Useful guides and tutorials related to codecs and multimedia.

The story of how camera manufacturers handed Windows RAW support to Microsoft, and what to install now that they have.

A plain-English explainer covering what RAW files hold, which format each camera brand uses, and what opens them on Windows.

Install the free AV1 Video Extension to play AV1 in Movies and TV, plus why VLC and MPV play AV1 already without it.

Why music codecs and speech codecs are built differently, which audio format to pick for what, and how to fix an old clip that plays with no sound.

Why AV1 flattens the battery on some laptops and not others, how to check which side your hardware is on, and the fixes that actually work.

Windows does not open .jxl files out of the box, and the free Microsoft extension only installs on recent builds - here are four routes that work on any version.

An honest look at where video codecs are going, with the marketing numbers stripped out and only the claims that survive checking left in.

How to switch YouTube to the AV1 codec, verify it is really being used, and check whether your machine can decode AV1 without stuttering.

A plain-English walkthrough of every way to get LAME MP3 Encoder 4.0 running on Windows, from the command line to Audacity to no install at all.

What Media Foundation is, how it differs from DirectShow, and why Windows ships without the codecs it needs to play modern video.