Codecs Manager? Is there such a thing? Video problems - Orb.com / WinTV7.2 with extend, ++?

Question

For "Windows 7" 32bit- 
WinTV7.2 with Extend, Slingbox (always solid), Orb.com / Orblive (iphone), Ustream Producer, Windows Media Center, 

So I have a lot of video programs that seem to have conflicts at times.  I can't really blame the computer for being confused. Microsoft doesn't help the situation as far as I can tell.  It's turned into a "Black Art" to make it all work.  "Hope" shouldn't be in my tool-belt and I'm sick of this.   I use these all for different things so yes I need them all.  Not usually at the same time of course. My only semi breakthroughs are stopping a program at start-up or closing then restarting, and reinstalling so the last install takes precedence (hopefully).   It's also not a Windows 7 issue as I just left Vista and it's all the same.  It's a Codec Cornucopia Cavalcade of CR@P. The Quad C as it were.   
Does anyone have advice on how to get a better handle on this?  Am I missing something?  I've looked for programs/utilities on download.com and I got nuth'in.  I hope I'm just not searching right.  Is there a way to force codec sharing or duplicate the codecs and separate them?  
Any tips / tricks you may know of would be helpful. 

I love computers but there a few things I didn't want to know anything about.  Networking, Codecs, Registry +++  I now feel dumber knowing what I know.

Anonymous · Accepted Answer

The more you learn, the more you realize you don't know. That's how it goes :)

I've never totally understood codec management, but have had three strategies in the past:

Download a codec pack - which will install all the common codecs and a bunch more you've never heard of. It'll warn you about conflicts too. I used to use the nemo codec pack, then switched to the k-lite codec pack, which still seems to be going strong.

After that era, I switched to installing exactly the codecs I needed, which was generally just xvid and lame (the acm version, so it's recognized by windows and shows up in programs).

Now I just use vlc media player, which has it's own copies of codecs rather than asking windows for them.

Since you're using multiple video programs, I'd suggest going for that k-lite codec pack.

Good luck!

Codecs Manager? Is there such a thing? Video problems - Orb.com / WinTV7.2 with extend, ++?

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