Computer viewing

[runesaint]

I am in the process of moving my computer around for a necessary upgrade/repair. While installing software again I thought I would ask what people use to watch their files? What programs do people use, and what formats are their computer based files in?

[mbanu]

Between VLC and MPlayer I'm usually able to work something out.

Format-wise nothing too crazy, although I have noticed that there is a subsection of the remaining fansub world that insists on releasing and sharing rare shows in fussy custom formats, like 10-bit mkv files, or the "what's a disk space?" people who mostly deal in terabyte-sized files. (There was one guy who offered up a terabyte-sized subtitle file.)

[Fireminer]

Between VLC and MPlayer I'm usually able to work something out.

Format-wise nothing too crazy, although I have noticed that there is a subsection of the remaining fansub world that insists on releasing and sharing rare shows in fussy custom formats, like 10-bit mkv files, or the "what's a disk space?" people who mostly deal in terabyte-sized files. (There was one guy who offered up a terabyte-sized subtitle file.)

And these big subtitle files does not always work with VLC player. I encountered one with Fafner Exodus, and it kept crashing my computer.

[Drew_Sutton]

I use Linux on my personal machines and have long gotten the best results (minimal problems) from VLC. The Linux distribution I use determines how easy it is to get all of the media codecs I need (built right into the main software repositories or scour third parties). As far as file formats go, I try to stick to pretty pedestrian formats like MP4, MKV or AVI. Occasionally I might pick up a FLV or OGG. I avoid any complex formats, like 10bit encodes or whatever the flavor of the month is. Let's chalk up one thing that I don't miss from the older days of digital fansubs is having to muck around with multiple players and multiple codec packs in a Russian roulette fashion just to watch a damn cartoon.