How to change/install Media Player Classic codec filter

If you are dissatisfied with the codec used by your Media Player classic to decode your videos you can easily switch them to other codecs.

Step 1:

Decide the codec you wanna use. There are considerable number of guides available on this on the net. I have found doom9 forum quite helpful and informative.

MPEG 4 part 2/ AVI codec review: Divx vs Xvid here

H.264/ MP4/ HD codec review: CoreAVC vs FFmpeg here

Step 2:

Download the codec. Though there are several sites that provide opensource codecs for free, there are few that provide closed source too.  I have found Final build site to be quite good and provides almost all codecs. If you dont have any codecs at all I do suggest you to install Klite codec Pack and have some basic codecs to start with.

Step 3:

If you have started using Media Player classic without any change then you are most probably using FFmpeg codecs. These are very good codecs and use libavcodec for most of the decoding. It decodes most formats however not all of them perfectly. Now that you have your new filter installed.

1. Open the options window in media player classic(by pressing ‘o’ or through right click menu )
2. Go to External filters option. Now in the right side of the window select Add Filter
3. You will get an elaborate window with a plethora of options. Select your codec
   1. If your codec is not available there you will have to put a little more stress. Open the folder that your codec installed in.
   2. find a file with .ax extension in that folder and put it in filters folder inside Klite Codec Pack folder
   3. Now you should click browse in the bottom left of codec window and select the filter inside filters folder. You can browse to select ax file from the folder it was installed but needlessly adds a dependency.
4. After selecting that filter go the right of the window and click Prefer among the 3 options(prefer, block and merit)

Eureka your filter is changed, you have a better video already!!!