The VideoLAN Forums

I am using VLC to convert videos downloaded from Youtube to play in Windows Media Player and am not sure what container would be best.
The options for downloading are mpg and flv.

WMP, out of the box, will play .asf .wmv and .avi containers. I have installed ffdshow so it will also play .mpg files but not .mp4 files.

So what format would be best to download and what to convert it to - giving minimum recoding and thus degredation.

This is not a subject I understand so don't hesitate to ask for more info if I have not provided enough.
Davy

Just download MP4 files. And install additional decoder/demuxers for DirectShow if WMP doesn't play them (FFDshow+Haali Media Splitter should be enough).

Thanks VLC-help, but I have explored that the Haali route and found that the reviews of Haali Splitter rate it poorly - Windows crashes, cannot uninstall, etc. So I am trying to avoid that route.

Also when installed it becomes the default splitter for mp4 files, so taking over from VLCs internal splitter? Apparently can only swap back by uninstalling Haali and re-installing VLC?

Davy

Then your best bet is to convert those MP4 files to WMV+WMA+ASF files.

Thanks VLC_help. Why do you recommend converting to WMV+WMA asf files?

I've used Haali and FFDshow to play those .flv and and .mp4 files for years without any of the issues you mention. Haali definitely has an uninstaller and you can just disable it for certain codecs as well. I use VLC and Media Player Classic over Windows Media Player most of the time.

The VLC experts would know for sure, but I think that VLC uses it's own internal splitter regardless of whether Haali is installed and enabled for other players. I just tested a file in VLC that uses Haali in Media Player Classic and the Haali icon did not show up when playing in VLC.

Why do you recommend converting to WMV+WMA asf files?

Because all WMP versions can play those files.

The outcome of this post is that I have found that video files do not support tags nor 'ratings' hence there is little advantage in using WMP with its auto playlists and ratings. So I use VideoLan and that can play mp4 files very well. But I still miss the auto playlists and ratings!
Thanks everyone, DAvy