Playback Support & Video Players

+ Short Introduction
Playing an anime episode downloaded from the internet can be tricky. Tricky in a sense that they come in different formats and it is sometimes necessary to use different video players which support those formats. There are few occasions too when you need to install specific audio/video codecs so that your video player can recognize a certain file. Bottom line: migraine.

We all know it sucks when you can't play an episode you have downloaded for a long time. Don't sweat anymore! This support page will help you get what you truly deserve -- 100% entertainment!

+ Basic - Container Format
Let's begin by defining this term. Simply put, when you play a movie in your PC, that movie is always playing at least one video stream and one audio stream. Put together, it's called a "container format". Popular container formats come in extensions of .avi, .mpeg or .mpg, and .rm. Matrosaka [.mkv] format has recently became a craze since it contains many tracks with different audio and video compression streams.

+ Basic - Audio/Video Codecs
A "codec" is a device or program capable of performing encoding and decoding on a digital data stream or signal. The word codec may be a combination of any of the following: 'Compressor-Decompressor', 'Coder-Decoder', or 'Compression/Decompression algorithm'. A file which is encoded by a specific codec may not be supported or recognized by the video player. That's why, as I've mentioned before, there are occasions when you have to install the required codec to play the file.

My recommended codec pack for you would be: Combined Community Codec Pack, since almost all anime episodes presently subtitled are in .mkv format. Just click to download. ^^

+ Basic - Resorting to Different Video Players
For this personal experience is the best advice. If you have already installed the CCCPack, then there would be minimal problems [ for Windows Media Player Version 10 or higher ]. However, if you wish to use other, much simpler video players, you may then refer to the following recommendations:

• VLC Media Player - very popular for its ability to play the video content of incomplete, unfinished, or damaged video downloads before the files have been fully downloaded. For example, files simultaneously downloading through BitTorrent or eMule. VLC supports all codecs and all file formats supported by FFmpeg. This means that Vorbis, DVD Video and MPEG-4 playback as well as support for Ogg and Matroska (MKV) file formats work "out of the box". However, this feature is not unique to VLC, as any player, including MPlayer and xine, using the FFmpeg libraries can play those formats without need for external codecs.


[ Download Here ]


• BS Player - is a media player for Windows 2000 and XP that plays back many kinds of multimedia files (including ASF, ASX, AVI, DAT, DivX, M2V, M2P, M3U, MKV, MP3, MP2, MPEG, MPG, OGG, OGM, VOB, WAV, WMV) and specializes in video playback. BS.Player, like most media players, requires that the correct codecs are installed before hand to playback formats that are not supported by default.


[ Download Here ]


• Real Player - is a media player, created by RealNetworks, that plays a number of multimedia formats including MP3, MPEG-4, QuickTime, and Windows Media formats as well as multiple versions of proprietary RealAudio and RealVideo codecs.


[ Download Here ]


• The Core Media Player - TCMP is an older directshow based media player for windows only. It supports all directshow based codecs like CoreAVC, CoreAAC, DivX, XviD, etc. as well as older WinAmp 2.xx VIS, DSP plug-ins along with an integrated XML playlist and media manager.


[ Download Here ]