I'd also get Video Lan Media player (VLC) [link]

It usually plays stuff that other programs don't and it's prefect for Quicktime vids. Personally I hate watching vids in Quicktime because the viewing area is so tiny. VLC's viewing area is bigger and doesn't sacrifice the picture quality. Also it plays AVIs which a lot of vidders are going to, the files are bigger.

There isn't anything like BSO for vids that I know about, not one place that recs just vids.

A good way to get vid recs is just to post in your LJ what fandoms you are interested in. Also Vividcon has an lj -- vividcon, and there are lists to links to the vids shown this year. There are a lot of vids and very good quality for the most part.

Lots of times I've found vids just by checking in the memories of lj users whose opinions I trust. People often have links to their favorite vids/vidders.

Some vidders pasword protect their sites but you jsut have to email and they'll give you the password.

Cereal:

What fandoms are you interested in?

I have new portmanteaus to hate.

McKay/Dex = McDex

Sheppard/Dex = Shex

I'm still hoping that someone will write Sheppard/Weir/Ford and call it 'Schword'.

Sheppard/Dex = Shex

This sounds like a breakfast cereal. Or possibly some kind of laundry detergent.

Nutty, I have a set of vid recs here if you're interested. In general I haven't had all that much trouble with codecs; I did have to download, crap, I can't remember the name now. A special unpacking program. Anyway, you'll know it if you see it. Also Divx, which gave me pretty much all the codecs I ever needed.

IT could als be "Shweird"

I actually saw someone on LJ who'd just started Farscape ask what John and Aeryn's pairing name was. And then I cried, because that battle? She is lost.

Katie, I'd seen your recs, which was what made me wonder if there was a central clearninghouse of recs. Although, askye is certainly right, that I'd do better taking the recs of people I know and like, because people I don't know have a bad habit of having no taste.

What fandoms are you interested in?

That is the thing -- I am in the fandom of quality a lot more than any specific source material. I will gladly watch vids of shows with which I am only marginally familiar, if they are vids done well and interestingly and with music that does not strike me deaf with its crappiness.

Shalott did a vid showcase at Worldcon a year ago, just a half-hour that she tailored to the fan who wots not of this enterprise, and it went over quite well, I thought. She tended to avoid vids that required really deep, specialized canon knowledge, and mostly eschewed the fulminating emotional effluvia I hate so much, in favor of visual cleverness, exceptionally good effects, and genial/comedic appeal.

(Not that she tailored her selections to me, but she did lay out her choices, as part of a private explanation why we would not be seeing the Star Trek version of Nine Inch Nails' "Closer".)

...which is SUCH a good vid, good Lord.

Here's a list of some recs, though it doesn't look like it's been updated recently.

Nutty, there's a regular vid rec on the last Friday of the month on Crack_Van, but I kinda distrust those because the quality depends so highly on the reccer.

I'd suggest hitting the Vividcon lists: vids from the Premieres show, in particular, tend to be excellent. I can't say enough good things about, for instance, Lierdumoa's Gia vid, or Laura Shapiro's West Wing vid "Circles". Shalott and memfault made a Dead Zone vid to "A Day in the Life", and it's jawdropping. Also, Luminosity's Farscape vid, Killa's Alias vid "This Girl is Taking Bets"... All of those premiered at Vividcon -- Killa's Alias vid was in the Club Vivid show. That's just off the top of my head, from fairly recent viewing, and without getting off the couch to go get my dvds.

The dvd sets from Vividcon tend to be a great source for quality vids, and if you know someone with a dvd burner they may be talked or bribed into making you a copy...