The K-Lite Codec Pack is a collection of

audio Audio most commonly refers to sound, as it is transmitted in signal form. It may also refer to: Sound *Audio signal, an electrical representation of sound *Audio frequency, a frequency in the audio spectrum *Digital audio, representation of sound ...

and

video codec A video codec is software or Computer hardware, hardware that data compression, compresses and Uncompressed video, decompresses digital video. In the context of video compression, ''codec'' is a portmanteau of ''encoder'' and ''decoder'', while ...

s for

Microsoft Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

DirectShow DirectShow (sometimes abbreviated as DS or DShow), codename Quartz, is a multimedia framework and API produced by Microsoft for software developers to perform various operations with media files or streams. It is the replacement for Microsoft's ea ...

that enables an

operating system An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware and software resources, and provides common daemon (computing), services for computer programs. Time-sharing operating systems scheduler (computing), schedule tasks for ...

and its

software Software consists of computer programs that instruct the Execution (computing), execution of a computer. Software also includes design documents and specifications. The history of software is closely tied to the development of digital comput ...

to play various audio and video formats generally not supported by the operating system itself. The K-Lite Codec Pack also includes several related tools, including Media Player Classic Home Cinema (MPC-HC), Media Info Lite, and Codec Tweak Tool. K-Lite adds

Video for Windows Video for Windows was a suite of video-playing and editing software introduced by Microsoft in 1992. A runtime version for viewing videos only was made available as a free add-on to Windows 3.1, which then became an integral component of Windows ...

(VFW) codecs and

DirectShow filter DirectShow (sometimes abbreviated as DS or DShow), codename Quartz, is a multimedia framework and application programming interface, API produced by Microsoft for software developers to perform various operations with media files or streams. It is ...

s to the system, so that DirectShow/VFW based players like MPC,

Winamp Winamp is a media player (software), media player for Microsoft Windows originally developed by Justin Frankel and Dmitry Boldyrev by their company Nullsoft, which they later sold to AOL in 1999 for $80 million. It was then acquired by Rad ...

, and

Windows Media Player Windows Media Player (WMP, officially referred to as Windows Media Player Legacy to retronym, distinguish it from Windows Media Player (2022), the new Windows Media Player introduced with Windows 11) is the first media player (application soft ...

will use them automatically.

Editions

There are four editions of the K-Lite Codec Pack, all free of charge. # Basic: The Basic edition is the smallest version and enables a Microsoft Windows computer to play the contents of AVI,

Matroska Matroska (styled Matroška) is a project to create a container format that can hold an unlimited number of video, audio, picture, or subtitle tracks in one file. The Matroska Multimedia Container is similar in concept to other containers like ...

(MKV), MP4,

Ogg Ogg is a digital multimedia container format designed to provide for efficient streaming and manipulation of digital multimedia. It is maintained by the Xiph.Org Foundation and is free and open, unrestricted by software patents. Its name is ...

, Flash Video (FLV) and

WebM WebM is an audiovisual media file format. It is primarily intended to offer a royalty-free alternative to use in the HTML video and the HTML audio elements. It has a sister project, WebP, for images. The development of the format is sponsored by ...

files, etc. It only consists of LAV Filters (for video demultiplexing and audio and video decoding),

DirectVobSub DirectVobSub (formerly known as VSFilter) is a software add-on for Microsoft Windows (a DirectShow filter) that is able to read external subtitle files and superimposes them on a playing video file. DirectVobSub/VSFilter were formerly part of ...

(for subtitle decoding), Codec Tweak Tool, Icaros ThumbnailProvider and Icaros PropertyHandler. Basic is the only edition that includes neither MPC-HC nor MediaInfo Lite.K-Lite Codec Pack: Comparison of contents
/ref> # Standard: The Standard edition includes all features of the Basic edition plus MPC Video Renderer, MediaInfo Lite and MPC-HC. This package is recommended for normal users. # Full: The Full edition includes all features of the Standard edition plus madVR, DC-Bass Source Mod and Plugin for 3D video decoding (H.264 MVC) # Mega: The Mega edition includes all features of the Full edition plus a few ACM/VFW codecs (e.g. x264VFW and Lagarith),

ffdshow ffdshow is an open-source unmaintained codec library that is mainly used for decoding of video in the MPEG-4 ASP (e.g. encoded with DivX or Xvid) and H.264/MPEG-4 AVC video formats, but it supports numerous other video and audio formats as well. ...

