what is the best free media player?

what is the best free media player?

what is the best free media player for windows platform:

criterion should be :

1. FREE
2. can play as many audio/video formats as possible
2. low on systems resource (not install junk like real player)
3. Need not be fancy, standard look is ok.

I was using videolan for a long time. But now I'm going to go with Gom Player. Plays everything videolan does, and more (plays real media, for instance). Uses less resources than VLC, and has a better GUI, imo

I use Jet Audio , I think it the best media player ever it can play most of media type from wave to asf...., and it can convert music files to Mp3 , Wave , APE , Flac, Ogg .... and so much more, it can convert movie ( not as well as those professional video conversion software ) can rip CD , have lyric maker ,music recording & broadcast (listen to internet radio )

I think VideoLan kicks ass
I have tested it against many other players and this one can play the most formats.

Originally posted by kltpzyxm:

I was using videolan for a long time. But now I'm going to go with Gom Player. Plays everything videolan does, and more (plays real media, for instance). Uses less resources than VLC, and has a better GUI, imo

I heard of many good things about vlc from my firends but wanted to check out if there is any better choice.
I never heard of it before! Should give it a try if interface is better that vlc and it can play all vlc does with minimum resources. Thanks for mentioning this.

update: I tried gom player and it asked for downloading "real alternative" to play .ra audio file.

Yep, VLC kicks butt!

Another option is Media Player Classic

MPlayer

GUI front-end for MPlayer:

http://www.geocities.jp/jasonyang_jp/mplayer_gui.html

or

http://mpui.sf.net

why u don't like winamp?
will use crack and will be ok...)

well, I was looking for something completely free. Products like winamp,mediaplayer,real player will get bloated day by day with so many extras which not everyone needs.

For example, i don't need the CD/DVD burner or so called syncrhonizing option. I just need a nice looking player which plays everything.

The good about VLC is that it has it's own decoder for all formats instead of reeling on the standards codecs, making it usable both in safe mode, and in a stripped to the bone PC. Besides, it can deal with a enormous amount of corrupt data in media files, making it very stable.

I've read many positive comments about KMPlayer.
It's definitely worth a look.
Home Page
Download

Media Player Classic (with K-lite Mega Codec Pack) for video
Winamp or Quintensential Player for audio

My two of choice don't support Windows... (Banshee and amaroL). On Windows, I had been using an old release of Winamp.

Originally posted by el_esponjoso:

Media Player Classic (with K-lite Mega Codec Pack) for video
Winamp or Quintensential Player for audio

Yup, MediaPlayer Classic..... but IMHO avoid CodecPacks and just install the Codecs you need (and maybe FFDShow)
The filter management is a brilliant way to combine installed handlers from other apps, so you can use the video filter from WinDVD, or DScaler and the audio filters from PowerDVD. It's just an example - but you may see the benefits that are possible.


P.S.: Ok, as Matroskas ongoing development is now incorporated in the CCCP there may be one pack thats worth considering if you use that container (As for some features MPCs internal filter may be outdated). But looking at the install instruction on that wiki just tells you why I consider codec packs as evil.... I just like to install and keep'n eye on the dev. of single included apps for myself.

I had installed K-Lite Codec pack for several years and personally I haven´t had problems with any spyware or conflicts, I can choose which codecs to install or not, too.

K-Lite Codec Pack is very good and reliable, Quicktime Alternative and Real Alternative are excellents, too

VLC or MPC.

VLC; Media Player Classic + KLite Standard Codec Pack are the ONLY media players you will ever need.

Ok, as everyone seem to get well with (they are evil) cp's...

Operafan: To add to your POV - an advice - if it is Video, or AV - head over to Doom9.net (and also visit their forum and do a brief search on "codec pack", you will see how much trouble they *can* cause ) - if it is pure Audio, use the hydrogenaudio forum IMHO for those purposes the best you will find.

And instead of a codec pack, maybe consider FFDShow for decoding various formats (using libav, xvid and various other opensource libraries), and install only the codecs you need for encoding or are not supported by FFDShow/Libav and needed by you.

Shandra, thanks for your suggestions. You are right. As you might have seen in my original post, one of my prime importance was to install as less junks/extras as possible. So, instead of different codec packs, if the default player could play as many formats and then I could perhaps add in codecs whenever required.

So far, looks like most people are talking about vlc.

Following this thread I tried VLC and while it installed easily, I did not figure out how to asscociate files to work easily. Did not ask me if I wanted to associate a certain file when clicking on it etc and the help pages were not very helpful either. Most of the time I just want to listen to some streaming from a radio or news site and running files for windows media, real player or mp3 should be a breeze (but wasn't).
Tried Jetaudio afterwards and while this is not perfect, I find it more intuitive and easier to use.

