Useful guides and tutorials related to codecs and multimedia.

When AV1 plays but stutters and the fan spins up, the GPU is not doing the decoding - here is the 30-second check and the fix in each player.

K-Lite, X Codec Pack, Shark007, LAV Filters and Microsoft's own extensions compared, with the abandoned packs to skip and a safe install checklist.

A plain side-by-side of Xvid against H.264, H.265 and AV1, with a simple keep, play or convert table for anyone sitting on a folder of old AVI files.

Windows 11 refuses to install in a new virtual machine until VMware supplies a TPM chip, and here is exactly where that setting hides.

PotPlayer is Windows-only and the store is full of apps borrowing its name - here is who really makes them, and the five Android players worth installing.

Set up one USB stick that boots any ISO you drop onto it - the Ventoy install, the step that erases the drive, and the Secure Boot screen.

Boot ChromeOS Flex from a stick to test an old laptop without touching Windows - the Rufus steps, the BIN file trap, and what is not saved.

ProRes opens on Windows today and ProRes RAW does not - how to tell the two apart, and the three free routes that open the one that refuses.

Current Photoshop opens AVIF with no add-on - how to check your version, save AVIF files, and install the free plugin on an older copy.

The one-minute way to add foobar2000 components, plus why a 32-bit add-on will not load in 64-bit foobar2000 and what to do instead.