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View Full Version : What is w32codecs for?



aysiu
June 5th, 2007, 04:36 PM
The general consensus is that w32codecs is illegal by any definition.

Okay.

Can I ask what w32codecs is needed for exactly? I'm just curious.

With MPlayer, Flash, and the GStreamer ugly codecs metapackage, I'm able to play pretty much everything I come across--YouTube, Apple Trailers, MP3s, etc.

Is there something I'm not playing that I'd need w32codecs for? Or does MPlayer use w32codecs? I've never heard of MPlayer being illegal--is it illegal? Are the ugly metapackages illegal?

By the way, I live in the United States.

visionaire
June 5th, 2007, 04:44 PM
maybe avi and wma and wmv files?

shijirou
June 5th, 2007, 04:45 PM
They're video codecs, some propietary, some open source, usually used to play the numerous types of videos for Windows (ie MP4, XVID/DIVX, Real Media, Quicktime, AVI, WMV, etc...)

reacocard
June 5th, 2007, 04:53 PM
They're video codecs, some propietary, some open source, usually used to play the numerous types of videos for Windows (ie MP4, XVID/DIVX, Real Media, Quicktime, AVI, WMV, etc...)

But with the various gstreamer and xine packages installed, all those play back fine. I have yet to encounter a video that can't be played without w32codecs.

shijirou
June 5th, 2007, 05:06 PM
But with the various gstreamer and xine packages installed, all those play back fine. I have yet to encounter a video that can't be played without w32codecs.

Yeah, which is why I don't use them either, w32codecs I mean :p

aysiu
June 5th, 2007, 05:28 PM
So what I'm hearing is that you don't need w32codecs to play multimedia. That's what I suspected.

FuturePilot
June 5th, 2007, 05:49 PM
You mainly need them for .avi .wmv stuff like that. I've run into a few streaming videos that won't give me the video, only the sound, without the W32codecs




The general consensus is that w32codecs is illegal by any definition.
:-\"

saulgoode
June 5th, 2007, 05:53 PM
So what I'm hearing is that you don't need w32codecs to play multimedia. That's what I suspected.

That is my understanding. The FFMPEG project has produced open source (LGPLed) equivalents for practically everything W32CODECS could handle (see libavcodec (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libavcodec) for specifics).

aysiu
June 5th, 2007, 05:54 PM
You mainly need them for .avi .wmv stuff like that. I've run into a few streaming videos that won't give me the video, only the sound, without the W32codecs
Can you post a link to a website that doesn't work without w32codecs so I can try it and see what happens?

laxmanb
June 5th, 2007, 05:55 PM
They're the Windows DLL files used for playing various codecs. They're used for Windows Media, Real Player, mp3, etc. etc. support with a xine based media player like Totem-xine (Totem with xine backend), Amarok (KDE), etc., etc....

I think they support more formats than gstreamer-ugly....

And they're illegal because they're a direct copy of the Windows codecs. so they violate copyright laws...

**Atleast that's what I think... **

mips
June 5th, 2007, 05:56 PM
Can you post a link to a website that doesn't work without w32codecs so I can try it and see what happens?

lol, you just asked for one of those very hard to find things :D

Aranel
June 5th, 2007, 05:59 PM
There is the occasional WMV file that doesn't play without the w32codecs. Even so, those files aren't very common - at least, not anymore.

But consider this: what players provide a frontend to GStreamer? There's Totem, and optionally Kaffiene (I think), but that's pretty much it. I myself am dual-booting on a 28GB hard disk, and that doesn't leave me with a whole lot of space to install all the GNOME/KDE dependencies required for those players. So the lack of available GStreamer-based players is a factor for people without a whole lot of disk space.

Still, I generally agree with you. The w32codecs really aren't absolutely necessary anymore.

mips
June 5th, 2007, 06:00 PM
And they're illegal because they're a direct copy of the Windows codecs. so they violate copyright laws...

**Atleast that's what I think... **

You think correctly. In Linux they just repackage those very same codecs. Although illegal it was always encouraged on these forums strangely enough.

FuturePilot
June 5th, 2007, 06:07 PM
Can you post a link to a website that doesn't work without w32codecs so I can try it and see what happens?

Try this one.
http://media.putfile.com/White-Van-Wit

reacocard
June 5th, 2007, 06:34 PM
Try this one.
http://media.putfile.com/White-Van-Wit

Works fine for me in totem-xine.

saulgoode
June 5th, 2007, 06:47 PM
And they're illegal because they're a direct copy of the Windows codecs. so they violate copyright laws...