Strange, never used VLC myself - but my Mac friends consider it the best and always recommend (and successfully converted some) it among us windoofs users. I for myself stick to MPC - but thats just because I used it for so long, I always loved the WMP6.4 and as long as it does its job and stays plain and simple I will not change teams But who knows... I talk nerdy geeks here - give us bloated, mainstreamed or convienienced apps (so called user friendly) and we cannot get the hang of them (not that we do not know how to use them, they just feel wrong (just think musicmatch here, or most of the comercial players). Give us plain, simple old style and we love it for its ease of usage. As I have just watched people using VLC I have no own experience, but watching them it all seemed to be simple as can be.

Media Player Classic, hands down. Handles just about every codec you can throw at it, it's lightweight and stays that way, plus it can play DVDs. And as an added bonus - it comes automatically with K Lite Mega Codec Pack.

Originally posted by vixenk:

And as an added bonus - it comes automatically with K Lite Mega Codec Pack.

Since when? MPC has internal filters - but mostly they are splitters in another semantic - ie. for DVD playback it relies on decoders already installed (use it on a windows (lets say W95) that does not provide its own and see for yourself). It can split containers for you and hand them to the DS filters already installed, and it can override *handlers* but it does not provide them. But it has not a build in K Lite Pack! Uaghs.... no.... it ain't.... MPC is a recommended Player wich comes with K-lite.... MPC doesn't bundle with K-lite, K-Lite bundles MPC.... 2coins, four sides.... and different edges

Media Player Classic is the only media player (besides of Quicktime and Real Player themself) that can play without troubles, quicktime and real media files. Although the quicktime and real alternative codec packs allow to other media players (like windows media player, etc.) to play these file types and other media players have their own codecs (like VLC) for these files, they almost always have problems to play these ones correctly.

My 2 cents.

Originally posted by Shandra:

Originally posted by vixenk:

And as an added bonus - it comes automatically with K Lite Mega Codec Pack.

Since when? MPC has internal filters - but mostly they are splitters in another semantic - ie. for DVD playback it relies on decoders already installed (use it on a windows (lets say W95) that does not provide its own and see for yourself). It can split containers for you and hand them to the DS filters already installed, and it can override *handlers* but it does not provide them. But it has not a build in K Lite Pack! Uaghs.... no.... it ain't.... MPC is a recommended Player wich comes with K-lite.... MPC doesn't bundle with K-lite, K-Lite bundles MPC.... 2coins, four sides.... and different edges

Hmm... you could have just said that he got the two mixed up because K Lite does come bundled with MPC, and conversely you could say MPC comes bundled with K Lite because it does regardless of the fact that the player can be obtained as a standalone application.

I mostly use Media Player Classic, and VLC for some files that it handles better. MPC has a slightly better GUI than VLC.

mplayer is the most compatible video player I've used. If there was a decent Windows GUI available for it (the ones I've tried have been quite lacking), I would probably use it as my default player for all videos.

Originally posted by Shandra:

Since when? MPC has internal filters - but mostly they are splitters in another semantic - ie. for DVD playback it relies on decoders already installed (use it on a windows (lets say W95) that does not provide its own and see for yourself). It can split containers for you and hand them to the DS filters already installed, and it can override *handlers* but it does not provide them. But it has not a build in K Lite Pack! Uaghs.... no.... it ain't.... MPC is a recommended Player wich comes with K-lite.... MPC doesn't bundle with K-lite, K-Lite bundles MPC.... 2coins, four sides.... and different edges

Oook, then... that was a confuzzling post, lol.

Let me rephrase then... MPC comes bundled with K Lite, but has to be selected during the installation dialogue in order for it to install on your system. It relies on your OS already having DVD decoders installed in order to have DVD playback. Assuming the person that asked is running XP SP1 or higher (and has a DVD ROM), getting DVD playback out of MPC shouldn't be a problem.

I'm sorry my original statement was so confusing... ???

vixenk: no it wasn't, but the whole codec-back idea really hits a nerv with me and such a phrase sounded like the root of urban legends - for instance take a look at the mentioned CCCP from myself - its the pack the matroska side is pointing at - but well, all you actually need is the haali media splitter, not the pack - for older matroska files MPC would be enough because of it's internal filters. For playback -damned I know what codecs I used with my encodes - for what reason should I need a pack? Another thing is that the whole DRM, etc. story is really frustrating me - and codec packs seem to be most of the time (IMHO) aimed for P2P users who are simply not - most of the time - fair use kind of people...

Originally posted by Shandra:

For playback -damned I know what codecs I used with my encodes - for what reason should I need a pack?

