So after reading some good reviews about PotPlayer, I decided to try out. After all, it was even touted as being very close to VLC as far as the mountain of different formats it could play. I downloaded it and installed it.
Verdict? The very FIRST file I threw at it ... Abort Abort. Red Alert! There went the error message informing me that it needed this AAC codec to play the file. It was an m4a file ... a file VLC has no problem playing. Attempting to play some MP4s also gave me the same message of needing that AAC codec. Underwhelming. I think about the only thing it could play were MP3s and maybe a straggler FLV that I still had laying around.
Anyway, I believe I saw a button that is supposed to search for the AAC codec. Nnnnggg, I never feel comfortable about those types of searches. I never know what the source is. So, I held off on letting it search for that AAC codec.
Now a while ago I noticed that on the PotPlayer download page, there is an OpenCodec Modules plugin link. Would downloading that do the trick? Would that safely search for and install the AAC codec being called for to be able to play all those currently unplayable files? Is that link just a stub installer? I believe it's just a little over 800 KBytes. If so, about what size would the actual download be? If it IS the AAC codec that it downloads, does that get installed somewhere in the PotPlayer app's folders in my Flash Drive ... or in my desktop computer's Windows XP?
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That plugin will get it working for you and it will stay installed as you upgrade PotPlayer. That's the official code plugin they have available on their site that is live downloaded and will be installed into PotPlayer Portable for you. All plugins we make available in PAF format will do everything for you.
As for AAC, as a patent-encumbered non-free format, some apps may not support it out of the box. They'll generally all support formats that are free and don't have patent issues like FLAC, WAV, and - as of last year - MP3.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
So I downloaded that OpenCodec Modules plugin. I double clicked on the official PA.com icon and lo & behold. I immediately got a message informing me that --- "The device you have selected to install to does not have enough free space for this app." Knowing full well that I had tons of free space left in my 32 Gig Flash Drive, I thought, "What the .... ?" Turns out my Flash Drive has 12.2 Gig of free space.
Upon looking closer at the Install Window of the app, I kid you not ... it says, "Space required: 32.4 GB" Wwww WHAT? 32.4 GIG Bytes? This PotPlayer alleged codec wants to install 32.4 GBytes of something? I have never seen any app that size.
For comparison purposes:
My entire VLC Portable folder is only 86.2 MBytes.
My entire PA.com PortableApps folder with my around 28 Portable apps has only 1.81 GBytes.
Out of my desktop's 195 GBytes C:Drive, I am only using 36.8 GBytes. That's including Windows XP and what have you.
So WHAT, pray tell, is this alleged OpenCodec Module plugin up to? Is it trying to download the entire Internet? What is going on? This cannot be right.
I've updated the plugin installer to a Rev 2 to fix a typo I made in the install properties. I accidentally added the install size in B instead of KB so it showed as GB instead of MB. Sorry for the mixup.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
I downloaded the revised codec stub installer and fired it up. Things were going fine, but somewhere I guess around one third of the way into the download, I just got a message that said it could not download the app. I don't know. It's possible it timed out because of my Dial Up Internet.
Some of the PA.com apps I have no trouble downloading with my Dial Up, but others are just inexplicably problematic regardless of the file size. For example: Recently I had no luck downloading PDF-XChange Editor 7.0.324 and then 7.0.324.2. At 38.6 MBytes for PDF-XChange Editor, that is a download size that should normally NOT be a problem for my Dial Up. Oh sure, it would be a slightly less than 2 hours download, but it should go through. However, for some reason, my download attempts for that kept erroring at the 1% mark.
Anyway, I'll try that OpenCodec Module download again later this evening. If it fails yet again, I'll just have to pull the plug and chalk it off to it not being meant for me.
Anyway, thanks for your hard work and insight, John.
Okay, I'm done. I tried downloading that OpenCodec Module again and this time the failure was even wayyy more quickly. It failed in around as the movie says --- Gone in 60 Seconds. Yep, only about a minute elapsed before I encountered the same message as before ... that it could not load the codec.
Like I said, it's probably my system, my slow connection. Either way, for me it's crossed the threshold of not being worth the hassle. It probably works for those with High Speed Internet.
It's from the publisher's server, so it's not one that's under our control unfortunately. If you download it from PotPlayer's site you can place it in the same folder as the plugin installer and it'll use that instead of downloading it.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
Clicking the Open Codec Modules plugin link on on this page https://portableapps.com/apps/music_video/potplayer-portable#download_de..., results in this 404 not found error message:
The requested URL /portableapps/potplayerportable/PotPlayer_Portable_OpenCodec_Modules_2017-11-16_Rev_2_online.paf.exe was not found on this server.
It had been moved to a new subdirectory but the link hadn't been fixed. It's been updated and is working now. Sorry for the inconvenience.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!