What player do you use?

[avih]

- drag'n'drop to MPUI (mulder's package) for clips and quick preview because it starts so damn fast and plays everything. Also good to preview torrents before they've fully downloaded (legal clips). VLC is also good with partial files but starts much slower.

- MPC + ffdshow for most films because it's easiest to configure/modify quickly and supports subtitles best, especially RTL languages like Hebrew (ffdshow). VLC comes close 2nd with RTL subtitles but not good enough. ffdshow is also great in deinterlacing using DScaler dlls to double frame-rate, which I use because I capture sports events interlaced. Also, it works with ReClock since it's a dshow combo while the mplayer based players don't.

- SMPLAYER (mulder's package)/VLC for testing or videos that for some reason don't play well in MPC+ffdshow.

- DScaler for TV (has to be the best TV application out there, and OSS)

My previous (long time ago) favorite was zoom player, which still works well, but for me MPC is better now. Used to like bsplayer a lot but it now contains adware. Gom player is a neat integrated package but my current players eventually do all good enough and are OSS.

[kumi]

I use MPC HomeCinema version + ffdshow tryouts for almost everything. I also use VLC, but mostly for saving internet video streams or the occasional wierd file that won't play in ffdshow.

avih: Did you mean that you use DScaler to deinterlace for display on your computer monitor?

[leeperry]

Mpc Hc + Evr

[Xodarap]

Furthermore I highly doubt any DirectShow-based player (including MPC) runs at lower CPU usage than MPlayer does.


QFT ;)

I used to use MPlayer religiously. I switched to MPC, but I forget why :P I think it was command-line laziness, but now they have good frontends. Maybe I'll switch back :)

[Skyfish]

This might not be the place but I could not find a thread on where to post this but here is my question:
I love the quality and most of all very practical interface of MPC (I have a Home Theater setup and I use my mouse to pause/volume etc...) *however* the sound quality is definitely inferior to that of VLC and I can not figure out where it comes from, I mostly watch Xvid format AVIs.

Any ideas?

[vlada]

Taht is very strange to have different sound from MPC and VLC. AVI DVD-rips usually have MP3 or AC3 soundtracks. Both players use their internal decoders which are based on the same libraries. In MPC you can use use any DirectShow decoder (like ffdshow). So I believe you might have something set-up incorrectly.

Blease be more specific regarding your speakers configuration, used decoders for audio in MPC, their setting and the sound difference.

[Skyfish]

Yes I am pretty sure it is a config setting on MPC or something I am doing wrong.
The reason I did not give more details about the speaker config is that it is the same for both players so obviously the issue is not there nevertheless I have a weak/bad sound installation: 2 HarmannKardon desktop speakers with a bass woofer, crappy soundcard.
The sound in VLC is *clearer* I can hear dialogs very well whereas they are much fuzzier, lower volume in MPC. Its not a booster setting or it is more like an equalization issue.
The decoders are use are the standard ones, have not anything in MPC I have not added any External Filters for sound, maybe I should?

[vlada]

The decoders are use are the standard ones, have not anything in MPC I have not added any External Filters for sound, maybe I should?

You don't have to. I like ffdshow, but it's up to you. If you are playing a video, right click on the picture, look at "filters" and find there audio decoder. Then click on it and you can change it's settings.

I was asking about your configuration because it might be an upmix/downmix problem. Check your speaker's configuration in the players.

[mitsubishi]

If you go to View>Options>Internal Filters>Transform Filters and disable ac3 and/or "mpeg audio" then it will use whatever external filter is available. Both ac3filter and ffdshow can decode both. Both can also go after the other, collecting the decoded audio allowing manipulation. Personally I use internal for mpeg audio, ac3filter for ac3 and have ffdshow after for further effects.

[obieobieobie]

Zoomplayer for me. I have VLC as backup.

[Delerue]

Skyfish, I'm not sure but you can try this:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v256/Delerue/MPC_sound.png

Turn off the 'Regain volume' definitely improves the sound quality here. Also, you can try to switch to 'PCM 24 bits' output, enable the 'LFE' (if you have a subwoofer) and choose the right speaker configurarion, all this inside the AC3/DTS/AAC internal filter options.

[clsid]

Files with AC3 audio usually have 6 audio channels (5.1 setup). If you play such an audio track on stereo speakers without downmixing, then the sound of the middle channel (which contains the dialogs) will be very faint.

The solution is simple: downmix the audio to two channels.

In ffdshow for example that can be done by enabling the 'Mixer' and configuring it to stereo speakers.

For configuring the internal audio decoders in MPC, go to MPC Options, Internal Filters page, double-click on one of the bold items.

