I haven't even upgraded to WMP 10 yet through Windows update, I have only installed the critical updates, Video card drivers and motherboard drivers. I want to install only the best free appslications and codecs for multimedia. I have gone crazy before and installed all kinds of codecs from Free-codecs.com and I ran into problems because I installed the kitchen sink. They were easy to fix, but I want to do it right with this fresh install.

I want to be able to watch DVDs with good, sharp clear playback.
I want to be able to play MP3s on CD and DVD and off of a Zune and iPod.
I want to play CDs, of course.
I will be editing home movies off of a Sony mini-DV camcorder, if that applies in any way.
I go to all of the news sites: BBC, Fox, CBS, etc... I listen to archived Real and windows media audio and video clips at various sites. I use Avant a Internet Explorer add-on browser and Firefox.

*** to make all of the above go as well as possible, how would you guys proceed?

Thank for your help!!

System:
AMD Athlon XP 3000+, ATI all-in-wonder 9700 Pro Video Card. 1 Gig of RAM. Lots and lots of hard drive space.

With the K-Lite Mega Codec Pack you can play almost any video format. It also allows you to play DVDs in Windows Media Player.

To rip audio CDs to MP3 use Exact Audio Copy (EAC) plus the LAME MP3 encoder.

Video editing you can do with Windows Movie Maker or with more professional tools like Adobe Premiere.

Thanks.

Anyone else, chime in too, if you would.