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View Full Version : What media player loads almost all formats but uses very little overhead?


enthrop
3rd June 2006, 15:54
Sorry if this question has been answered already, but I've noticed a number of posts that "review" various players, as well as some that recommend players for specific file formats...

Unfortunately, much of that is greek to me. For the longest time, I've been using a combination of WMP + whatever codec it decides to load by itself (I really have no idea what it does) or VLC. I have default as WMP but when I want to conserve memory, I use VLC.

After reading a little though, it seems that WMP has been making itself better so I might update my version (I'm the type to stick with something old until the new can be proven better to me). I'm also the time to still be using Winamp 2 for my music (simple, next to no memory usage, I like it).

So now I'm looking for a good all around media player to use that suits my needs. I don't need one that can load DVDs though - I still like using a DVD Player software for that. But general music video (MPG), divx/xvid/asf/wmf/whatever else. What I'm looking for is one that can load the video relatively fast with the least amount of running overhead/memory usage while the video is playing. My computer is often running 500 things at once, so the less memory and CPU every program uses, the happier I am.

And sorry once again if this question has been answered elsewhere - I probably missed the question/answer just cause I didn't understand the post :X

Guest
3rd June 2006, 15:57
You can't ask for the best anything, per forum rule 12. Please edit your post and title to comple with the rules:

http://forum.doom9.org/forum-rules.htm

Hit Edit on your post and then Go Advanced. You can fix the title and the text. Thank you.

weaver4
3rd June 2006, 16:15
Can't say "Best", "against the rules". My favorite is Media Player Classic, but WMP 11 has made significant progress. I use to like BS Player but now it has adware. If you are going to play H264 content people swear by VCL Player. If you are going to play DivX and Xvid Movies only there is the DivX player, but for some reason it uses much more resources than other players.

So if you are not playing H264 then try WMP 11 and Media Player Classic and see what you like.

celtic_druid
3rd June 2006, 17:43
mplayer. Plays just about everything but DVD menus (which you don't care about).

mike_lee
10th June 2006, 21:02
mplayer. Plays just about everything but DVD menus (which you don't care about).

mplayer? Whenever I read this (in the past) I always thought it was shorthand for media player classic? But it appears it is a different player all together, I will check it out. Anyway, mplayer classic has become a resource hog, sometimes using twice the CPU of Windows media player.

LoRd_MuldeR
11th June 2006, 00:15
mplayer? Whenever I read this (in the past) I always thought it was shorthand for media player classic? But it appears it is a different player all together, I will check it out. Anyway, mplayer classic has become a resource hog, sometimes using twice the CPU of Windows media player.

Nope. MPlayer is an all-in-one player and it's independent from DirectShow or external codecs. However it's a console application. You'll have more fun using it via "MPUI" - a nice front-end for Windows.

Full package is here:
http://rapidshare.de/files/18935463/MPUI.Full-Package.2006-04-25.exe.html

Up-to-date MPlayer builds are here:
http://ffdshow.faireal.net/mirror/mplayer/