[microchip8]

As I'm on Linux, the only player I use is MPlayer. It can play a lot of formats, is simple and does its job very well. I also sometimes use VLC... never really liked Xine or Kaffeine

[Mangix]

mplayer on windows. tried CCCP but went back to mplayer due to the speed and happiness. not that CCCP was slow though...

[Xodarap]

Now that I think of it -- the best by far is MPlayer itself on the command line (no frontend). The versatility of that player is mind-blowing. I remember watching some crappy Voyager encodes on it with hqdn3d set to kill the noise (best decode noise filter ever made), something for some nice deblocking (forgot), and an amazing de-logo filter for the a-hole's "Yes+" logo on the top. Beautiful, simple, elegant, and low-profile despite the heavy filtering. Good stuff. I just got lazy and switched over to MPC :P There are some good "half-front-ends" for MPlayer that let you save command-line settings for different uses...

EDIT: Just for the hell of it for those who care: yes, I do own all the Voyager DVDs ;) (And have since ripped them for myself...)

[Xodarap]

If you go to View>Options>Internal Filters>Transform Filters and disable ac3 and/or "mpeg audio" then it will use whatever external filter is available. Both ac3filter and ffdshow can decode both. Both can also go after the other, collecting the decoded audio allowing manipulation. Personally I use internal for mpeg audio, ac3filter for ac3 and have ffdshow after for further effects.

^QFT I use the same setup :cool: AC3Filter is easy to setup a downmix and a normalization that (unlike MPC's internal normalizing) doesn't "clip" and kill the quality.

[Skyfish]

To mitsu, vlada, delerue and clsid :thanks:

[masteripper]

Personally the combination of KMP+Coreavc is a killer.Just a ton of options , constant development and easy external decoder handling

[avih]

I use MPC HomeCinema version + ffdshow tryouts for almost everything. I also use VLC, but mostly for saving internet video streams or the occasional wierd file that won't play in ffdshow.

avih: Did you mean that you use DScaler to deinterlace for display on your computer monitor?

I use DScaler for 2 things:
1. As a TV application for my BT capture card.
2. For deinterlacing in real time during playback on my monitor via ffdshow. I'm recording sports events interlaced, and deinterlace only on playback to get 50FPS. ffdshow can load dscaler deinterlacing dlls.

[jazzzy]

CinemaPlayer

http://www.cinemaplayer.net
small lightweight 252 k player that comes in English and
just flies ! believe me it takes so less memory that I used it on 233Mhz under W2K with crappy graphic card and it worked

not to mention it has a few unique functions that make it powerful player (for example drag&move playing picture)

KMPlayer

this is my choice for now as it is the most advanced player I've ever seen, it allows me to configure almost everything and thus satisfies me because I'm very demanding

WinDVD

mainly because it has superior audio options

BorgTV

this is so great analog tv player, it was the only one that was able to get along with my Pinnacle PCTV PRO without a problem

it is also the only player (I guess) that allows you for dedicated colour/sound properties for every single channel, it is very important in cable tv because some channels go dark some less colourful and you need to adjust it and not affect other channels

[Daiz]

CCCP+CoreAVC with MPC for everything. I've never had to bother with anything else after installing CCCP.

[Danisan]

I'm using MPC HC + ffdshow for most things, but I might change to GOM Player (http://www.gomplayer.com) if they work out their subtitle in MKV bugs.

[trott]

And what about players with library and (useable) remote control support (yes, I prefer to watch on TV) ?

[ExtraEye]

For A long time I used Zoom Player as my main player but after switching to SMPlayer it's only secondary for me.
Smplayer resizes the video to fit my screen automatically and can do many other things I liked. I find it takes the least memory except for AVC videos, and then it's still pretty good - just not as good as CoreAVC.

In the rare times that things don't work for SMPlayer I revert to ZoomPlayer. This happens the most as avih mentioned, when I play a video with RTL subtitles (shows the subtitles the opposite way...

[rvm]

In the rare times that things don't work for SMPlayer I revert to ZoomPlayer. This happens the most as avih mentioned, when I play a video with RTL subtitles (shows the subtitles the opposite way...

Have you tried the fribidi options in mplayer?


−flip−hebrew (FriBiDi only)

Turns on flipping subtitles using FriBiDi.

−noflip−hebrew−commas

Change FriBiDi’s assumptions about the placements of commas in subtitles. Use this if commas in subtitles are shown at the start of a sentence instead of at the end.

[sheppaul]

CMD options are not really a good thing at all for most users. If possible, make it as a visible option in wonderful smplayer. :)

[Yobbo]

I'm still looking for my "perfect" player.

MPC-HC is great, but I'm always running into file association issues, where double-clicking a file throws up an error, while dragging same file onto MPC directly plays fine? huh? Plus DVD menu support is not the best.