, GraphStudioNext, VobSubStrip and FourCC Changer. After version 1.56 BS.Player is removed, unlike some editions of K-Lite in the past. After version 10.0.0, 64-bit codecs are integrated into the regular editions. Prior to this version there was a 64-bit edition designed specifically for 64-bit OSes. After version 11.3.0, the 32-bit and 64-bit versions of LAV Filters share their settings, and an option to install only 64-bit codecs was added (visible only in Expert install mode). After version 13.7.5, a user can remove installed components by deselecting them while running an updater. This also makes it possible to switch to a smaller variant of the codec pack without uninstalling first. After version 15.3.5 MPC Video Renderer is added. After version 15.9.0 Haali Media Splitter is removed. After version 17.0.0 AC3Filter is removed, because it is obsolete and only a tiny portion of people use it. The options to use ffdshow for decoding is removed as well. However, after installation a user can still use them for decoding by enable them manually with Codec Tweak Tool. Moreover, the ffdshow processing filters are still kept, and new options to load them in all compatible DirectShow players are added.

Compatibility

K-Lite Codec Packs are compatible with Windows Server 2003 and later. The last version that is compatible with Windows Vista is version 16.7.6. The last version that is compatible with Windows XP SP3 is version 13.8.5. The last version that is compatible with Windows XP SP2 is version 10.0.5. The last version that is compatible with Windows 2000 is version 7.10. The last version that is compatible with Windows 9x is version 3.45. Starting with K-Lite version 10.0.0,

64-bit In computer architecture, 64-bit integers, memory addresses, or other data units are those that are 64 bits wide. Also, 64-bit central processing units (CPU) and arithmetic logic units (ALU) are those that are based on processor registers, a ...

codecs were integrated into the regular K-Lite Codec Pack. Previously, a separate 64-bit edition of the pack was available for x64 editions of Windows.

Supported file formats

The K-Lite Codec Pack supports the following file formats:

Critical reception

, CNET reported a total of 1,074,578 downloads for K-Lite Mega Codec Pack 5.2 since its release date of 12 October 2009. User ratings gave it an average of 4.5 out of 5 stars, but it received only 87 reviews. Meanwhile, CNET reported only 122,552 downloads for K-Lite Codec Pack Full Edition 5.2 (released on the same date); however, it also received an average user rating of 4.5 out of 5 stars, albeit from only seven reviewers. No CNET editors had reviewed these products up until this time. On the same date, Betanews Fileforum reported a rating of 4.7 out of 5, based on 2,346 votes for K-Lite Mega Codec Pack 5.2.0 and 9,416,511 downloads. Fileforum did not have an entry for K-Lite Codec Pack 5.2 Full. In October 2009,

Softpedia Softpedia is a software and tech news website based in Romania. It indexes, reviews and hosts downloadable software and reports news on technology and science topics. It is ranked as among of the top download portals on the internet. History So ...

reported K-Lite Mega Codec Pack 5.2 and K-Lite Codec Pack 5.2 Update had been downloaded a combined total of 2,011,113 times after their release on 12 October 2009, and gave them a user rating of 4.4 out of 5 based on 2,281 votes. K-Lite Mega Codec Pack was chosen as a Softpedia Pick. Softpedia also reported K-Lite Codec Pack 5.2 Full, K-Lite Codec Pack Full 5.2 Update, and K-Lite Codec Pack 2.7 64-bit Edition have been downloaded a combined total of 1,452,750 times up until this date, and have received a user rating of 4.3 out of 5 from 2,082 users. K-Lite Codec Pack Full 5.2 was also a Softpedia Pick. Also in October 2009, SnapFiles also highly praised K-Lite Codec Pack Full edition, giving it five stars.

Notes

References

External links

* {{Official website Codecs Windows multimedia software