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Introduction
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Finding an all-in-one media player used to be impossible. In the past you needed to use several separate programs to play MP3 files, streaming media from Real, Mpeg files, Quicktime movies, CDs and DVD discs, but with the advent of Microsoft's Windows Media Player (WMP), all of these media types could be played in one player. Over a period of time, however, WMP for XP and Vista has become bloated and isn't compatible with all of the available file formats. WinAmp, which began as an mp3 player, now plays almost everything, although it uses a lot of system resources and may contain adware if you aren't careful on the installation. iTunes has become more prevalent on many PCs due to the almost universal reach of the IPod, but it also uses a lot of resources and is processor intensive. So I've done some major research to find alternative media players capable of playing all of these media formats, including digital music, video, CD, and DVD, while still being light on resources. I was impressed with what I found. Not only do these programs replace WMP ITunes and WinAmp, but they also exceeded their functionality. The products that I've reviewed here are capable of playing multiple types of media files, including various digital audio and video formats, CDs, and DVDs. They are also easy to install and use and are light on system resources. NOTE: Some of these programs may require additional codecs for expanded functionality. For more information about codecs, including what they do, legal issues and download links, see the article, "Understanding Codecs". |
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Discussion
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My thanks to everyone who suggested The KM Player, especially subscriber Sandeep, whose comments were helpful in creating this review.
MPC Home Cinema has many additional functions above and beyond the original MPC including: The option to remove Tearing, better support for Windows Vista (including a release for 64 bit platforms), support for EVR (Enhanced Video Renderer) and playback and recording of television if a supported TV tuner is installed.
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VLC Media Player
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Available on multiple platforms, can read DVD's from all regions | |
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Large download size, many options can be confusing to non-technical types | |
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http://www.videolan.org/ | |
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http://www.videolan.org/vlc | |
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18 MB  1.0.0  Open Source Freeware (includes program code)  Windows 98-Vista, OS x, Various Linux distros |
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Portable version available | |
GOM Player
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No extra codec packs are needed, capable of playing broken avi files | |
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May not play DVD discs on some systems | |
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http://www.gomplayer.com/main.html | |
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http://www.gomplayer.com/download.html | |
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4.66 MB 2.1.15.4610 Open Source Freeware (includes program code) Windows 98SE-Vista |
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This software category is maintained by volunteer editor Joe Bennett. Registered site visitors can contact Joe by clicking here.
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AS a long time user of MPC, I like the new 64 bit version. I like this media player for one big reason. I can use the "Send To" feature with it. I highlight a folder that contains the music files I want to hear then right click for the Send To context menu and select the MPC Home Cinema shortcut. Bingo the album starts playing. I can't do that with WMP. I get error messages.
I don't like KMPlayer because the menus are cluttered and there are no intuitive means of changing the subtitle language codepage (diacritics). I have tried many many players and the only ones that didn't disappoint me are VLC (which is now finally a stable build :D) and BS.Player Free.
I have hardly ever had problems with any video formats and I don't think anyone needs more features or can say they lack features in comparison to KMPlayer. It is an opinion based on experience.
just switched from KMPlayer to MPC-HC, and im really happy. I especailly love DXVA. Playing 1080p videos with 4% cpu usage....
I seems to have a frustrated trouble with MPC; the media files in Thai language, after created into and open the playlist file, become in some false encode. To play those files, I have to remove from the playlist and add the actual files again into the playlist.
I have never found the solution.
Malwarebytes just "detected" KMplayer's uninstall.exe as a dangerous file. Anyone got a reason why this maybe? Just a false positive?
There is some information about this in the Malwarebytes forum thread here:
http://www.malwarebytes.org/forums/index.php?s=6d6a94a47ebae6ea3ccf91fec...
I hate to beat a dead horse, but I just uninstalled KMPlayer after having it less than a day, because within 5 minutes of starting up a video (any, in my case...didn't matter about size or type) then most if not all of my programs would freeze and I had to restart several times. Granted I don't have the hugest amount of memory, but I feel like I should be able to play a video without my computer freezing. I was able to in Windows Media Player.
