how-to block ads
|
DracoFelis
Premium
join:2003-06-15
| reply to cyberslurpie
Re: [Discussion] What is the best TV over IP program???
Considering the fact that many TVoIP services are locked down to a specific player (often the player sponsored by the company providing the TVoIP service in question), I don't really think there is a single "one size fits all" in this area. Instead, I think we will all have to get used to having multiple programs/links around. For example, when viewing NetFlix steams, I'm pretty much stuck with using their player that is a plugin for I.E., but I never use that player for any other service (as it's a NetFlix specific player).
So the best I've been able to do, is gather my web site based "video" links as shortcuts in my browser, and gather up all other "video" links into a single folder (containing Windows shortcuts) off my Windows "start" menu. In this way, I can easily pick the link I want, to go "directly" to the service I want to use at that time (and only have to worry about the player details when I first install a player/link to a TVoIP service).
However that said, I can tell you my favorite (freeware) video player combo on Windows (which I do use for any TVoIP services I can convince to use an alternate player with), and that would be the combo of the "Media Player Classic" video player (not Windows Media Player, the 3rd party freeware "Media Player Classic") combined with the latest (SSE optimized compile) "FFDshow" CODEC.
NOTE: Both can be downloaded from the "Free CODECs" site, (as well as several other places on the web): »www.free-codecs.com/
Not only are both the player (Media Player Classic) and the video rendering library (the FFDshow CODEC) freeware (so there is no cost in going this route), they are also a surprisingly powerful combo for playing videos (including some streams, such as TVoIP sometimes uses). "Out of the box" this combo will play the vast majority of video types out there, and often using less CPU than other players and CODECs use for the same media type (so it can be a good combo on CPUs that are less powerful).
However, if you have a little CPU to spare, this combo really shines. That's because FFDshow has some truly powerful "filters" built into it. So any player setup to use FFDshow (don't forget to configure FFDshow to post-process the "RAW" video types, after other CODECs do their job), will automatically get access to the FFDShow "filters" for cleaning up video/audio issues in the source material WHILE YOU ARE WATCHING THE MATERIAL (i.e. this cleanup is "on the fly" as it were). Now you don't want to get carried away with FFDShow filter usage, or you will max out your CPU and kill your video (for example, I often just use the FFDShow "PostProcessing" filter to do some artifact cleanup, and occasionally use "Resize & Aspect" to "upsample" the source, and leave the other video filters off). But carefully used, those filters are truly amazing as to how much they can clean up video (and to a lessor degree clean up audio) WHILE YOU ARE WATCHING the source material! And it's for that reason I find this video player combo (Media Player Classic + FFDshow CODEC) to be truly in a class by itself | |
AB
Premium
join:2006-04-04
Leesburg, VA
| said by DracoFelis  :. . FFDshow has some truly powerful "filters" built into it. So any player setup to use FFDshow (don't forget to configure FFDshow to post-process the "RAW" video types, after other CODECs do their job), will automatically get access to the FFDShow "filters" for cleaning up video/audio issues in the source material WHILE YOU ARE WATCHING THE MATERIAL (i.e. this cleanup is "on the fly" as it were). Now you don't want to get carried away with FFDShow filter usage, or you will max out your CPU and kill your video (for example, I often just use the FFDShow "PostProcessing" filter to do some artifact cleanup, and occasionally use "Resize & Aspect" to "upsample" the source, and leave the other video filters off). But carefully used, those filters are truly amazing as to how much they can clean up video (and to a lessor degree clean up audio) WHILE YOU ARE WATCHING the source material! I've tried this out the last couple of days, and am finding it to be a truly stellar suggestion!
Thank you!  | |
-
|
