What player do you use?

[w00b]

If you post here, can you say 2 things for me.. first of course, the player you prefer.. and secondly why you prefer that player over the other players you have tried.

I used Media Player Classic and I prefer it over PowerDVD because the audio on PowerDVD is horridly quiet for me for some reason.

[chipzoller]

MPC + ffdshow. MPC is a single all-inclusive exe that's easily portable, this coupled with the awesomeness that is ffdshow and its numerous filters/capabilities. VLC would be my second choice, although for Windows it seems less stable but my media player of choice on my flash drive since all decoders/splitters are built-in.

[muvi]

Other opinions?:helpful:

[LoRd_MuldeR]

MPlayer + SMPlayer front-end :D

1. The ultimate "all-in-one" playback solution
2. Clean interface with all features you need, very easy to use and it's very stable now
3. Plays almost everything Out-of-the-Box, no need to mess around with codecs, plugins, filters or whatever
4. No dependencies on DirectShow, because all splitters/decoders are already built-in
5. A lot of advanced filtering capabilities, if you need them

Only drawback so far:
No support for DVD menus yet, but you can play them without the menus just fine...

If you are new to MPlayer, you might like to check out my MPlayer package ;)
http://mulder.dummwiedeutsch.de/home/?page=projects#mplayer

Screenshots:
http://img210.imageshack.us/img210/9290/fileshotmplayersmplayerjz5.png
http://img264.imageshack.us/img264/7074/fileshotmplayerplaylistgm5.png
http://img264.imageshack.us/img264/6696/fileshotmplayerpropertirs1.png

[Kado]

LoRd_MuldeR you really like MPlayer hum? :)
I prefer MPC HC + ffdshow try-outs for the advanced configurations, but I guess I´ll try that one again!

[Shinigami-Sama]

windows:
MPC + ffdshow, coreavc at some point
wmp*shudder* for some wmv trailers I get from time to time

linux:
vlc
I still need to try out the other ones, but so far VLC is the only one I like

[LoRd_MuldeR]

linux:
vlc
I still need to try out the other ones, but so far VLC is the only one I like

SMPlayer is available for Linux, have you ever tried that one?
http://smplayer.sourceforge.net/downloads.php

[Shinigami-Sama]

SMPlayer is available for Linux, have you ever tried that one?
http://smplayer.sourceforge.net/downloads.php

I think I tried that one already
I played with about 4 on sabayon before I realized it had vlc, noatrun I really really dislike

but I will give smplayer another shot next time I boot into linux

[enjoycoming555]

I prefer Gom player for its nice interface and convenient features.

[Shakey_Jake33]

Funnily enough, I love MPC for pretty much the opposite reasons thet LoRd_MuldeR listed for liking MPlayer!

I like MPC because I prefer to use Directshow codecs, as it gives me control over exactly what codecs I want to use, full flexibility. As a player, it's minimalist and low CPU usage, without sacrificing functionality.

[alfixdvd]

PowerDVD because the audio on PowerDVD is horridly quiet for me for some reason.

In Configuration->Audio->Advanced->Other configure for laptop noise environment.

I like also KmPlayer.

[LoRd_MuldeR]

Funnily enough, I love MPC for pretty much the opposite reasons thet LoRd_MuldeR listed for liking MPlayer!

I like MPC because I prefer to use Directshow codecs, as it gives me control over exactly what codecs I want to use, full flexibility. As a player, it's minimalist and low CPU usage, without sacrificing functionality.

In fact you can select the Codec/Splitter in MPlayer! The SMPlayer front-end even offers dedicated menus for that purpose:
Take a look at the "Demuxer", "Video Codec" and "Audio Codec" tabs in the "File Properties" dialog ;)

http://img135.imageshack.us/img135/9500/filemplayercodecspn2.th.png (http://img135.imageshack.us/my.php?image=filemplayercodecspn2.png)

Of course you can only choose between MPlayer's "built-in" Codecs/Demuxers, hence addig/removing Codecs requires re-buildiung.
BUT: You'll hardly find a Decoder/Splitter that is missing in MPlayer!
And in fact ffdshow comes with a "built-in" (hard-wired) Codec suite as well, only with a DShow wrapper arround it!
(in big parts ffdshow uses exactly the same code base as used in MPlayer)

If you like the minimalistic user interface of MPC, have a look at the MPUI front-end for MPlayer!
Furthermore I highly doubt any DirectShow-based player (including MPC) runs at lower CPU usage than MPlayer does.

