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But then there is quicktime alternative: http://www.free-codecs.com/download/quicktime_alternative.htm

Here's where I get 90% of my music (the other 10% I actually go to shows). Requires a Torrent client plus Monkeys Audio, libFLAC and Shorten codecs but that's no biggy - the links are there...

Real Alternative.

Damn'd. Now RealNetworks will confiscate all the /. servers. See what have you done?

I'm not sure that is a bad thing anymore.

Sure, suing for linking to it is pretty stupid, but US government seems to be closing sites that link to TV series too.

Lets at least get real here. Real Alternative is trivially googleable. If you were actually looking for it and couldn't find it, something's wrong with you.

They also could not have posted a better advert for real alternative. Watch the Streisand effect begin ....

Real Alternative.

Damn'd. Now RealNetworks will confiscate all the /. servers. See what have you done?

Real Alternative.

let's be honest, the reality is it has a whole lot less to do with the FOSS that makes up the VLC player and everything to do with a free player VLC that is superior to the quick time player and it's profitable pro variant and how that all feeds into iTunes which leads to of course iPod, iPhone and IPad and the Apple content distribution tax on their hardware.

Question can you get quick time alternative http://www.free-codecs.com/download/quicktime_alternative.htm at the apple store ;)?

Quicktime Alternative could be a viable option. It works for me.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QuickTime_Alternative

It's part of the K-Lite codec pack, or you can download it as an individual codec here: http://www.free-codecs.com/download/quicktime_alternative.htm

Yeah and the funny thing is what ID'd me was NOT the fonts...it was the codecs. My fonts are pretty bog standard but I like Klie codec pack as it is an easy way to have video support for all formats set up quickly. According to the test page my codec list is only 1 in 904006 when it comes to codecs.

Of course the nice thing is yet again Noscript comes to the rescue, as with Noscript on my highest ID # is 1 in 256, which is only because of using FF over IE. So yet again FF scores a win for me by having the indispensable Noscript. FF plug-ins FTW!

As for my definition of netbox, it is actually pretty simple. Any box that uses very little power, and is so quiet you don't realize it is on, and cranks out almost no heat, is to me a netbox. you're not gonna edit video on it, or transcode, or game, but for basic web surfing, downloading, and Youtube, it is really great. Instead of blowing cash on some Atom I just bought this "Best Buy Vista Special" off a client for $50 off a quad, slapped a license for XP Home on it, and used this circa 2006 Compaq Sempron to replace the 1.1Ghz Celeron that was my previous netbox. BTW the 1.1GHz Celeron actually played SD flash just fine, as long as I didn't try to do anything else like download. This 1.8GHz Sempron plays SD flash fine while multi-tasking.

And where did I say HD H.264? I'm pretty sure I said SD, and from looking at Media Info (which comes with K-Lite Mega Codec, which I highly recommend) nearly every video I've bothered to download from Youtube and other video sites the past few days are H.264, with one each of H.263 and VP6. And the point was I can watch the SD Flash full screen nicely, the HTML5 link the GP posted couldn't do anything but skip even with a tiny window.

And in the old days I would have agreed about flash, but since flash 9 I haven't had any problems with it. But I heard flash for Mac sucks ass, so maybe that is where your trouble is at. I haven't played with flash on Linux, but it wouldn't surprise me if Adobe put out a truly shitty version there too. But on XP and Windows 7 (I avoid Vista like the clap) ever since flash 9 came out it has been smooth sailing, at least for me. Sure it can be a hog based on content, but I haven't had it be a stuttering mess like that HTML5 video was. Maybe in the future they'll get it better, wouldn't surprise me if they did, but right now I can play flash, while HTML5 is just a slideshow.

And if it is a slideshow on this Sempron you can bet it would be truly torture on one of those non ION equipped netbooks that seem to be so popular lately. Glad it works for you, but for me? I'll stick with flash, thanks.

