information about any selected media file.

The only drawback I could point out about K-Lite Codec Pack is that it all may seem confusing for the novice user who doesn't really know what a codec is, and therefore can't really choose which ones to install. My advice here is to simply install all of them: it's the only way to make sure you'll be able to play pretty much any audio or video file on your PC.

K-Lite Codec Pack is a full featured collection of codecs that enables you to play just about any audio and video format on your PC without any problems.

Download K-Lite Codec Pack Full 4.1.0 in Softonic

K-Lite Codec Pack is a collection of codecs and related tools. Codec is short for Compressor-Decompressor. Codecs are needed for encoding and decoding (playing) audio and video. The K-Lite Codec Pack is designed as a user-friendly solution for playing all your movie files. With the K-Lite Codec Pack you should be able to play all the popular movie formats and even some rare formats.

The K-Lite Codec Pack has a couple of major advantages compared to other codec packs:

• It it always very up-to-date with the latest versions of the codecs
• It is very user-friendly and the installation is fully customizable
• It's easy to make an unattended installation
• It has been very well tested, so that the package doesn't contain any conflicting codecs
• It is a very complete package, containing everything you need to play your movies
• There are different packages. From small to extra-large

There are three versions of the K-Lite Codec Pack:

Basic contains only the most essential things. It contains everything you need to be able to play the two most popular and widespread formats, DivX and XviD. It is small enough to fit on a single floppy. Also great for including on your movie cds.

Standard contains everything you need to play all the most commonly used formats. This package should be enough for the average user.

Full contains even more codecs. It also has encoding support for various formats. This package is for power users and people who do their own encodings.

Download K-Lite Codec Pack Standard 3.20 in Softonic

MediaCoder is a free universal audio/video batch transcoder, putting together lots of excellent audio/video codecs and tools from the open source community into an all-in-one solution, capable of transcoding among different audio/video formats with many extra features.

Download MediaCoder 0.6.1.4140 in Softonic

Although it might appear like some sort of Communist software, CCCP is actually just a pack of codecs to help just about any video run on your system.

The full title is the "Combined Community Codec Pack". In reality, it's more like a filter pack than a codec pack but the developers say that "filter doesn't begin with C and we wanted a good acronym"! For anyone who understands Russian, the developers also like to point out that the name is also a pun on the Russian name Союз Советских Социалистических Республик, which is transliterated into the Latin alphabet as "Soyuz Sovietskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik", or "Union of Soviet Socialist Republics", abbreviated as "СССР" or "USSR". Anyway, the CCCP codec pack was created to replace the filter packs provided by other groups which simply often did not work properly or broke compatibility for other formats. In reality, it is an extremely powerful Codec pack, playing back effortlessly most popular formats and some unpopular ones too. There are now fiddly options to get it working although if you have other codec packs installed, you may experience some conflicts or significant slowdown in reproduction of your films.

However, overall, this is an impressive pack which deals with just about anything and I quite like the attitude of the developers and their ironic communist branding.

Download Combined Community Codec Pack 2008-01-24 in Softonic

QuickTime Alternative will allow you to play QuickTime files without having to install the official QuickTime Player. All QuickTime formats (MOV QT 3GP etc.) are supported, including streaming content and QuickTime content that is embedded in webpages.

Some advantages compared to QuickTime player:

• Quick and easy install
• It's easy to make an unattended installation
• No background processes
• Use a player of your own choice
• Low on resources
• Smaller size

Download QuickTime Alternative 2.5.1 in Softonic

With this package installed, the developers claim you won't need to install any other codec or filter. Codecs have always been a pain in the butt. This package takes from the best, all the big name creators, several small guys too. The developers have tracked down the latest updates and tested their functionality. All possible conflicts are already dealt with.

It does not contain a media player. It does not associates filetypes. With this package installed you will be able to use any media player (limited by the players capabilities) to play DVD's, movies and video clips such as quicktime, realmedia, avi, mpeg, Flv, swf, wmv, etc. Streaming video is supported in most web browsers. By default you shouldn't need to make any adjustments to enjoy your media content immediately.

Download Vista Codec Package 4.6.3 Beta 1 in Softonic

Codecs can be a real pain. If you have all of them installed and working, good for you. But as this is not usually the case, it's good to have tools like CodecInstaller, which can help you organize, find, download and install audio and video codecs. Despite its simple, almost austere interface, this program is definitely worth it for those of you with codec problems.

