[Request] 10 bit h.264 codec and / or gom player 2.1.43.5119 to work unofficially on windows 95

[cov3rt]

I have not been able to find any media players that work on windows 95 that support 10 bit h.264 or some of the more modern codecs, with h.265 likely being too far in scope of what can be modded to get working, as even 98SE cannot use such codec unless you install those kernelex stub related updates which is already difficult / confusing to do and introduces other problems, so i was hoping that someone can get at least 10 bit h.264 to work, that would be reasonable, but i also specifically would like gom player 2.1.43.5119 to work on windows 95, as it does support 10 bit h.264 and with some modern skins can look really nice with playlist function. If not that, perhaps modify one of the newer ffdshow's that support the codec and use it alongside haali splitter that is already win95 compatible + a compatible media player of choice. 

as for alternative media players to use with external codecs / system codecs, there are not a whole lot that support windows 95 and have a more modern playlist ui function, the only one i can think of is zoom player, though exact steps to do set it up with codecs is unclear. im also not sure on last / best version of zoom player to use, as i have had issues getting the program to run on windows 95 at any basic level, ( i've tested as old as 5.x and as new as 10.x ), but the program would either not load properly or would throw all sorts of errors, but there's a chance it could be a combination of the testing environment not being set up right, like improper gpu driver / missing those external codecs, etc. there is also tcpmp mod, but that one unfortunately only supports the older h.264 codecs and so it's really only a fallback option at the moment for limited video playback.

 

 

[awkduck]

First try TCPMP MOD (roytam1's build).

This may not be a solution, but I've had some luck getting the Mplayer for DOS working (in Win95); it has some h264 support. There is also DOS-DUGL. They should work with the Windows SB16 emulation, but "how well" is questionable. You'd also need some power, to get smooth playback.

Alternatively, you can use either in DOS. This would require a SB16 compatible sound card, or SBEMU/VSBHDA.

Lastly "again in DOS" you could use HXDOS, the modern Mplayer port (for Win98), combined with SBEMU/VSBHDA. <-{search the forums here for that Mplayer release}

That same Mplayer, or its sources, might have potential for Win95 back porting.

Edit: For DOS video players, in Windows, you may need to have the prompt at full screen. Otherwise you may get a "video mode not supported" message. You may also need to adjust video settings, on the player side; maybe resolution.

Edited April 12 by awkduck
Adding detail

[Nokiamies]

H264 is generally hit and miss with Windows 9x and it does generally cause extra cpu load which makes it sub-optimal for my uses cases. It is not best solution but I had good luck with AVI files encoded with Xvid codec using ffmpeg. Even Pentium 2 333mhz can handle one at 640x480 with 25-30fps without issues. It does take bit extra space but it is worth it for me to be able run them down to NT 4.0/95 just fine.

Edited April 16 by Nokiamies

[jumper]

On 4/11/2026 at 7:37 PM, cov3rt said:

i also specifically would like gom player 2.1.43.5119 to work on windows 95

That version runs and plays some videos on my 98fe Pentium2 and is compatible with the 95 kernel32.dll. What exactly is the problem you have encountered on 95?

 

[cov3rt]

10 hours ago, jumper said:

That version runs and plays some videos on my 98fe Pentium2 and is compatible with the 95 kernel32.dll. What exactly is the problem you have encountered on 95?

 

It complained on a missing export relating to unicode when trying to start, i forgot the name, i think it was called something like "ChangeDisplaySettingsExW". but from what chatgpt is telling me, there are more dependency issues with this particular version of gom player if trying to run on windows 95, so it may be harder to get to work properly than say xnview 2.13. 

Edited April 18 by cov3rt