The only reason I'm looking for an alternative to that is that the Windows 7 Media Player has two BIG drawbacks that I can't seem to figure out a way around. The first, and main one, is that I like having all my videos in a library kind of area on the player itself so I don't have to open each one individually (I tend to view a lot of smaller videos in sequence, playlist-style) and I have yet to find a comparable alternative with a library that isn't just for music (I use iTunes for that and am quite happy with it). But the WMP for Vista would create automatic playlists from the library: i.e., if I selected "Video B" in the WMP library to play, I was able to skip forward to the next video in the library list (or backwards) without actually going back into the library. The new one doesn't do that: you have to manually put all your videos into a playlist first, which more often than not gets crabby when I try saving it. Any solutions either for WMP in Windows 7 or in an alternative open source media player/library?
And second, the resizing options upon start for the new WMP for 7 drive me insane. It's either massive or tiny, and I can't seem to make it open in one reliable size like I could with Vista. I'm so far rather unconvinced Windows 7 in general is any kind of improvement at all, much less the redeeming messiah it was hailed to be while we suffered through Vista. Any input would be greatly appreciated.
Sorry, I meant to be signed in when I wrote the above. Again, any input would be great. Fantastic site here, by the way.
You might try posting this in the forum too because you're likely to get a better response there, especially from Anupam!
Don't make me overrated :D. I try my best to help with what I know. In terms of Media Players, I do not have in depth knowledge... certainly not with media files management, as I do not maintain a library of files for my own purpose. I don't know why, but I just dislike the library feature of any player. Maybe because, I do not play around with media files a lot. Yes, I listen to music and watch movies, but not that much.
I also can't help with Windows 7, as I haven't come across it yet :D.
Yes, you will get help in forum, not necessarily from me... there are other guys out on the forum too... which have more knowledge than myself :).
Anupam
Much to my regret KM Media Player continues to freeze and even Task Manager has some difficulties offloading it on my Vista OS. Have settled on GOM.
This site and the forums are a fabulous resource - Thank You!
Maybe problems arise because I live Downunder and things don't work upside down :)
Hi everyone,
Which player is the best for HD movies (MKV, avi, etc.)?
Thanks in advance.
it really depends on ur system, but if you are watching HD videos encoded with H264 and have a video card that supports DXVA, then i would use media player classic home cinema, because then you will probably get flawless playback
i've always liked km player, but i use gom because it loads the file into memory.
i'm looking for an mp3 player that allows me to go back or go forward a few seconds, preferable with a jog wheel control. any ideas? thanks
I determined not to reinstall vista because I play my favorite vids from a certain vintage washing machine web site, they work great on xp windows media player 11. But why oh why when I have played them on med player 11 on vista the sound is great but, the picture is still for 10 seconds then moves onto another picture for 10 seconds. So its stop start all the time to the end of the vid. k lites have no effect so what can I do I like vista its runs ok on my pc, but this problem puts me off vista
I tried both The KMPlayer and SMPlayer. On my old machine (P4 3.0 GHz, 2 GB RAM, HD3850, Vista Business x86) MPC-HC and The KMPlayer were able to play 720p movies without a problem. With SMPlayer they stuck when opening the context menu. 1080p wasn't possible at all with SMPlayer (stuttered sound and fixed image) and both MPC-HC and The KMPlayer worked, but the sound was some time faster than the movie. I didn't try SMPlayer any further. Another thing I noticed is, that MPC-HC needed to have AC3 and DirectVOBSub (vsfilter.dll for subtitles) installed, while The KMPlayer got them integrated (alteast both symbols were in system tray using mpc, but weren't when I used The KMPlayer). The same should probably be with Real Alternative and Quicktime Alternative, but I haven't tested that.
Btw. for MPC-HC you don't need to have ffdshow installed for the most movies. I only have Quicktime Alternative, Real Alternative, AC3, DivX and XviD installed and can play all movies with it, though I had only MKVs with MP4, AVIs and WMVs.
I highly recommend: Best Media Player!
