Why You Shouldn’t Install Third Party Codecs on Windows 7
-
By Boydo in Apple, CPU, Display, GPU, Imaging, Microsoft, Operating Systems, Processors, Technology, Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP
Another quick update for this evening.
What many people may not know but Windows 7 actually supports a wider range of codecs (i.e. COmpression / DECompression software) compared to Windows XP and Vista, specifically:
- H.264 (popular for Apple devices and web streaming),
- AAC (a popular audio format also preferred by Apple),
- DivX,
- Xvid.
As a result, people may simply be installing various codec suites such as the K-Lite Codec Pack but unknowingly overriding the beneficial hardware acceleration offered by the built-in codecs. This may be a force of habit for some who are used for filling in some of the feature gaps in Windows with third party solutions.
It’s well worth noting that not all third party codecs lack hardware acceleration (which means that either hardware such as video or sound cards undertake the workload or special instruction sets in the CPU are employed to more efficiently execute the work) but I would still recommend using the built-in codecs to keep things clean and retain system stability.
Boydo
My name is Boyd and I’m a Service Management Specialist with a knack for operational data gathering, transformation, analysis and reporting.
In 2012, I obtained my Masters of Science in Information Technology through the University of New South Wales @ The Australia Defence Force Academy (UNSW@ADFA).
I was also part of an online community known as the Panasonic Insider Crew in the capacity of “Insider Guru” for Panasonic Australia where I interacted with other tech enthusiasts and find out more about Panasonic's latest gadgets.
I love technology, gadgets, and the Internet and maintain a keen interest in these areas locally, nationally, and globally. I hope by sharing my views on these topics that people will receive an honest point of view from someone with a genuine interest in these topics.
I have also written and edited articles for Neowin - you can check out my articles over @ https://www.neowin.net/news/poster/boyd_chan
I hope you enjoy reading my blog!
Follow Us!