http://sourceforge.net/projects/ffdshow
Nothing is more frustrating than attempting to play an audio or video file in Windows Media Player and getting the missing codec error message. Codecs are the software encoder/decoders required to play media files on your PC and there are literally hundreds of them. Like other types of software, some codecs are well written, while other codecs will cause your media player to crash and burn. Despite its propetual alpha status, ffdshow is a smart collection of codecs for playing audio and video files on Windows. It supports a wide variety of media file types including DivX and XviD. Most importantly, ffdshow is widely accepted as one of the most stable codec collections available. A new version was released in October, further improving on an already solid foundation. The install may not seem like it does anything to your PC, but using the ffdshow codecs is certainly a better alternative than many of the alternatives floating around the Internet. For more detailed information on ffdshow, visit the project Wiki. [Windows 9x/2k/XP $0.00]