About Best Media Player
This is one full-featured and powerful media player for all Windows platforms, named as "Best Media Player", this free media player can play most media files, include DVD, VCD, MPEG/VOB, AVI, WMV/ASF, Ogg Vorbis, Quicktime MOV, RealMedia (RM/RMVB) and other media files, program include all most video codecs and audio codes. This is the best choice for you play media video on Windows, you just need install this free program, then you can enjoy and view all most popular media format files. It is one very simple media player, don’t have any gingerbread settings, it is easy to get started and easy to use.
Small footprint. Does everything that most people need. Ready to go out-of-the-box.
FREE
http://www.bestmediaplayer.com/
jesus, another player based on free codecs:/
does not support dxva = useless...
Thanks for the recommendation.
I downloaded it and gave it a try on Win7 RTM.
A first test run on a flv file doesn't seem to be good. It is found "not compatible with certain visual elements of Windows" and "the color scheme has been changed to Win7 Basic."
A playback of the same flv file on Media Player Classic HC doesn't encounter this issue.
Hope that this can be fixed in the next version.
might be a Win7 problem..... works fine on VistaHP
You should also have a look at Kantaris Media Player:
http://www.kantaris.org/
2.9.4.1435 is the latest stable version of KMPlayer. I confirmed it with the KMPlayer people on their forum. I will download the new version.
Note that many download sites had started posting 1435 as the final release, before it had gone final. To be sure, you have all the changes, download the latest version from the KMPLayer site.
Anupam
It would be very useful if you could confirm whether the installation of the Ask toolbar with the latest stable version is optional or not.
The installation of Ask toolbar is optional :). I installed the latest version, and you have option to uncheck the Ask toolbar options, while you install KMPlayer.
Anupam
I wanted to listen to the BBC news service on my new Vista-64 system. The broadcast is in RealPlayer format.
The KLM player was difficult to locate where I could enter an URL for playing. However, once I entered the BBC URL nothing happened.
Next I tried the VLC player. The interface was less confusing to find where to enter a URL for playing. Still no broadcast.
Media Player Classic with Real Alternative was the simplest to use. And it did play the BBC broadcast. However, Real Alternative would interrupt the broadcast periodically with errors--I saw the same issue with the old XP.
I finally gave up and went with the real RealPlayer which has an incredibly confusing interface. I did find the method of URL entry quicker than with the KLM player.
FYI the URL I was attempting to play is:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediaselector/ondemand/worldservice/meta/tx/live_ne...
I also tried the URL without the bit after the "?" in the KLM & VLC players.
Just opened the above Link and everything is O.K.
I use KMPlayer, QuickTime Lite, and Real Alernative Lite.
No K-Lite Codeck Pack.
I have No problems with Files, Url(s) etc., since using
KMPlayer 13xx. Now with version 14xx, things are even better.
I have used GOM, VLC, BS, Kantaris, MPC, Zoom, and others
to check whether they exceed KMPlayer.
No One gave me more Options/better Quality than KMPlayer.
I'm running a FULLY Updated (.NET 2,3 etc.) WinXP Pro SP3
system.
NEVER experiencing problems with KMPlayer!
I am Not Einstein.
If I made it with KMPlayer, you can make it, too.
Still having problems?
Go to their Forum and ask!
Two months ago, I had a problem with a movie
someone brought it from abroad.
I was Not satisfied with the overall Quality.
I asked questions in the KMPlayer forum.
All I had was to modify two (2) options and
things improved a lot!
I will repeat that KMPlayer is NOT for Noobs!
If you don't devote time/effort to investigate
the thousands of Options within Options,
forget about it.
Some people install KMPlayer and complain about it
without spending even a Week with it!
I am an Old KMPlayer user, and I still learn about it!
for me best player for HD - SPlash Lite. looks good, works very fast and stable. not good for divx and sd crapp but rules for hd.
why is this
I use Splash as well, and this is really est solution for HD playback!
Great picture quality of interlaced videos. MKV support, and best of all free players DXVA support. Number one for me. Didnt even try it with divx, cause i dont watch low quality like divx/xvid.