That is why I always install AV LAST. I know it sounds backwards, but since XP if you have the Windows firewall running and are only doing updates you really have no worries as Windows Firewall by default doesn't respond to incoming pings and port scans. Then Once Windows is fully updated I install AV, head by Ninite and get the usual programs like FF, Flash, Java, etc, if it is a customer's box add OO.o on Ninite (I have Office 2K which works great in Win7) and finally wrap it up with K-Lite Mega Codec Pack (which covers just about any A/V format I'm liable to run into) and all is golden. Working PC repair you have run into most "gotchas" at least once so you know what to avoid. Fool me once, ehh?

Now that you have your PC stable I would recommend Comodo over AVG. With my customers I had quite a few that managed to infect themselves while running AVG and so far ZERO with Comodo! And if you have family or friends you have to do the occasional "tech support" for (what geek doesn't, huh?) I would recommend bookmarking Ninite. They have all the most common programs, along with excellent tools like ImgBurn, just have them pick what they want and run the combined installer. Oh, and NO TOOLBARS! That's right, ninite strips out the toolbars on apps like CCleaner and Java so you don't have to tell them "uncheck the third box on the second page" or whatever.

And if you like Dependency Walker you should search around the net and try to find a copy of "Computer Repair Utility Toolkit V2". Unfortuantely some FOSSies had a fit and maid them take down the main links, but nothing disappears on the net, right? It has dozens of tools to troubleshoot and repair a PC, fits on a 1Gb flash easily, and it is trivial to add your own tools. Working on house calls it has saved my ass more than once, and is a worthy tool of having in your toolbox. Just add WinFix and Ultimate Windows Tweaker from this page (bar on lower right has the download links) and with the Computer Repair Toolkit you can fix a good 85-90% of the Windows problems you run into. I hope this helps!

Fortunately you can use tricks to run itunes using the Quicktime Alternative. I use this method on peoples machines that I know will install it regardless of my advice.

With this:
http://www.free-codecs.com/download/QuickTime_Alternative.htm
there is no need for Apple's QuickTime! (That requires you also have iTunes bloatware)

Check out Quicktime Alternative http://www.free-codecs.com/download/QuickTime_Alternative.htm

dont use quicktime! in the very rare instance that you need quicktime you could use quicktime alternative... http://www.free-codecs.com/download/quicktime_alternative.htm

I got the most recent BSG DVDs and tried to play them on everything I had. VLC didn't work beyond the root screen. Windows Media Player failed. Intervideo DVD player crashed every time. It wasn't until I loaded the K lite codec full that I could get it to play...and only on the Media Player Classic frontend.

Sounds worse than DRM!

Nah, it's not worse than DRM, because at least missing the needed codec is a valid reason for being unable to play a video.

I got the most recent BSG DVDs and tried to play them on everything I had. VLC didn't work beyond the root screen. Windows Media Player failed. Intervideo DVD player crashed every time. It wasn't until I loaded the K lite codec full that I could get it to play...and only on the Media Player Classic frontend.

Sounds worse than DRM!

Not sure why this guy got modded Troll. Case in point, I got the most recent BSG DVDs and tried to play them on everything I had. VLC didn't work beyond the root screen. Windows Media Player failed. Intervideo DVD player crashed every time. It wasn't until I loaded the K lite codec full that I could get it to play...and only on the Media Player Classic frontend.

Don't get me wrong, I use VLC for most all other things, but they don't include proprietary codecs with the program. You can get them, but they don't always work.

Quicktime Alternative

windows people who dont want to install that apple crapware

1. get quicktime alternative ( http://www.free-codecs.com/download/quicktime_alternative.htm)
2. open this url http://movies.apple.com/movies/paramount/star_trek/startrek-tlr2_h.640.mov

in vlc player

Quicktime Alternative: available here (for Windows - dunno about Linux).

Does the job without the bloat and other suspicious stuff. And noticeably better performance on older hardware.

Personally I've never had much luck with VLC and .MOV files. Better to go for Media Player Classic with Quicktime Alternative. On both my own personal and my customers I just install Klite Mega along with Flash and Songbird. The customers seem to love it,MPC doesn't suck up the resources like WMP,and with the mega pack you can pretty much play everything out of the box. I tried MPlayer a few times but it just didn't work as well for me as MPC.

