INFO Video Player, codec & technical info and links.

Some I guess, useful tips for playing the videos.

Video Player

I personally use Daum Potplayer. Free fast and can play nearly all types of media files.
https://potplayer.daum.net/

Codec

- Video codec

Most of the videos here are encoded in X.264 (AVC) codec or XVID. Those videos are easily playable in all modern players. Those video streams can be placed in mp4, avi, mkv, etc containers.

I start using a more advanced x.265 (HEVC) codec. In short: smaller files and better quality than AVC.

Spoiler: Quality and efficiency from Wikipedia

Judged by the objective quality metric VQM in 2015, x265 delivered video quality on par with the reference encoder of the royalty-free VP9 format that competes with HEVC.[13] A codec comparison from 2015 found x265 to be a leading HEVC implementation measured by SSIM metric.[14] In August 2016, Netflix published a comparison of x264, VP9, and x265 using video clips from 500 movies and TV shows using 6 different quality metrics and found that both VP9 and x265 have 40%–50% better quality at 1080p than x264. Netflix stated that with the VMAF metric (which closely mirrors human visual experience according to the author) x265 performed substantially (19% to 22%) better than VP9.[15]

As usual, Microsoft is late with implementing this codec in OS. So if you are still using any build-in Microsoft players, you need to install this free video extension from Microsoft store.
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/hevc-video-extensions-from-device-manufacturer/9n4wgh0z6vhq
But I recommend using a free Potplayer, so you don't need to install any extra codec.

- Audio Codec

The most popular used here are AAC and MP3 and AC-3 in some older videos. They all play nicely in most players.

Video editing tools

I won't venture here in lengthy video tools discussion. I personally use 3-5 different apps to edit one video. This is aimed at those who want to simply cut a piece of the video as it is, no fancy editing. I recommend another great free tool Avidemx.



Load video you want to edit. Move to the beginning of the scene and mark with the button <A> In, then move to the next scene and mark with the button <B>Out. The mark rectangle is what you need, or if this is a portion that you don't need just press <<del>>.

On the left column side, there are three settings you need to pay attention to.

- Video decoder (leave it as it is.)
- Video output. Use copy if you don't want to re-encode the video.
- Audio output. Copy, or you can convert to AAC or MP3 by using a drop menu.
- Output format. Here you can choose the container. The same container always works. If you change the container, you may get an error that this video or audio stream is not supported. That means that the chosen container doesn't accept those video or audio streams. So you need to re-encode.

If you wish to re-encode than this combination:

AVC for video
AAC Audio
MP4 container

Works great and is portable to nearly any device.

This is the simplest way to cut. This app can do a lot more.

Those are my personal preference, and I hope is helpful. Suggestions and comments are welcome.

hef/zorg