Finally the KMPlayer gets where it deserves to be, I have been using this player for a while now and resulted in me dumping many other media players for it, My favourite feature is its ability to obey keyboard commands over and over again. Well Done, to all those who have not tried it yet, I say try it for just a few minutes, you will never uninstal it.
You should take a look at this:
http://mpc-hc.sourceforge.net/
This is media player classic developed even more.
:)
The KMPlayer should maybe lose some points, as there was added the option to install Ask Toolbar: - ASK Toolbar installation added.
And you should definitely take a look at Media Player Classic - Home Cinema.
KMPlayer is rubbish doesn't even install without errors!
I installed VLC 1.0.2
and after a while it is was terminated,
a window opened, and asked me to provide info related to Bug(s)
PROOF:
http://img194.imageshack.us/img194/7168/vlca.jpg
It is your system that is full of ERRORS!
I have used KMPlayer Editions 13XX and 14XX
and NEVER had any problem!
KMPlayer has VERY Advanced Features
that are Not Certainly for Novice (sometimes even Average Users)!
Could you tell us what these errors are for the benefit of other users?
It installed with a "Failed to Register" error. When started it crashes and I had to use the task manager to kill the process. I'm in vista, surely I dont need to run the installer a admin?
It is your system that is Problematic.
Do Not accuse KMPlayer and offer the wrong impression.
Clean your System or Format it and KMPlayer will run Smoothly!
Broken Codecs, Registy Entries etc. is the reason
that KMPlayer failed to run properly!
You should do a test with Media Player Classic - Home Cinema. It is a better version of MPC and does not need ffdshow to play all the files. Also it does not switch Vista into Basic Mode while watching Films or Movies.
Hello,
I use Windows Media Player 11 with the Klite standard Codec pack.
Everything Just 'works' for me. I can play DVDs and MP3's etc. It seems fast and nothing skips or freezes etc
Is there a reason I should not use WMP 11?
What does bloated mean? Sure it is a laaarrggge file to download (ie upgrade from WMP 9 which comes standard in my XP) but it works yeah and it is free.
But seriously is there a reason for not using it?
By the way I am not a Microsoft stooge or anything. I use Opera browser because it is faster than IE8.
Cheers,
Paul.
*** PLEASE ***
1) Explain me how can you take a Screen Capture with WMP11?
2) Explain me why WMP11 + K-Lite Codec can NOT play the following file?
Moderators comment: Sorry, links to this type of file are not permitted.
(It's a Clean File I use for Testing Media Players!)
"Bloated" means different things to different people but is usually centred around one application which uses more system resources than an alternative or maybe comes bundled with extra "features" which might not be necessary. For users of older or less powerful machines this can be a genuine issue, for others it's just an obsession. Users seeking a "light" setup probably eat Flora instead of butter too but as with all things in life it's their choice what they stuff into their computer. For my own preferences I use VLC (even after moving to Linux) because it plays everything I want without needing additional codecs, but for audio including online radio I use Foobar200 (Windows) because for me it's the best sound reproduction despite having a dated interface. Media players, like browsers are a very personal choice and every one has it's own fan club. I'm not sure how the latest version of WMP is for connecting all over the internet when you switch it on, which I remember was the main reason I wouldn't use it, but if you're happy with how it performs then there's no reason not to keep it. All I would say is that with so many good alternatives like KMP and VLC why not give them a try anyway?
The latest version of WMP that comes with Win7 is WMP12. I was looking for its Advanced Tag Editor but realized that it was removed. So some commented it was a 'downgrade' from WMP11.
I used to like its capability in adding unsynced and synced lyrics with the Advanced Tag Editor, except that the lyrics are shown in a tiny un-expandable box in the Editor in WMP11. Now don't even need to think about it, the Editor is gone in WMP12.
In this respect, Media Monkey and iTunes are far better in showing the lyrics in a reasonable box size. Both are supporting unsynced lyrics tags only though.