Posting anon so's not to nuke mod points I've awarded.

VLC is not as good at handling .mov as other formats for some reason. If you have a lot of them, Quicktime Alternative is worth a shot. Otherwise VLC seems to handle pretty much everything I have thrown at it, usually using less system resources than Windows Media Player or such like. For some reason, though, it disables DVD deinterlacing by default, which si never what's wanted unless you have a progressing scan DVD - not even sure if these exist. It's a second's work to enable it, but I often come in to find my kids watching video marred by irritating horizontal lines.

Why burn a copy? You can just rip & re-encode it (x264) to an MKV-file on an (external) harddrive, and play it using popcorn hour or similar. That way you can also take your movie collection with you when you visit friends.

I have to agree,what braintrust thought .mov would be a great format for this? What the hell is wrong with .avi,or if you HAVE to go all "web 2.0" .flv? At least those of us on Windows can avoid a quicktime infection with K-Lite which will also take care of REAL and any other nasty codec you come across. Or if you just want to avoid Quicktime without the extras you can use QuickTime Alt. But using a nice bog standard .avi or .mpg would have been better IMHO. But as always this is my 02c,YMMV

I have to agree,what braintrust thought .mov would be a great format for this? What the hell is wrong with .avi,or if you HAVE to go all "web 2.0" .flv? At least those of us on Windows can avoid a quicktime infection with K-Lite which will also take care of REAL and any other nasty codec you come across. Or if you just want to avoid Quicktime without the extras you can use QuickTime Alt. But using a nice bog standard .avi or .mpg would have been better IMHO. But as always this is my 02c,YMMV

Actually, some of their "high-quality" files are quite good

I concur, but also as someone who grew up on various dial up modems for internet access and later on file sharing I have no problem with small videos of questionable quality (such as videos saved from Youtube) when better copies are unattainable or hard to be found, as with the right post processing and Windows Media Player Classic such files can suffice for many types of uses/needs.

There is another free codex that I heard was pretty good. BBC has the Dirac video format. Could this be an alternative?

I don't. They have one of the most invasive programs next to adware/spyware. I guess it could be considered adware...

I found this alternative that takes care of the basic streaming...

You can avoid installing QT by using QT Alternative here http://www.free-codecs.com/download/QuickTime_Alternative.htm All the goods without the bloatware.

Just use an old version of Windows or a small Linux like Puppy Linux or Damn Small Linux and install a media player that can play CDs and DVDs.

Give them out to friends and family members that are too poor to afford their own CD player or DVD player.

For Windows there is the K-Lite Codex Pack that has a DVD player in it and Media Player Light. You don't need a modern media player for that.

Also if they have a built in modem, they can have a cheap dial-up Internet terminal.

Many charities will take them as donations, like those who donate computers to a third world nation like Wings of Hope. You can also donate them to poor public schools and churches who would use them or sell them off at a flea market when they try to get rid of surplus equipment, books, computers, etc. I am sure you can write off each laptop for like $100 each, as they wouldn't be worth any more than that.

The only way you can get more than that is to have a retro computing collector contact you to buy a certain brand of laptop that can run an old version of MS-DOS, OS/2, BeOS, etc that the newer laptops won't run. It would have to be one that has driver support for a classic OS that is no longer made or supported anymore. Some retro computing fans still want to run their old legacy software and new laptops won't do that, and virtual machines aren't good enough to run the old video games 100% the way they should be run. MS-DOS and DOS gamers want hardware that isn't Winmodem type in which the driver has the firmware they want 100% driver support in DOS so it has to be a real modem not a winmodem, it has to be a VESA compatible video card, and a sound blaster 16 audio card, and maybe a network card that has DOS drivers.

Well, you can always install Quicktime Alternative and stay away from all that bullshit.

