Dear Anyone. I went to the 'How To Play MP4' guide, as I couldn't make anything play the MP4 video I downloaded - sound, yes, picture, forget it! The guide told me to download something called VLC, which I did, no joy. Then it told me to install something called Haali Video Splitter. When I got to the download page, by clicking on the link in the guide, I found the following review:- Haali is a sneaky SOB installing itself unknown to the user when it come packaged within other video software like FLV tag-alongs. Once on your system it is very difficult to remove. It tries to launch without permission whenever you simply browse a folder with video files in it. This uninvited launch crashes on Vista systems, two crashes for every video file in the folder. The crashes seem harmless, only affecting the unwanted launch of Haali Media Splitter. However, it is disgusting to have to keep clicking "OK" buttons to kill the crash. Normal uninstall techniques do not work as it has no "Add/Remove Software" listing and removing its thirty-something registry entries does not work either. It re-installs itself within seconds. Save yourself a lot of grief and do not install Haali or any software based upon Haali engines. A piss-poor product that acts more like a Trojan than useful video editing software. I didn't write that, it was on the Afterdawn page. And I found a couple of letters begging people to explain how to uninstall it, as it had 'messed with all their video files' - a quote (from memory) from one of the letters. So, I'm baffled. Why would AfterDawn want someone to install software that behaved so badly it attracted vitriol on this scale, and desperate pleas to help uninstall it? Is there something I can install instead, that actually works - I don't know if this works or not, but judging by the responses to it... Finally, RealPlayer. I was told it played MP4s, and it does, SOME of them. Others just give you the sound and no picture. Others again give you sound and picture, but with all the colours wrong, or swirling, psychedelically changing colours. I know MP4 is a container format, which means it's a pair of bookends, anything can go in between them, but surely there has to be some uniformity of content otherwise no two MP4s would play on the same software, everything would be proprietary. Is there ANY software/filter/codec combination that will play ALL MP4s, without 'messing with all video files', or being a 'sneaky SOB that behaves more like a Trojan'? Please, VLC does NOT play MP4s, no way, no how, that seems to be the only kind of file it doesn't support. I've tried 5 different MP4s on VLC, sound only, no picture. I'm using XP Pro with SP2. I've got SP3, but Microsoft say they're not supporting it any more, so I'm a little lary about installing it! Yours confusedly ulrichburke
I'd search the net for another MP4 codec. I would not install Haali. Maybe someone will drop in and direct you to one that works.
My comments to a previous inaccurate scare story from here - http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/710239 "I'd never heard of Haali before but (on my systems anyway) it's installed as part of the excellent K-Lite Mega Codec Pack - http://www.free-codecs.com/download/k_lite_Mega_Codec_Pack.htm - i've been using K-Lite for longer than i can remember, and can confirm that McAfee Viruscan, AVG Free, SpyBot Search & Destroy nor Adaware flag Haali as a trojan or similar. This is/has been my experience on many machines over many years... As to it being classed as a trojan, as i say, that's ridiculous. I only know of Haali by name (ie i know nothing of it in itself) due to seeing it listed in the K-Lite configuration but it's clearly not a trojan of any kind. What's obviously happened is that the original poster has a virus scanner and/or spyware scanners that mistakenly flags Haali as a trojan. A bit of info from Haali's official site - http://haali.cs.msu.ru/mkv/ - Upon searching i find the same comments from the original poster here - http://www.afterdawn.com/software/video_software/codecs_and_filters/haalimediasplitter.cfm. I'm not out to 'push' Haali, nor have i ever experienced a single problem with K-Lite/it's bundled bits and pieces over many years. I can't vouch for anyone who's obtained Haali outside of the K-Lite codec pack, plus it's always possible that some sneaky virus writing degenerate out there has created something disguising itself as Haali." p.s. a google search would have revealed that link above - http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=Haali+Video+Splitter+afterdawn&btnG=Search&meta= ..basically always search around, never take just one search result as gospel, it's surprising how quickly a bit of hearsay can be taken as fact.
I have been using Haali media splitter for sometime now for playing MKV files.I have no issue whatsoever with it. When not in use, it just sits there. In the crush department=NULL!!! Not having a "ADD/Remove" feature-FALSE!!! Before you get all upset about how Afterdawn does not care about its users and advises them to use a bad product, load your mp4 file in GSpot and tell us what video codec was used to compress the video. Just "mp4" tells us nothing. I can play my mp4 files with all the players I have installed in my PC- VLC, MPC, WMP and Nero Showtime. Install FFDShow and configure it to decode whatever codec was used in your mp4s. I forgot to mention, 8 years old rig with Windows XP Pro SP2. Mp4s are not an issue!