Media Player Classic Home Cinema is fantastic, see http://mpc-hc.sourceforge.net/media-player-features.html
I just downloaded KM player after reading this article. I already have GOM, VLC and MPC. My favorite has always been GOM, because the GUI is beautiful to look at (way better than any of the others, including KM) and it has a ton of features which are very easy to access and adjust (as many or more than the others, including KM). Unfortunately I have started having a bug with GOM, which is why I started looking around for other players. GOM has started turning down the WAVE master volume on my system, and even after I close GOM, the volume stays down and I have to turn it back up manually. Anyway, just downloaded KM and I found the splash screen to be ugly, the control buttons on the main window to be too tiny to use easily, and the huge, bright yellow lettering which springs up onto the screen whenever you do anything like adjust volume, to be ugly and intrusive. It opened two sets of subtitles on the video I was watching, English on the top and some other language on the bottom. At first I thought it was cool that it could do that, then I started having a really hard time figuring out how to turn the other language off. Finally figured it out, but then the English subtitles were still up on the top of the screen, and I could find no way to make them go down to the bottom. In other words, navigating the preferences in KM is far from intuitive. I also started experiencing bugs within the first 10 minutes. At one point video playback froze, while the audio kept going. The image it froze on is now "stuck" in the program, and whenever I open to full screen mode, that image is there, no matter what video I am playing. That alone will force me to uninstall the program tonight. I also noticed the DVD folder in the preferences menu tree wouldn't minimize again after I maximimized it. The other folders open and closed fine, but not DVD -stuck open. Not a big deal, but the thing seems buggy. All in all, I think GOM is still a better player. The reviewer didn't mention barely any of it's cool features, but it does pretty much everything that he mentioned the other players doing. If only it wouldn't keep turning my volume down I would still be totally happy with it. The reviewer is right that it doesn't play DVDs well. Not on my computer anyway. But that's not a big issue for me.
I use KMPlayer with the classic Skin 'K-AMP5' which I find the best skin.
It gives me more buttons than any other skin.
http://img84.imageshack.us/img84/5781/54387699.jpg
KMPlayer is Not a Player to try/evaluate within a few minutes!
You need to go deep to the 'Preferences' section and discover the
countless options.
From what you wrote, it is clear that you have Not done it.
For example, the way your screen looks and the subtitles position/appearance
can be modified by many-many options at the 'Preferences' section!
Since both KMPlayer and GOM presented Bugs in your PC,
you need to check your system and especially your Codecs.
I run WinXP Pro SP3 with all .NET Frameworks,
QT Lite, and Real Alternative Lite.
I never experienced any problem with KMPlayer.
As it is shown here, KMPlayer is the No.1 Free Media Player.
Thank you for taking the time to make this informative post which is far more comprehensive than some of the "X is best" "no it isn't" stuff posted here. Having real user experience issues like yours to relate to will help others to make their own choices.
Which version of KMPLayer are you using? 1428 was the last stable version. 1435 is being worked upon and not yet ready. If you used that version, maybe its why you are experiencing problems.
Anupam Shriwatri
I'm not sure which version I downloaded. I just deleted the program, so it's too late to check. I continued using and evaluating KM player since I wrote my original post last night. The picture that was stuck on the screen went away, so I continued using it. Today however the same thing happened. The screen froze on one particular frame as the audio continued to play. I closed the player and reopened many different video files, and each time that same image would be stuck there on the screen. Another bug I noticed was when using the advance or rewind 5 seconds keys - the advance would pop me forward on average about 45 seconds, and the rewind about 10 seconds. Sometimes going back 5 seconds would cause the whole video to restart from the beginning. So that was useless to me. Anyway,it was all really too much, so I uninstalled the program. I also decided to uninstall GOM player and reinstall it to see if that would solve my problem with it turning down the master WAVE volume on my system. It did, and now GOM works perfectly for me. I also noticed when reinstalling GOM from their website that it now comes with a sister-program -a video encoder which has a ton of features (which I don't actually need). Again, GOM has every feature that this reviewer described KM player having, except maybe the ability to restart a video where you left off. That's pretty cool. But KM too buggy for me...
GOM does have the ability to restart a video where you left off. It's in the preferences section. GOM is my favorite player as well.
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