There appears to be more than one domain involved:

http://ddanchev.blogspot.com/2008/01/massive-realplayer-exploit-embedded.html

Also, as it works by exploiting holes in real player I'd assume it won't effect you if you don't have real player?

I'm just glad I replaced it with Real Alternative ages ago.

Also note that you can grab both realAlternative and quicktime Alternative codecs so that these apps never load. I have both and it makes everything run a lot smoother.
While I know that the name for the real player alternative is realAlternative, I'm not exactly sure what the quick time alternative is (though it's similarly named, if not exactly the same). You can get both from free-Codecs.com http://www.free-codecs.com/download/Real_Alternative.htm

There is absolutely nothing in Vista that will deliberately sabotage playback of unDRM'd AVI files (The AVI format doesn't even support DRM). Try installing the correct codecs, GSpot should be able to identify the video and audio codecs required by the AVI's you're having problems with. If in doubt, try ffdshow which will decode most formats.

Also try other players, particularly ones which may have their own AVI parser rather than using the one shipped with DirectX/Windows, Media Player Classic perhaps.

There is absolutely nothing in Vista that will deliberately sabotage playback of unDRM'd AVI files (The AVI format doesn't even support DRM). Try installing the correct codecs, GSpot should be able to identify the video and audio codecs required by the AVI's you're having problems with. If in doubt, try ffdshow which will decode most formats.

Also try other players, particularly ones which may have their own AVI parser rather than using the one shipped with DirectX/Windows, Media Player Classic perhaps.

I haven't installed Quick Time in forever because of QuickTime Alternative (codec download), but from what I remember even if you hide the icon from your tray, it does just that. The program still resides in memory and is still loaded through HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run.

Um, did you see the link to Real Alternative a little further up the page? There's a link to Quicktime Alternative as well, so you don't need Quicktime/iTunes either. Those codecs will allow you to play RP and QT files with just about any media player.

Here I'll make it very easy for you:
http://www.free-codecs.com/download/Real_Alternative.htm
http://www.free-codecs.com/download/QuickTime_Alternative.htm

Um, did you see the link to Real Alternative a little further up the page? There's a link to Quicktime Alternative as well, so you don't need Quicktime/iTunes either. Those codecs will allow you to play RP and QT files with just about any media player.

Here I'll make it very easy for you:
http://www.free-codecs.com/download/Real_Alternative.htm
http://www.free-codecs.com/download/QuickTime_Alternative.htm

http://www.free-codecs.com/download/Real_Alternative.htm

Now I just have to worry about unpatched holes in Windows Media Player!

Truthfully, I already have one bloated Media Player that is part of the OS on my machine, why would I want to install another?

BTW:
http://www.free-codecs.com/download/QuickTime_Alternative.htm
To take care of that OTHER bloated media player

http://www.free-codecs.com/download/Real_Alternative.htm

Now I just have to worry about unpatched holes in Windows Media Player!

Truthfully, I already have one bloated Media Player that is part of the OS on my machine, why would I want to install another?

BTW:
http://www.free-codecs.com/download/QuickTime_Alternative.htm
To take care of that OTHER bloated media player

Yup, it works just fine with Real Aternative... http://www.free-codecs.com/download/Real_Alternative.htm/

• EditPlus Programming editor
• IrfanView Image viewer with effects and image manipulation capabilities
• Putty so I can SSH to my Gentoo from winblows
• Ability Spreadsheet as opposed to the spreadsheets in microsoft office, open office, and gnumeric
• Proxomitron Web-filtering proxy
• Flashpaste Copy/Paste on steroids
• WinRAR as opposed to winzip
• uTorrent as opposed to azureus and other java based boulder-weight crap
• mIRC IRC client
• DVD Shrink Rip/decode/encode DVDs, etc.
• Tail for Win32 Wish tail under linux was this good
• RealAlternative as opposed to realplayer
• Virtual Dimension Virtual desktops, as opposed to microsoft's power toys

Why bother with Real any more when there's Real Alternative? The only thing that doesn't work is streaming audio\video, but there's usually a choice of formats and it's so rare these days that it doesn't bother me a bit.