SMPlayer refuses to play some mp3s that MPC plays fine.

VLC - likewise re: DVD menus.

etc etc.

Is there such a thing as ONE all-encompassing player? With codecs built-in (no need to install anything else)? Full DVD playback support (menus etc)? Plays FLV? etc?

Or am I dreaming?

[Shinigami-Sama]

Full DVD playback support (menus etc)? Plays FLV? etc?

Or am I dreaming?

WMP11?
:rolleyes:

[FoxDisc]

Does anyone want to comment on what they are using to play HD-DVD or Bluray High Def formats ripped to a hard drive?

[ChronoReverse]

It's interesting how MPC keeps getting touted as "light-weight".

It looks like mplayer2.exe (Windows Media Player 6.4) but if you try using it on an older machine, it's clear that it's not that light in comparison to mplayer2 (or even older builds of Zoomplayer which were actually lighter on the cpu than even mplayer2).

[Shinigami-Sama]

It's interesting how MPC keeps getting touted as "light-weight".

It looks like mplayer2.exe (Windows Media Player 6.4) but if you try using it on an older machine, it's clear that it's not that light in comparison to mplayer2 (or even older builds of Zoomplayer which were actually lighter on the cpu than even mplayer2).

load up mpc and load up wmp
tell me which one is lighter

[ChronoReverse]

...

Do you know what I'm referring to when I say Windows Media Player 6.4?

Obviously MPC is lighter than WMP10, but what isn't? In any case, MPC isn't heavy but it's not particularly light either in the arena of alternative players.

[mdoubledragon]

Media Player Classic primarily because of the audio boost function.

When using Linux or when not using Media Player Classic, I use MPlayer.

[ilovejedd]

Media Player Classic (w/ffdshow) or VLC under Windows. For Linux, it's VLC.

They're both relatively lightweight, have simple no-frills interface and a ton of customizable options. I always install VLC first before I go about installing MPC and all the splitters/codecs/etc that I'll need. My preferred player of choice is MPC because its interface is similar to WMP 6.4. It's good to have VLC as backup, though, in case something happens which messes up my codecs.

[cmw]

1) SMPlayer
2) VLC
3) Windows Media Player 6.4 + ffdshow + Haali Splitter

I do not like MPC, it has too many confusing options ;) ffdshow does the trick for advanced stuff^^
I would rank VLC first but at the moment the latest official doesn't support anything I need. The SVN does, but there are other issues with that ;) When 0.9.0 goes final it will rank 1 ;)

[Heihachi]

Bsplayer

[Carpo]

mpc + ffdshow + haali - all 32bit - wish someone would make some 64bit versions :devil:

[LoRd_MuldeR]

wish someone would make some 64bit versions :devil:
MPC x64: http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=170561&package_id=245172
ffdshow x64: http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=173941&package_id=229162

[clsid]

Keep in mind that the performance of ffdshow x64 sucks compared to the 32-bit version. So just keep using the 32-bit MPC/ffdshow combo.

[Carpo]

yes but media center doesnt like 32bit codecs - also thanks mulder, i have seen them but was hoping for some up to date and more tested versions :p - i dont want to be the guinea pig any more :D

[clsid]

More recent x64 builds are here:
http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=173941

[Carpo]

what are the changes in your 64bit version clsid - or they the same as your march 7th version ?

[Rogi]

I use MPC + ffdshow, they together really make powerful combination.

[DGMurdockIII]

I use kantaris - http://www.kantaris.org and songbird - http://getsongbird.com/ right now

[hoboX10]

GOM Player. Media Player classic limits at 80 FPS for me, and normally that would be okay, but some of my anime I have plays at 120 FPS (I have no clue why)

GOM can play at that speed for me though.

[Adub]

Media Player Classic handles 120fps anime just fine for me.

Edit: But wait, why the thread resurrection?

[Shinigami-Sama]

GOM Player. Media Player classic limits at 80 FPS for me, and normally that would be okay, but some of my anime I have plays at 120 FPS (I have no clue why)

GOM can play at that speed for me though.

vfr animu encodes - 120fps is a multiple of 24 and 30
try updating to MPC-HC?

[BeCinematic]

I'm using ALLPlayer 3.5 for subtitle support (self loading subs from two independent servers) and for converting tool build in.

Other player its VLC for the streaming ability

[ACrowley]

I use KMplayer :) I used Zoomplayer in the Past but i had always EVR Renderer Bugs like Invalid Floating Point Errors etc.. So i use KM Player and sometimes mpc-hd. Works perfect
Also i ise Arcsoft TotalMediaTheater To play full Blurays from Disc or HDD

[zambelli]

Media Player Classic (Home Cinema) for all video playback.
WMP11 for all music playback.