Sherlock

Sherlock, called the Codec Detective, lists codecs on your system and reports which may be broken.

This utility can be obtained here.

The following post reports that it incorrectly shows many Adobe codecs as missing in CS3 and CS4.


 * Stan Jones said, in response to a post in which a user reported that he was missing codecs:
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 * Sherlock is providing a false error. The error results from these codecs being added in the Windows registry with quote marks around them - the usual for such things is no quote marks. This does not create any functional problem with the codecs. You will see that Sherlock is saying that the file is not found (and it is looking for a name in quotes). Note that the codec list available in GSpot reports the same false error.  One of the original messages I posted on this is no longer available (in the Encore forum changes), so I am restating the details here. My guess has been that this registry style was introduced in CS3 (it does not occur in CS2), and based on your results appears to still be true in CS4.  The location of the correct codecs is in the main directory for each program (e.g. PPro CS3, Encore CS3, each has each codec they need in their directory - for me c:\program files\adobe\adobe premiere pro cs3 etc.). I think someone once confirmed my suspicion that adobe is not looking at the Directshow merit ratings for the encoder to use. I really don't know.  The "DirectShow Filter Utility" lists these codecs out of alphabetical order (due to the quote marks), but correctly indicates that they are installed. Be careful, it allows you to change things!  http://www.softella.com/dsfm/index.en.htm  When I reported this about April 2008, I found no references to this in the forums or the adobe support searches, and only one reference elsewhere, so I entered a bug report. Because it does not impair functionality, I do not believe it is classed as a "known issue."
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