And always keep in mind:
The DirectShow player application itself might seem pretty lightweight, but there always is the whole DirectShow Framework in the background!

Don't get me wrong, I like MPC + ffdshow-tryouts too :D

[Delerue]

MPC clsid version (with all internal demuxers enable) + FFDShow + CoreAVC (multi-thread for H.264/AVC) + WMP (multi-thread for all WMVs). It's simply the fastest configuration I know, and can actually run all videos that I tested. It's also easy and powerful. No installation, no Dlls; just one executable.

Drawbacks:
1- it's common that you can't select multi tracks audio (example (http://rapidshare.com/files/46651266/BBC_HD__H264_AC3_eng__07-07_13-25-26.ts.03.ts.html));
2- can't load broken videos like VLC;
3- can't seek some WMV videos like VLC and SMPlayer;

I would like to tell that VLC and SMPlayer are tie in my second choice. Really great players.

You'll hardly find a Decoder/Splitter that is missing in MPlayer!

Try the example above. :)

[Yong]

Media player classic HC + ffdshow + haali video renderer :D

and of course mplayer, without gui ;)
mplayer OpenGL video renderer + nvidia GPU = kick ass combination :D

[LoRd_MuldeR]

Try the example above. :)
With MPlayer I get either audio-only (mpeg-ts demuxer) or video-only (lavc demuxer) :scared:
Migh by a problem in MPlayer or a borked file, I don't know. I guess you should report that file to the MPlayer Mailing List!

VLC Player v0.9.0 is able to play it correctly (with some display errors at the beginning of the clip)
I have to manually switch audio tracks every time though. And VLC crashes when I try to add a deinterlacer...

[webs0r]

MPC for
xvid (ffdshow)
h264 (coreavc)
through Haali video renderer.
I love MPC because it is light-weight, ultra-fast (instant fullscreen/window switch), i can use the latest and greatest directshow filters of *my* choosing, i can zoom-in/out the video and it remembers it through full screen / window switching.

and...

Zoomplayer 5.5 to watch TV directly from my hdtv tuner through dcdvbsource, as well as play transport stream recordings done via webscheduler.
(only because MPC won't build the graph properly!)

[webs0r]

Delerue, try using TSFilesource
http://nate.dynalias.net/TSFileSource/TSFileSource.html

This is the best directshow TS source filter I have come across. Unfortunately MPC refuses to use it, but maybe your other dshow players will properly render it. I use zoomplayer for this purpose.

[Delerue]

With MPlayer I get either audio-only (mpeg-ts demuxer) or video-only (lavc demuxer) :scared:
Migh by a problem in MPlayer or a borked file, I don't know. I guess you should report that file to the MPlayer Mailing List!

VLC Player v0.9.0 is able to play it correctly (with some display errors at the beginning of the clip)
I have to manually switch audio tracks every time though. And VLC crashes when I try to add a deinterlacer...

Weird, ahn? There's a lot of weird videos like this. Here's another one: http://www.zshare.net/download/5141426e831a63/

BTW, VLC 0.9 is very incomplete and buggy. I recommend the non-official 0.8.6d (overwrite the 0.8.6c for best results), that you can download here (http://nightlies.videolan.org/build/win32/backup/branch-20070820-0331). With this version you can open that tennis video and do a bob deinterlacing without crash, although you'll still need to switch the audio track.

webs0r, thanks for the tip. I'll try later. ;)

[LoRd_MuldeR]

Weird, ahn? There's a lot of weird videos like this.
Actually that's not too weird! ;)

You simply discovered one format that MPlayer doesn't support perfectly yet. So?
We all know that the prefect player doesn't exist. There will always be room for improvement. That's reality.
But this doesn't change the fact that hundreds of formats already are supported. And I'm convinced that one will be fixed too.

BTW: TS isn't the recommended container to store vidoes anyway. Hence you better fix/remux the stream to MP4...

[ArdenDag]

MPC + FFDshow. There are times I have to use SMPlayer to watch some videos because they may not play/seek correctly in MPC, but I live. Often, when that happens, I just re-encode the video so it does work in MPC :)

Arden

[vlada]

1) MPC + ffdshow
2) KMPlayer
3) SMPlayer
4) VLC


Since I'm not a native English speaker, as you can clearly see, an important feature for me is subtitle support. That's where ffdshow leads, also KMPlayer has a good subtitle support. It is basically a GUI built around various DS filters.