Xine has it's own codec plugin architecture. Each decoder plugin is dynamically loaded and uses the relevant codec libraries (such as x264) it needs. xine-lib comes with an ffmpeg plugin that links against ffmpeg (or more specifically libavcodec) which is the powerhouse behind most mplayer decoding.

In short, although your system can have versions of mplayer and ffmpeg of different ages, if mplayer will play it, xine usually will. So yes, xine based players should handle H.264.

Windows users can of course install ffdshow

Quicktime plugins for the ogg vorbis and theora formats, for both Mac and Windows, are available from Xiph: http://www.xiph.org/quicktime/download.html

For Windows users who'd rather use an existing player than install VLC, try the DirectShow filters: http://free-codecs.com/download/Filters_for_Ogg_Vo rbis_Speex_Theora_and_FLAC.htm

If you must play Quicktime Files, don't install Apple Quicktime! Try Quicktime Alternative instead.

http://www.free-codecs.com/download/QuickTime_Alte rnative.htm

QuickTime Standalone or better, QuickTime Alternative v1.81 (a recent project went dead according to Codec Guide):

QTA (2)
Saturday - June 9

Some news websites have written that QTA is doomed because we removed links to it. However, we have no control over what the creators of QTA do. Even if they would decide to stop making new versions, which is likely to happen, this does not automatically mean that there won't be any trimmed down mods of QuickTime available in the future. Creating such a pack is no rocket science. So anyone with a few ounces computer skills can make something similar. In fact, many of such packs already exist.
QTA
Monday - June 4

Download links to QuickTime Alternative have been removed at kind request of Apple. Even though this site does not host any downloads, we have have decided to just remove all links, even indirect ones, and get on with life. QT is a slow and sometimes also buggy piece of software anyway.

The K-Lite Codec Pack is fully capable of playing .mov files. In fact, HD trailers will play with much better performance with the open-source decoders that are included in KLCP than with QuickTime Player.

However, playing QuickTime content inside your webbrowser requires QuickTime to be installed. We will soon provide a detailed guide describing how you should install and configure QuickTime for the best user experience with the least annoyances.

Those who seek QTA can find it on dozens of other websites. There also exist several other packs containing QT components, just to name a few: QTLite, Vista C.P., ACE M.C.P., Storm C., MUSK C.P., Satsuki QT module, and even a binary C.P. addon for MPlayer.

QuickTime player is simply a front-end application that makes use of the framework. Its Windows counterpart is a mere shadow of its former self.

I wouldn't completely knock Safari without giving it a chance. Safari itself was based off of KHTML (and the Apple devs still contribute back regularly to the KDE/Konqueror folks). If they ported it once, porting it twice shouldn't be a terribly huge issue once the initial kinks are worked out.

1. Missing application menu in the upper-left corner. This menu contains menu items for Minimize, Maximize, Restore, Move, and Size. This menu is still accessible via its keyboard shortcut (Alt-Space). Present since: At least Windows 3.0, 1991
   
2. Missing minimize animation. Present since: At least Windows XP, 2001
   
3. Maximize/Restore animation is odd, it resizes one dimension at a time. Windows itself resizes both dimensions at a time. Present since: At least Windows XP, 2001
   
4. Resizing can only be done from the lower-right corner. Windows allows resizing from all four sides and corners. Also, the cursor does not change when moved over the resize area. Present since: At least Windows 3.0, 1991
   
5. Clicking on the Safari icon in the taskbar when it is minimized performs the restore operation, even if the Window was maximized before... in other words, it shows the window maximized for a split second, then resizes it.
   
6. You can resize a maximized window. Windows programs normally don't let you do this.
   
7. Clicking on a taskbar icon for a window that is currently in front should minimize that window. Present since: Most likely Windows 95, 1995.
   
8. Some dialogs are missing close buttons. History, Show All History and Help, About Safari off the top of my head. In fact, the only way I found to close the History window was counterintuitively through Bookmarks, Hide All Bookmarks.