Yes, VLC is teh God of video players. There are only a few occasions where I've found myself actually needing to search out and install a codec.
I recommend highly *against* codec packs. Some codecs interfere with others and if you don't know this when you're picking which codecs to install, you can screw up your system.
Best way to deal with downloading codecs is to use
GSpot to find out which codecs you need and download and install them individually.