Codec packs are quite obviously not aimed at people who encode their own stuff, they are aimed at people who download lots of videos. Most people don't know about all the different codecs and formats, they just want to watch whatever random video they just downloaded. For those people, it's easy to just say "install this codec pack that has all the stuff you need".

Codec packs are about convenience, that's why they get recommended often. Whether or not they work as advertised is a different question (and I don't use them, so I'm not qualified to answer that)

Daedalus - you you are just encouraging my POV that codec packs are for those who do not know anything about fair use.... ok - stereotype, but sorry... by doing own encodes I learned a lot how to deal with unknown formats and those who don't get it are in my POV "Computer Bild Leser".....

One story for packs... did I mentioned it already? Thought so, butz must have been one of those replys I canceled.... Just this year a friend of mine handed me a VHS tape and pledged for a backup.... well, he wanted it as mp2 - no problem.... but first step for me was capturing in lossless (huff*), second applieing deinterlace filter and some other filters like noise, colour bleeding, sharpness, etc. and saving that as MJPeg (Yes, I paid for the pegasus codec, I wish I would have no need for that - but even my HD space is limited) - as reencoding from that stage is always faster than to do it from the original capture... and sorry, I can not accept the "capture straight" idea... damned, it took me hours to calibrate the resize needed for my capture card to get a streight AspectRatio/Display Ratio Convertion...

Here is my result with a well know test image cd [to be used with stand-alones -- search Doom9 guides for that]:taken from my comenting it via mailing list, so sorry for the german within

Tested Cap.width: 52,141767608793180798564378645132 μs

Ableiten PAR:
IAR: 1,3369684002254661743221635550034
PAR (768/576): 1,0027263001690996307416226662525 ~SquarePixel(1:1)
PAR (720/576): 1,0695747201803729394577308440024
PAR (704/576): 1,0938832365481086880817701813661~DVD(720/576)PAR(128/117)

Vert. const=576 resize:
Cap 768/576 auf 1:1(768) -> hor_res: 770(.09379) & crop auf 768 (.093 zu PAR 1.002 -> ARGHL)
Cap 768/576 auf DVD(720) -> hor_res: 703(.91386)->704 & 2x8 Black Border Hor.
Cap 720/576 auf 1:1(768) -> hor_res: 770(.09379) & crop auf 768 (BlaBla)
cap 720/576 auf DVD(720) -> hor_res: 703(.91386)->704 & 2x8 BBHor.
Cap 704/576 auf 1:1(768) -> hor_res: 770(.09379) & crop auf 768 (JadaJadaYah)
Cap 704/576 auf DVD(720) -> hor_res: 703(.91386)->ARGHL

So it makes no difference if I capture 768 or 720 x 576, I always need some cropping and resizing or adjustment wich leads to the same amount of error.... wich is unoticable, but I simply have to know about that to do it right.... especially when I want to end up in right specs.... So you may say if your friend just wanted MP2 just go ahead... sorry, I wanted to capture TV, I got that, I resized&croped that according to specs to get a prober 720x576 PAL...

The MP2 was no problem - the dvd authoring was... but for me the point was that I also encoded them to MP4 (AAC audio, XVid Video & wich meant to further crop black away & resize and still stay in 1:1 par) and had put them in a matroska container.... Gave those to my friend and he complained that the video is upside down.... well (Haven't I already said this in this thread? damned?) it was that he had installed a codec pack with a filter for Matrox Cards, had a NVidiots and lazy as he was did a full install... well, well... Sorry... Convenience in AV case is either knowing or not knowing.....

Originally posted by Shandra:

Daedalus - you you are just encouraging my POV that codec packs are for those who do not know anything about fair use....

Well, I partially agree with you. Codec packs are primarily for people who don't know anything about video formats and/or software (or people that just want lots of codecs installed quickly/easily), whether or not they know (or care) about fair use is a separate issue however.

looks like vlc can't play real video files(rm) ? Am I right?

Indeed, VLC can't read RealMedia totally. Sometimes there is the sound, but not the video, and this is also the case for WMV 9 files.

MPlayer can read RealMedia and WMV, and also FLV videos, but he sucks totally for STREAMING videos, and curiously, this depends of your CPU : Since I have a Core 2 Duo (XP 2400+ before), MPlayer crashes all time when I try to see Arte Info streaming (RTSP).

« Memory could not be read », of course... And of course, MPC with Real Alternative don't have this problem.



Also, MPlayer has some problems with seek function. Sometimes with some WMV and RealMedia, he refuses to go to the desired location of the video, when he don't simply stop the video to punish me for trying So I have to wait...

For playing real media streaming files is better Media Player Classic. This had very little issues with real files. Too, it is very well for playing quicktime files.

The problem of MPC is the need of external codecs who have sometimes to be upgraded or selected (depends of version of FFDShow, some videos can work before and no more after...).

