K-Lite Codec Pack 19.4.0 Final reviews

I recently bought a 1gb Intel N270 crappy netbook to get to grips with PC's (the first I've ever owned, but definitely not the first I've used). I wanted a machine to seriously abuse and to see how much I could squeeze out of how little.
I'll get to the point; I'm a movie, music and games fanatic, and I have to say this has helped improve my experience of video and sound quality immeasurably.

-----Quick Review - Read This-----

I honestly don't think that unless I shed out some serious cash on some dedicated hardware, that I could possibly improve upon the viewing and listening experience I've had with this AWESOME codec pack. That said, it does take some setting up, such as disabling one or two Windows Media Player update-type annoyances (Google for how), and, much like other specialized software, has a mountain of options, some of which can have undesirable results. On the upside, the majority of important options have additional information when hovering the mouse pointer over them, and are highly useful if you don't want to go thingying comething up!
So if you absolutely must have superior video AND audio playback (I've switched from VLC to this after about 2 days!), then this was made for you.
On the other hand if you just want good video and audio quality, stick with Internet Explorer for streaming (no, really - I've tested against Firefox, Google Chrome and Opera for video streaming - it's very very good indeed and almost as quick as Opera to start up - get divx, flash and any other plugins/addons that you come across as missing and you're sorted), and for audio and offline video and ease of use, VLC.

-----Further Info-----
If you do get any problems with file formats not working in K Lite, just try disabling them in the options and possibly re-set the previous player as default (Google again, if you're not sure).
That's it - it's 6:30am, I wrote this review listening to Beethoven's Symphony No.7 Movement 2 Allegretto, nearly wetting myself that it sounds so good. I HAD to write a review, just to get it off my chest how good K Lite really is.
No need to give this any marks - it's brilliant,
though it does take some setting up initially.
-Video and Audiophiles - this is what you're after!
-If you just want good quality playback without too much fuss. try VLC or look into optimizing your current player (the magic of Google, again).
Night all!

@Kuti
Visit the support forum for help.

Third party decoders such as CoreAVC can cause explorer crashes.

I have used K-lite codec pack for long and its good but this latest version is causing my windows explorer to crash whenever I open a folder with MP4 files. I think there's a problem with the MP4 thumbnail generation. There's no problem with other formats. Please fix this bug.

Long time user of K-lite standard, always working fine here... thanks for your work.

The 5.9.x version (including the update) has a problem when trying to play m2ts files using media player clasic! The video speeds up for no reason and the audio is full of stutter. Had to change back to the 5.8.3 version.

I've enjoyed K-Lite for a long time but I had to get rid of this latest Media Player Home Cinema crap. Crashed much too often and would sometimes play a file one day but not the next. Then there was a big crash last night that froze my computer completely.

The other thing that troubles me about the new Media Player is constantly trying to control other programs I have running. There is no need for it to do this. I had to close all programs and windows to play a video or I spent two minutes blocking requests from Media Player via my firewall.

That's how malware operates. not saying it is malware but I have not other programs outside of security which needs some much access and control of my computer.

Going back to previous version. I hope these issues can be resolved.

IS THE PROGRAM GOOD OR NOT?!
THESE REVIEWS ARE CONFUSING ME!
I'm deciding whether I should download this program or not, I heard that there's tons of issues. I heard that this program is excellent.
OVERALL, IS THIS PROGRAM GOOD?
Oh dear, I need a codec...

@Hvati

You can customize the buttons in MPC-HC by replacing the file "toolbar.bmp". If you delete that file then you will get the old buttons back.

I like K-lite a lot but I don't like the buttons on the bottom of the newer version of MPC-HC so I have to use an older version of MPC...

it doesn't play everything but it's really good,i still have VLC,just in case KLite fails

I had a problem playing .avi compressed with VP7. I solved it by adding the specific line of subtype (MEDIATYPE_video) to VP7 decompressor through MPC in Options/External filters. It was the same line MPC reported as missing.

I'm a long time user of K-lite mega codec pack, but this version is terrible! it's full of bugs! When i try to open anything with homecinema classic, the player freezes for five seconds, then continues to play the file from 6 seconds onwards, but the playback stutters a bit. This happens for every single file be that avi, mp4, m2ts anything! I'm going back to version 4.9. which is the last stable version i've found. used v4.9 since it was released without a problem!!

Another very good codec pack is "Ace media codec pack"

I think they are not being as updated as this 1 though, but worked fine for my XP when I had that.

Pay attention if u have a 32 bit or 64bit os and get a pack accordingly

same problem as mike below, skipping audio on any movie file which contains mp3 audio. long term user of this codec pack, this is the first time i've had an issue. as greg suggested this is not a selected speaker config issue - any other suggestions? thanks everyone!

@Mike

You probably haven't set the correct speaker configuration. You can configure it with the Codec Tweak Tool, or during installation.