Combined Community Codec Pack Explained

Combined Community Codec Pack
Latest Release Version:2015-10-18
Latest Preview Version:2015-10-25 beta
Latest Preview Date:[1]
Operating System:Microsoft Windows
Genre:Video codec/audio codec
License:Freeware

The Combined Community Codec Pack, more commonly referred to by its acronym CCCP, is a collection of codecs (video compression filters) packed for Microsoft Windows, designed originally for the playback of anime fansubs.[2] The CCCP was developed and maintained by members of various fansubbing groups.

The name is a pun on the name of the Soviet Union; namely, the Cyrillic alphabet version of the abbreviation of its full name (Сою́з Сове́тских Социaлисти́ческих Респу́блик). As part of the joke, the project's logo features the hammer and sickle and star from the Flag of the Soviet Union.

The CCCP was last updated on October 18, 2015. There are more up-to-date alternatives.

Purpose

CCCP was created to fulfill the following:

The pack is small and compact, containing only what is needed for most videos; it intentionally disables support for many codecs it considers unnecessary. It thus can potentially avoid problems caused by inappropriate combinations of filters by providing an all-inclusive playback solution. To view a CCCP-approved video, one must simply theoretically uninstall all other codec packs and install the CCCP. This philosophy leads to some disadvantages; since many formats are not enabled by default, they have to be manually toggled by the user if needed. Additionally, unlike many competing packs, CCCP is designed around decoding rather than encoding, and as such doesn't include many video encoders that other packs do.

The CCCP is made only for the Microsoft Windows operating system and works with Windows XP/Vista/7/8/10. The last release to support Windows 2000 is 2010-10-10; the last release to support Windows 98/Me is 2007-02-22.

Reception

In 2006, On2 began recommending the CCCP as a simple decoding solution to feed video and audio to their Flix encoding application.[3] The CCCP staff recommends to not use On2's included registry patch, but rather turn on or off any necessary codecs within the CCCP settings menu. In 2009, the German C't magazine recommended CCCP as the only trustworthy codec pack available today.[4]

Technical details

Contents

Note: Installing all of these separately will not have the same effect as installing the CCCP because the Media Player Classic Home Cinema is customized and so are all of the components' settings.[5]

CCCP adds Video for Windows (VFW) codecs and DirectShow filters to the system, so that DirectShow/VFW based players like MPC, Winamp, and Windows Media Player will use them automatically.

Supported formats

Notable formats not natively supported

See also

Notes and References

  1. Web site: List of CCCP beta release files. 2015-11-21. 2012-09-05. https://web.archive.org/web/20120905044210/http://www.cccp-project.net/beta/. dead.
  2. Web site: Review at freewaregenius.com. 2009-09-01. https://web.archive.org/web/20090418012931/http://www.freewaregenius.com/2007/02/09/cccp-codec-pack/. 2009-04-18. dead.
  3. Web site: https://web.archive.org/web/20071114221526/http://support.on2.com/flixengine/windows/faq/. November 14, 2007. On2 Windows FAQ. 2009-09-01.
  4. Kodierwerk - Kostenlose Videokonverter für fast jeden Zweck. C't Magazin für Computertechnik (German). Dr. Volker Zota. 2009. 7 . 172.
  5. Web site: Advanced FAQ - CCCP. 2007-08-30. https://web.archive.org/web/20070810204649/http://www.cccp-project.net/wiki/index.php?title=Advanced_FAQ. 2007-08-10. dead.