MPlayer subtitle support is not that good and in VLC it is almost unusable.

Since all these players use the same decoders (ffmpeg/libavcodec), the format support is equal.

[Amour]

Media player classic HC + ffdshow + haali video renderer :D
The same. :)
But what is HC?
And I never tried CoreAVC.

[smok3]

mpc, mpui (from portable apps), vlc (from portable apps), JW FLV PLAYER (usually in that order).

[Kado]

Homecinema (http://tibrium.neuf.fr/) edition of mpc by casimir666, has many new features and tweaks like file position memory and evr support etc.

[TheShadowRunner]

After extensive testing of most popular players, hands down my choice is Zoom Player.
I don't even need its Zoom function since i'm doing 1:1 mapping on HDTV @ 1080p, but the billion options in there, once configured properly, make my movie-watching experiences MUCH more comfortable than any other DirectShow-based player i came accross.
(It has a "simple" mode for newbs too btw ^^)
See you,

TSR

[Furry9]

I use Media Player Classic

[muvi]

Thanks for your advices guys!;)

[thibeaz]

I almost made a pretty good NSIS Wrapper for MPC to make it portable, the only thing I am trying to get redirected is the playlist.mpcl file in the Application Folder (does anybody know how to disable that?) anyway MPC for me and VLC both the Non Portable and the Portable Version from John T. Haller are the 2 I like the most

[vlada]

But for MPC you would also need to make a portable version of ffdshow. I tried that but without any success.

[Leak]

But for MPC you would also need to make a portable version of ffdshow. I tried that but without any success.
Not neccessarily - take a look at the MPC HC svn changelog (http://ffdshow-tryout.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/mpc-hc/?view=log)... ;)

np: Pan Sonic - Kytkennät / Connections (Katodivaihe / Cathodephase)

[thibeaz]

But for MPC you would also need to make a portable version of ffdshow. I tried that but without any success.

Not neccessarily you just need to extract these codecs
http://www1.mplayerhq.hu/MPlayer/releases/codecs/windows-essential-20071007.zip
into the same folder MPC is in and your all set

[Shinigami-Sama]

after playing with my sabayon install and several media files and players later
I'm liking smplayer very much

now I just need to get rid of noatun, and find a good music player, with a decent playlist interface

[Delcious]

we can find kinds of video players on wikipedia!

[Sirber]

when I'll format I'll probably just install VLC.

[mjrweed]

Im currently running vista with latest nvidia drivers on a 8600gt card and a E6750 CPU.

My software setup so far:

For x264:
MPC Homecinema
Cyberlink h264 video codec
haali video renderer

For divx:
MPUI Mplayer

For DVD:
WMP11 :angry:

This is the software combination that has given me the best results so far at least :)

[4Dude]

I like wmp9 for most things......

I also use realplayer 8 (Last version before AOL bought them and ruined it)

And i also use VLC (Plays almost anything)

[Madzamundi]

Hi all.
i use microdvd only because i like to select the exact minute and second when watching some scene of movie ..other players got only the "scrolling bar" so they aren't precise.

The only thing i cannot fix i its darkening...even tuning options i get movies darker than i.e. crystal player.

Does anyone of you knows another player that allows me to select ( ala micro dvd) the minutes and seconds of one film to start...or watch a scene etc.. ?

[Hard Core Rikki]

Lord Mulder's MPlayer for windows has been the one since a while already now, plays cool for most of my medias. some trouble with switching audio tracks in videos, nothing that offending. The presence of fixed buffersize-based caching (in kilobytes, not only milliseconds) is a big plus here, especially with medias with reading troubles (like scratched discs and such, where consistent video smoothness cannot be guaranteed without bigger buffers)

I used to be all about Media Player Classic + FFdshow. This combination remains my personal favorite for all purposes and in cases where stuff doesnt play properly in Mplayer.

[vlada]

Hi all.
i use microdvd only because i like to select the exact minute and second when watching some scene of movie ..other players got only the "scrolling bar" so they aren't precise.

MicroDVD? Where did you find it, in a museum? :)

I remember using this player very long time ago. It used to be quite good.

I don't know how jumping to a certain time works in MicroDVD. But you might want to try MPC a and Ctrl+G shortcut.