**Atleast that's what I think... **

If you obtain your DLLs from a copy of Windows which you have purchased (and are otherwise not using) then are you violating copyright if you use it with your Linux box? That's rather like saying you are in violation if you play a Sony MG audio CD on a Marantz stereo. I don't see how it could violate copyrights if you are only using a single copy of the DLL for which you have purchased the licensing.

It might be a violation of the Windows licensing agreement (not a copyright violation) but I was unable to find anything within the Windows licensing agreements which restricted you from using DLLs on non-Windows machine - although I admit I may have missed it.

FuturePilot
June 5th, 2007, 06:55 PM
Works fine for me in totem-xine.Maybe it was because I was using the MPlayer plugin?

jclmusic
June 5th, 2007, 07:15 PM
If you obtain your DLLs from a copy of Windows which you have purchased (and are otherwise not using) then are you violating copyright if you use it with your Linux box? That's rather like saying you are in violation if you play a Sony MG audio CD on a Marantz stereo. I don't see how it could violate copyrights if you are only using a single copy of the DLL for which you have purchased the licensing.

It might be a violation of the Windows licensing agreement (not a copyright violation) but I was unable to find anything within the Windows licensing agreements which restricted you from using DLLs on non-Windows machine - although I admit I may have missed it.

i heard that if u own a legal copy of windows it's fine. although it wouldn't surprise me if microsoft has put something in the vista eula to change this.

hanzomon4
June 5th, 2007, 07:26 PM
You can't play rmvb files (.rm or .ram video files) and xine screws up some wmv files(regression from the edgy version). You have to give the w32s a higher priority in the xine config files of the various players to get working wmv(wmv 8 I believe). Gst is great but some websites don't stream right, like the non-flash videos on gamespot. I fully expect gst to rule in a sort while.

stimpack
June 5th, 2007, 07:39 PM
Not everyone lives in the US, they are quite legal for me thanks. I'm sure a crippled version for US users may be possible, but hands off the international please.

aysiu
June 5th, 2007, 07:42 PM
Not everyone lives in the US, they are quite legal for me thanks. I'm sure a crippled version for US users may be possible, but hands off the international please.
I don't know all the details or Spanish law, but from everything I've read, it appears to be illegal regardless of country (whether you country enforces those laws or not is another question).

This isn't like libdvdcss2, which has questionable legality in the US but is legal pretty much everywhere else.

Read more here:
http://ubuntucat.wordpress.com/2007/05/28/the-legality-or-illegality-of-w32codecs-and-libdvdcss2/

SishGupta
June 5th, 2007, 07:50 PM
Without w32codecs about 90% of my wmv collection doesn't play properly. It plays, but I can't seek with the slider or it will become very distorted and crash.

Might be illegal, but I like it that way.

klerfayt
June 5th, 2007, 08:15 PM
There are a few formats such as certain Windows formats, Real, and Apple Quicktime which do not have native codecs under Linux. To work around this issue, external binary codecs are used instead to play these formats. MPlayer and xine use such external codecs and these codecs are stored in the MPlayer website in their codecs directory located at http://www.mplayerhq.hu/MPlayer/releases/codecs/.

Medibuntu distributes a package which contains these codecs. The codecs are under the non-free component of the repository.
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Medibuntu

Andrewie
June 5th, 2007, 10:26 PM
I haven't came across anything that needs w32codecs but most of my stuff is xvid anyway

samjh
June 6th, 2007, 01:13 AM
I've come across some Quicktime files that won't play properly with Gstreamer and Xine. w32codecs are OK.

For legalities, it depends on the jurisdiction and its treatment of the EULA.

There are many websites that freely distribute Windows DLLs, but have not suffered any legal action from Microsoft. Just search WIndows DLL in a search engine. It's strange that Microsoft hasn't shut these sites down.

jiminycricket
June 6th, 2007, 01:17 AM
That is my understanding. The FFMPEG project has produced open source (LGPLed) equivalents for practically everything W32CODECS could handle (see libavcodec (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libavcodec) for specifics).

Yes, you USED to need w32codecs since ffmpeg hadn't reverse engineered all the formats yet, and it used to be that you had to install totem-xine instead of totem-gstreamer, until Feisty Fawn at least, because now gstreamer is "good enough".

BrokeBody
June 6th, 2007, 03:42 AM
Can you post a link to a website that doesn't work without w32codecs so I can try it and see what happens?

It's very hard to find a website with some multimedia content which will not work or not work properly without w32codecs. However, I ran on some movies (.avi) and they didn't have picture or they didn't work at all. After installing w32codecs everything is fine now. Btw, I also have gstreamer, ffmpeg, xvid, libdvd...