CodecInstaller includes three main functions: scanning your system to find installed codecs, analyzing a given file to display the codecs it uses and finally giving you direct access to the most popular audio and video codecs, the ones that should be found on any PC.

The program can also be used as "video launcher" but this function requires some configuration. You'll find more information in the Help section.

Download CodecInstaller 2.9.0 in Softonic

If you’re a regular PC user and haven’t heard of DivX yet, then you’ve probably had your head in the sand for the past couple of years. It’s basically a highly compressed film format that turns the size of an average DVD from something like 5GB to just 700MB.

DivX for Windows is the official release from the DivX company, and offers everything you need to watch such films. The pack includes the all-important DivX Codec plus DivX Player, DivX Web Player and the Stage6 Content Uploader Utility for those who plan to rip and upload DVDs or other videos to the net. It also includes a 15-day trial of the DivX Converter and the DivX Pro Codec. All these components are free and include no adware although during the installation, you are offered the chance to install the Google toolbar.

The player itself is sleek and easy to use. It’s got all the standard functions of a DVD player plus the option of different skins from the DivX website. If you want to create your own DivX content, the converter allows the creation of video resolutions up to and including 1920 x 1080 High Definition in either interlaced or progressive-scan. It also supports advanced DVD features such as scene selection menus, subtitles and alternate audio tracks. It includes a download manager that allows you to download several videos at once, pause and resume downloads and playback video. Those that do their downloading of DivX films from P2P apps won’t use this much but others will find it more useful. The latest release of DivX Player also includes an uploader which enables you to easily publish media to the Stage6 media community website.

There’s little to criticise in DivX for Windows except for the converter. It can be particularly useful if you are trying to burn a downloaded DivX film onto a DVD to play on a standalone DVD player. Watching DivX files on your PC is usually not a problem but some people have issues when watching them on a standalone DVD Player. The converter solves this by taking any video file and producing a perfectly clean DivX film at the end of it. However, this feature is painfully slow and takes hours to complete just one film. Bearing in mind that you also have to pay for it after the 15-day trial period has expired, you’ll soon be looking for other converters to use such as BPS Video converter or VSO ConvertX.

Overall, this is an excellent DivX player and since it’s released by the official DivX company, you’ll have no worries about dodgy codecs ruining playback on your PC.

Download DivX For Windows 6.8 in Softonic

Some codec packs contain problematic installation and they may replace your working filters or codecs. By using DirectShow Detective, you can find out the running versions of each component. It will help you to find out whether a problematic filter or codec has been installed or overwritten.

DirectShow Detective helps you to verify your DirectShow installation. It shows you the complete list of your installed DirectShow filters, video compressors and audio compressors, their version and installed file. Simply browse to the video or audio file that you need to test and River Past DirectShow Detective tells you instantly whether you have the right codecs installed. Best of all, if it identifies the codec that's missing, it sometimes offers links to download the correct one that you need.

This is a simple but effective program that will help solve many of your codec woes although note that for some files, it simply cannot identify the codec that you need.

Download River Past DirectShow Detective 1.4.5 in Softonic

The Advanced Codec Pack is mainly for use by encoders, it features a large number of codec's/filters and also some additional tools. The package will enable you to playback and encode most major formats currently available.

Installation of the package is made easy for users through the informative menu's.
Options that may cause problems have a warning in the description pane, the installer will also unselect options that my cause conflicts.

Includes:

• DivX 6.1 Pro Video Codec
• XviD 1.0.3 Video (Encoder) Codec - Koepi's 20/12/04 Build
• XviD 1.1 Beta 2 Video (Encoder) Codec - Koepi's 04/04/05 Build
• ffdshow Video Codec 20051129 by Milan Cutka
• x264 h.264/AVC VFW Video (Encoder) Codec Revision 385
• Microsoft - Windows Media 9 Video Codec 9.0.1.369
• On2 Technologies VP7 Video (Decoder) Codec 7.0.8
• On2 Technologies VP6 Video Codec 6.4.2
• Huffyuv Lossless Video Codec 2.2.0.1
• Ligos Indeo XP Video Codec 5.2820.15.58
• Intel Indeo Video Codec 4.51.16.2
• Intel Indeo Video Codec 3.24.1.2
• InterVideo Video Filter 7.0.27.130
• InterVideo Audio Filter 7.0.27.130
• CyberLink DVD Video/SP Filter 6.0.0.1006
• CyberLink DTV Video/SP Filter 3.5.0.3629
• CyberLink AC3 Filter 6.0.0.1027
• DScaler MPEG Filter 5.0.0.6
• AC3Filter 1.01a RC5
• DVBPortal HDTV Pump Filter 1.0.7
• RadLight PVA Splitter 1.0.0.0
• DSMyth MythTV Filters 0.4.0.1
• AC3ACM v1.2 by fccHandler – para usar en VirtualDub-MPEG2
• AVI - AC3/DTS Converter + DTS/AC3 Source Filter By Gabest
• AAC Parser Filter 1.1.0 - By Tom Judd
• Core AAC Playback Filter 1.2.0.573
• Core FLAC Playback Filter 0.4.0.464
• Core WavPack Playback Filter 1.0.3
• RadLight APE Playback Filter 1.0.0.4 - for Monkey Audio
• RadLight MPC Playback Filter 1.0.0.4 - for MusePack
• RadLight OFR Playback Filter 1.0.0.1 - for OptimFROG
• RadLight TTA Playback Filter 1.0.0.0 - for True Audio
• Sony ATRAC3 0.98 ACM Codec also known as MDLP2
• DivX ACM Audio Codec también conocido como Windows Media Audio 4.1
• Microsoft - Windows Media Audio 7.0 ACM Audio Codec
• DSP-worx MOD Source Filter 0.60
• DSP-worx MP3 Source Filter 1.30
• Lame MP3 3.97.B2 ACM Codec
• Fraunhofer IIS MP3 1.2.0.63 Professional + 1.9.0.305 Advanced ACM Codec
• Fraunhofer IIS DirectShow filter 1.9.0.311
• Fraunhofer IIS DirectShow filter 1.5.0.50
• Lame 3.97.B2 DirectShow filter

Download Cole2k Media - Codec Pack 6.0.9 Advanced in Softonic

XviD Media Codec includes the open-source MPEG4 codec, which comes from the same open-source project that was the basis for DivX 4.x/5.x. The XviD codec will enable you to watch XviD movies. There's no XviD Player included, but with this codec installed on your machine, you can view XviD Movies with a media player, such as WMP or WinAmp.

Unlike many other Codec packs, the XviD Media Codec is completely free to use, it is released under the GNU General Public License, and is not advertisement supported. Also, its source code is available online for everyone. XviD Media Codec comes complete with both install and uninstall wizards for fast and easy installation.

Download XviD Codec 1.1.3 in Softonic

Codecs are a necessary component if you want to enjoy all kinds of multimedia content without image or sound problems. However they often end up being a nuisance due to compatibility and updating issues. This is precisely the kind of situation you can fix with K-Lite Codec Tweak Tool in a snap.

All you have to do is run this application (no installation required) and you'll be presented with an options menu where you can choose the actions you want to be performed by the program: fixing problems, enabling or disabling certain codecs or even generating a basic TXT report.

Although the program is not intended for novice users (you really need to know what you're tweaking and there's no help available), it's quite complete and works really well.

Download K-Lite Codec Tweak Tool 2.1.0 in Softonic

SheerVideo is a family of revolutionary ultrafast and powerful nondestructive software video codecs that save both time and space in professional video and film production and archival, yet always maintain absolutely perfect fidelity. With SheerVideo, there is no compromise between speed, power, and quality. SheerVideo lets you have it all. SheerVideo now incorporates Synchromy technology to convert between RGB (film and CGI) and Y'CbCr (video) color spaces with unprecedented accuracy.

Download Sheervideo 2.6.5.2 in Softonic

ffdshow is DirectShow and VFW codec for decoding/encoding many video and audio formats, including DivX and XviD movies using libavcodec, xvid and other opensourced libraries with a rich set of postprocessing filters.

Download ffdshow 2007-07-07 in Softonic

K-Lite Codec Pack is a collection of codecs, DirectShow filters and tools. Codecs and DirectShow filters are needed for encoding and decoding (playing) audio and video formats. The K-Lite Codec Pack is designed as a user-friendly solution for playing all your movie files. With the K-Lite Codec Pack you should be able to play all the popular audio and video formats and even some rare formats.

The K-Lite Codec Pack has a couple of major advantages compared to other codec packs. According to the developers it is always very up-to-date with the newest (and/or best) versions of the components and tries to avoid potential problems with existing codecs and even fixes some problems. The pack is suitable for both novice and expert users.

Download K-Lite Codec Pack Update 2.88 06/14/07 in Softonic