On 1 May 2012, at 18:51, Michael Mol wrote: >> … >> I am certainly able to play back .wmv files here without win32codecs >> installed. Admittedly, I'm using xbmc to do that, and haven't recently >> tested using VLC or mplayer, but I would avoid installing that package >> unless I was sure I needed it. > > … > WMV, mp4, WAV, etc. are all names given to container formats. WMV > might contain h264 internally, or it might contain one of the > "Microsoft Video" codecs, …
Actually, WMV appears not to be a container format - but a family of codecs. Apparently the .wmv files we see distributed on the net are most always WMV codec video contained in a ASF container. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.wmv I don't believe I've ever encountered a .wmv file containing h264. One probably wouldn't actually notice, in normal use, if one did receive such a file, assuming it worked when one clicked on it. However I find it extremely unlikely to imagine anyone putting h264 in a .wmv file (or an ASF container). We all commonly put h264 in .mp4 or .mkv containers. > Sometimes that's because of patent issues, sometimes that's because > there aren't enough useful samples, and sometimes that's because > nobody cares about a codec nobody's seriously used since 1997. I'm pretty sure we're able to play back WMV7, WMV9 / AC-1 videos without these binary decoders. It's probably not very useful to talk about codecs "nobody's seriously used since 1997." I *am* pretty sure that upstream mplayer *do* generally say "don't bother with the win32codecs". The goal here to to get Mark's video playing, and he's given no indication it's some old file he found on a 1998 system. Stroller.