MPlayer or VLC don't need them.

Also, I never had luck with MPC. For me, it is the more unstable software of the world, same Windows didn't do better. He sometimes crash only because I click on Pause, and this is worse each time a new version appear (so I keep a 6.4.7.0, who is "relatively" usable).



Correction of my precedent post : This is not with RealMedia streaming who MPlayer has some difficulties, but with ALL REALMEDIA FILES.
I just download with Flashget the last edition of the Arte Info : Crash always at the same moment of the video.

2 possibilities :
- Realplayer DLLs are not adapted for Dual Core (?)(Same files worked on my old 2400+, Single Core) so Mplayer crash... The log don't give any real error message, so normaly it is not really Mplayer who is the problem.
- MPlayer is dumb/badly programmed/worse than MPC (Is this possible ?)

Lets not forget about the latest development release of QMP.

I like the new look, and it's got newer versions of the default plugins.

Originally posted by GT500:

I like the new look

Still stuck in skinnning hell, I see. The new default skin is less ugly than the last one, though, I'll give it that.

Originally posted by Daedalus:

Still stuck in skinnning hell, I see. The new default skin is less ugly than the last one, though, I'll give it that.

What would you perfer, a strait .NET GUI?

Originally posted by GT500:

What would you perfer, a strait .NET GUI?

I prefer native interfaces. You know, Windows programs that actually look and behave like Windows programs. It is apparently a very foreign concept among media applications.

Originally posted by GT500:

Lets not forget about the latest development release of QMP.

I like the new look, and it's got newer versions of the default plugins.

How about the features? can it play many formats like vlc does?

Originally posted by Daedalus:

I prefer native interfaces. You know, Windows programs that actually look and behave like Windows programs. It is apparently a very foreign concept among media applications.

I can tell you don't use Linux...

I much perfer a Qt based window toolkit and the 'HiColor' theme for KDE and other Qt based applications. The Windows themes are rather dull.

Originally posted by operafan2006:

How about the features? can it play many formats like vlc does?

Yes, it can. It just doesn't do video that well at the moment. I still perfer VLC for video, but for audio (especially Windows Media streams) QMP is far superior...

Originally posted by GT500:

I can tell you don't use Linux...

I don't have it installed currently (primarily due to not having enough free hard drive space at the moment), but I have have run Linux previously and probably will run some Linux distro (or maybe FreeBSD) once I upgrade my hard drives.

When there is a native GUI toolkit available, I want my applications to use it. There is of course no native GUI toolkit for Linux, in that case the best that can be done is to use whatever toolkit is used for your favourite desktop environment.

If I use Windows, I use (as much as possible) applications with native Windows GUIs. If I use KDE, I use applications with QT GUIs. I would use GTK applications in Gnome, and so on.

Consistency (within reasonable limits) is good.

Just a quick question regarding Winamp: When you install Winamp does it make itself a little too comfortable on your machine by setting itself as the default player for all possible formats, like some media players (*Ahem* Real Player *Ahem*). Or when you install Winamp does it ask what formats to make it the default player for?

The reason I ask is that want to keep WMP as the default player for WMA, MP3 etc but would like to use Winamp for formats that are not supported by WMP, e.g. PLS

Dava

I dont know, as I dont use Wimamp. but you can let Winamp set itself as the default player for all formats. Then, close Winamp and go to WMP and select it as the default player for all formats you like.

Originally posted by Dava:

When you install Winamp does it make itself a little too comfortable on your machine by setting itself as the default player for all possible formats, like some media players (*Ahem* Real Player *Ahem*). Or when you install Winamp does it ask what formats to make it the default player for?

It asks IIRC, but it's been awhile since I used Winamp.

Originally posted by nabucco:

I dont know, as I dont use Wimamp. but you can let Winamp set itself as the default player for all formats. Then, close Winamp and go to WMP and select it as the default player for all formats you like.

I did actually think of that as an option, however it also crossed my mind that any software that makes you go to that length is not something I would particularly like on my machine.

I would be interested in hearing from someone who has installed Winamp recently. Generally I hear good things about it.

Dava

I use VLC for flash videos (flv), Winamp for audio files, Media Player Classic for real and quicktime files (real and quicktime alternative), Windows Media Player 11 for DVD Playback and the common video files like mpeg, avi and wmv.

I have spoke to someone regarding Winamp and they inform me it does try to set itself as the default player when run (undesirable). That is a pity since I really would like to utilise the OpCast Widget which requires a media player capable of playing .PLS files.

Dava

Dava, is this the default Winamp behaviour? (If it is, it can easily be disabled.) In installation, Winamp will ask you what files do you want to associate with Winamp.