I went to install Thief Gold last night and "Register Indeo 5.0" was one of the installation options. Can anyone tell me what it is and is it needed to play the game?

Should have mentioned that sorry, the GOG version.

Indeo is a very, very old video codec made by Intel. It was used in old games, along with some other multimedia CDs titles of the 90's.

Here is more info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indeo

Thanks for the info. So it's needed to play the game?

Unfortunately, that codec used to be bundled with Windows, but because it's no longer very popular MS decided to stop paying royalties to include it. So, if you want it, you're more or less out of luck, unless you're willing to pay to buy your own copy.

I ran into that problem a while back with a game, can't recall which one it was, but the folks who own Indeo now, wanted money with no demo and no ability to get a refund if it didn't work properly.

Needless to say, I didn't pay.

According to the wiki page linked above version 5.11 of the Indeo codecs is freeware. That's the version i have installed on my Win7 64 machine btw.

Ok then. Bottomline:

Is it required to play the game?

EDIT: Thanks Thiev. I will try the game without and see.

Interesting, didn't notice that in the page. Although, I can't recall what the game was, but it was one from quite a ways back, if I remember, I'll have to take a look.

You don't need Indeo if you use TFix (which includes the Unofficial Thief patch)

http://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=134733