I left the modding community a while back(real life was killing me) and also because my Oblivion really was lagging like HELL. I couldn't figure out why it was, so I recently did a full clean and reinstall. But the lag remained even when I put it on 640x480, window mode, with all sliders down (and I have an 8800 GT).

This was very odd to me so I was boggled for a while, until I noticed that my CoreAVC codec tray icon kept popping up and disappearing while Oblivion was loaded. Disabling it seemed to fix my FPS and now I can somewhat play...but I still think it's an odd error.

Has anyone else had this issue or know what might be causing it? CoreAVC is a good codec, but it doesnt make sense that it would be activating while I'm playing Oblivion.

I earlier had this issue with CCCP codec pack - the ffdshow icon kept ppopping up in my tray and slowed the game down. I turned off the icon display in the setting, and it helped a lot (there was a setting to do so). Maybe you could try that.

I also found this about Oblivion and codec conflicts: http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion:Technical_Support#Sound_Problems

I know with any codec pack that uses FFDShow, all you need to do is get something that triggers FFDShow system tray icon (try playing something opened with windows media player), right click on the system tray icon and somewhere (cant remember exactly where) you can set an exception for oblivion.exe. Stops FFDShow trying to intercept the games video or sound calls and prevents major lag. You should make exceptions for all games you have with FFDShow installed, it has been the cause of many game problems.

As for coreavc I dont know, but if it is similar to FFDShow I would suspect its causing the same problems.

Edit: http://www.codecguide.com/faq_miscellaneous.htm

FFDShow has an exception list so that it won't run when certain programs are being used. Using the CCCP codec pack adds a lot to this list including Oblivion and Morrowind. As far as CoreAVC, it does not have such a function, however I do use CoreAVC and had no trouble with it and Oblivion.

Sounds like CCCP has advanced some since I last used it. I have at various times over the last 10-15 years tried K-Lite, and CCCP, I have seen a lot of arguments for/against one over the other. The last one I had installed was CCCP which must have updated its default exception list for FFDShow since then -

But really the best set up is not to use a codec pack at all.

Please bear with me and dont chew my head off - Video and audio codecs are complicated layers of filters. On windows, windows media player is the biggest enabler and sets you up to interpret/play a lot of them. The latest updates to WMP include a fair few more than it used to.

VLC media player will play pretty much everything else http://www.videolan.org/

If you need OGG, Theora, FLAC - DirectShow filters is a good addition to the above (and starting to incorporate HTML5 support) http://www.xiph.org/dshow/


The only time I needed something from a codec pack was with some un-usual AVI format vids from an older digital camera, no longer needed so lifes sweeter without a codec pack over-complicating your system setup.

I have seen others needing them for videos they have had on their hard drive, origin unknown but they looked dodgy to me.

Or the need to play apple proprietary content they have previously bought by online methods without having the multi-layered services apple installs on your machine complete with the awful quicktime, and having all their file associations taken over by apple software.

Lastly a couple of packs include versions of Media Player Classic, if you can get the original its good (though not as good as VLC IMHO), but I know of at least one of them that installs spyware with the MPC option ( wish I could remember which it was ).

Edit: The other use I had for codec packs was to expand the capabilities of WinAmp, personally though I think in recent years it has become bloated and besides the highly configureable interface no longer holds enough of an attraction to warrant installing yet another player.