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I downloaded and ran the "Codec Tweak Tool" from free-codecs.com. It found 17 Codecs on my system. Some were left behind by other "trial" programs that I used before deciding on Power Director. (i.e. Ulead, Corel, etc.) I disabled the ones that were obviously not needed and also removed the ATI Codecs that I routinely download every month when AMD-ATI updates their Catalyst Drivers.
Allen, how did you know which codecs were needed and which were not?
It seems that every time I look I have more codecs than before. Some come with programs, but others I installed on someone's advice when I had a problem.
I would dearly love to clean up this mess.
Hello Jerrys,
First off, let me state that I am not even remotely a video expert. If it wasn't for the suddenly degraded quality of video clips viewed inside PD9, I would not even had started investigating CODECS and what their role is in producing and viewing video. It was a very enlightening investigation and learning experience, but I still wasn't confident enough to do any really advanced cleaning of Codecs. And by all means, from what I've read, leave the FILTERS alone. You get rid of the wrong filter(s) and your DVD burner could stop working. I've read about that happening to a lot of people.
But, finding unneeded CODECS was fairly easy for me, because when I ran the CODEC TWEAK TOOL, it showed several entries from COREL and several entries from ULEAD in my registry and also in the "Common Files" folder of my Program Folder on the C-drive. I had used a trial version of the COREL program and I had the ULEAD Movie Producer (which came with my Canon video camera) installed on this PC before purchasing PD9. So, it was obvious that these items were left on the PC after the host program was installed. I don't think most providers care if they leave potentially interfering software on your computer after you've rejected their product. (TIP: Use REVO Uninstaller to remove programs, and it gets the leftovers. REVO received rave reviews on CNET, which is how I found this program several months ago.)
Here is how I removed the Corel and Ulead leftovers: (Will Use COREL for these instructions. Same for ULEAD, etc.)
1. Go to that program's leftover folder in the "Common Files".
2. Rename/Add some characters before it.. (i.e. COREL renamed to ZZZCOREL)
3. Restart the Computer.
4. Run CCleaner (or your preferred registry cleaner). It will flag all the registry entries related to COREL as "invalid"
5. Direct CCleaner to remove the entries.
6. Go back to the folder you renamed in step #2 and delete that folder entirely.
7. Run CCleaner again just to make sure you got everything.
8. Restart the computer and Run the CODEC TWEAK TOOL. You'll find that the COREL (or whatever the offenders were) are now gone from your PC.
After doing this for COREL and ULEAD, videos once again started to play clear and bright within the PD9 window. Also, my DVD's are producing quite a bit faster. Also, the finished DVD is clearer. At full screen on my 22" monitor, produced DVD's have always been a bit grainy looking with very fine vertical lines. Now, after removing these leftover CODECS, the DVD video is what I consider to finally be DVD-HQ quality. Nothing like the original Hi-Def footage, but nothing that I can find fault with.
Jerrys, I suppose the bottom line is that un-needed CODECS definitely can interfere with a sophisticated program like Power Director. But, great care must be taken with getting rid of only the ones that OBVIOUSLY should not be on your P.C.. Good luck!
-Allen in Chicago