LAV filters: Internal vs External?

Hi! I've installed the latest K-Lite Codec Pack (Standard) and external LAV filters were installed by default. Tell me please how do they differ from the MPC-HC embedded ones? As I can see their version numbers are the same. Also I've noticed that by default external are used however they are not even added (selected) in the MPC's "External Filters" menu. How it's even possible? And their settings are separate from the MPCs ones. So I am asking for the advice: what filters I need to use - external or internal? And also maybe somebody can help me with choosing optimal hardware decorder to use on my PC (now it is DXVA2 Native) for watching 4K HDR videos on 4K TV. My PC specs are: Intel Core i5-8265U with Intel UHD Graphics 620, 16 GB of RAM and Windows 10 x64. Thanks!

The external copy is also used as the internal one. So they are exactly the same. Only difference is the separate settings. This allows you to use different settings for MPC-HC compared to general usage of the filter.

The default settings of K-Lite for the internal filters are good. No need to change anything. The "external filters" settings are for overriding standard filter merits. You don't need to add filters there for them to be able to be used by MPC-HC. It automatically uses external filters when internal one isn't enabled or unavailable for a certain format.

The recommend hardware decoder is DXVA2 Native. That gives best performance.

Thanks for your help! Now its clear to me. So if I use only MPC-HC as my all-purpose player I can select all formats in the "Internal Filters" menu and only the internal ones will be used? And if I will install some other compatible player later it will use the external ones? Right?

Also I have one more question left: where exactly I should set the RGB color range up? I mean there are a couple of places where it can be done, but maybe some of them are pointless? I use limited range for my TV as I only watch movies on it and they are encoded in limited RGB as I know. I've already set it up in the Intel Graphic Adapter settings and in LAV Video Decoder settings. Also I'm trying to use MadVR right now, do I have to set RGB to "limited" there too?

Yes, that is correct. And if you only use MPC-HC, then there is also an option in the installer to only install LAV Filters for MPC-HC. Then it is available internally only.

The RGB settings in LAV should be left at their default value. Those are only relevant when colorspace is converted to RGB by LAV, which doesn't happen in most cases, and you should not change this setting unless you want things to be wrong.

How your videos are encoded is not relevant for these settings. The range will get expanded. It is also correct to use full range in TV/driver/madVR.

I've enabled all formats in MPC's "Internal Filters" menu but for some reason it continues to use the external LAV Audio Decoder and in the meantime the LAV Splitter and Video Decoder are internal. I can say it just by looking at their menus color schemes: internal are black (like MPC theme), but Audio Decoder is white. And I don't know how to force MPC to use internal Audio Decoder. Can you help me? Maybe I'm missing something obvious?

It works fine here. Maybe you still have something in the external filter list? That will override internal if set to preferred.

There are no entries in the "External Filters". I've just made a fresh Windows installation and also installed K-Lite without any major settings changes. For MPC-HC during install I chose to use the internal audio renderer and also the internal subtitle renderer. Also I set MPC to store settings in the .INI file (can send you it if it can help to solve my problem). All other LAV settings are at their defaults as you advised. Made a couple of screens, check 'em out, please. On the last one it is shown the window that I see when click on the Audio Decoder icon in tray. And when I click on the other two icons black-themed windows appear. So this is definitely the external decoder MPC is using.

Screenshots under the spoiler:

You haven't enable the internal audio decoders in the first screenshot. Right-click on the transform filters list, and select 'enable all filters'.

Damn! It was so simple! Everything works now! Thank you so much! But now I don't understand even more things. Can you please explain what I've just done? Now I have everything checked in both columns. Is that a right way to go? What is the difference between Source and Transform filters? Maybe you can provide me some link on the topic so I can read about it myself and don't bother you with noob questions anymore?

Source filters read the actual files and splits it into audio and video data streams. Transform filters are the audio and video decoders.