[Brother John]

Ah, MicroDVD was my very first player as well, but I switched to BSPlayer quickly. Before they went payware I switched again to MPC and stuck with it. VLC is installed as a secondary player but hardly ever used.

Do you remember those old movie specific config files of MicroDVD and BSPlayer? Adding chapters, stream names etc. there because that info couldn’t go into AVI? I even built whole playlists with chained config files, including that nice “insert next CD” message.

[Madzamundi]

MicroDVD? Where did you find it, in a museum? :)

I remember using this player very long time ago. It used to be quite good.

I don't know how jumping to a certain time works in MicroDVD. But you might want to try MPC a and Ctrl+G shortcut.

I know that is ooold...but it works perfect and i continue to use it also because with other player i cannot choose the min and second i want ( scroll bar sux) ...the only drawback is that i cannot change its settings for bightness, contrast, color. Else i'll never change it.

[foxyshadis]

In MPC you can press ctrl-G to jump to any time or frame. Same with zoom player iirc.

[lovemoon]

for playing video, such as movie, usually is avi, wmv... I use BaoFeng Player, all most people around me use it.
Now I use a free FLV Player to play Youtube video. Moyea FLV Plaer (http://www.flvsoft.com/flv_player), anyone used it?

[RNiK]

Lord Mulder's MPlayer + SMPlayer front-end. :cool:

I used to be an MPC + ffdshow user but recently I felt in love with SMPlayer.

[Leak]

MPC + ffdshow-tryouts (:D) for me.

VLC, mplayer and co are nice, but since I can't use ffdshow's AviSynth filter with them they'd never be my first choice... :)

[LoRd_MuldeR]

VLC, mplayer and co are nice, but since I can't use ffdshow's AviSynth filter with them they'd never be my first choice... :)

You know that (S)MPlayer will playback Avisynth scripts just fine? :p
Well, editing your script directly in ffdshow's config dialog is still more comfortable, but at least it works ^^

[Sharktooth]

mplayer on linux
mpc on windows

[kurt]

mpc + haali + ffdshow/coreavc

[Leak]

You know that (S)MPlayer will playback Avisynth scripts just fine? :p
Well, editing your script directly in ffdshow's config dialog is still more comfortable, but at least it works ^^
Errr... exactly how do you play back a DVD with menus and stuff inside an AviSynth script (especially without having to write a new script for every DVD, and with no way of getting DVD navigation events to an AviSynth filter) *AND* knowing at the very beginning the exact number of frames that'll get played until 2 or so hours later? :p

(Okay, so ffdshow doesn't know the latter either but I think I've worked around it quite well... :))

np: Yello - Ballet Mecanique (Claro Que Si)

[Shakey_Jake33]

In fact you can select the Codec/Splitter in MPlayer! The SMPlayer front-end even offers dedicated menus for that purpose:
Take a look at the "Demuxer", "Video Codec" and "Audio Codec" tabs in the "File Properties" dialog ;)

http://img135.imageshack.us/img135/9500/filemplayercodecspn2.th.png (http://img135.imageshack.us/my.php?image=filemplayercodecspn2.png)

Of course you can only choose between MPlayer's "built-in" Codecs/Demuxers, hence addig/removing Codecs requires re-buildiung.
BUT: You'll hardly find a Decoder/Splitter that is missing in MPlayer!
And in fact ffdshow comes with a "built-in" (hard-wired) Codec suite as well, only with a DShow wrapper arround it!
(in big parts ffdshow uses exactly the same code base as used in MPlayer)

If you like the minimalistic user interface of MPC, have a look at the MPUI front-end for MPlayer!
Furthermore I highly doubt any DirectShow-based player (including MPC) runs at lower CPU usage than MPlayer does.

And always keep in mind:
The DirectShow player application itself might seem pretty lightweight, but there always is the whole DirectShow Framework in the background!

Don't get me wrong, I like MPC + ffdshow-tryouts too :D
Great to see there is a fair amount to configure in mplayer, I think I'd personally feel too limited by only being able to use the different codecs supported internally by that specific mplayer compile. Don't get me wrong, I gave mplayer for a whirl and was very impressed, and there's definitely people out there who want things to just work, without having to worry about codecs - your builds are great for that! I just really like being able to (for example) update to the newest ffdshow tryouts build every few days, like being able to use CoreAVC (I do use a lot of 1080p H.264's, and while my CPU could probably handle that fine in ffdshow, I'm fussy when it comes to milking max performance), madflac, as well as stuff like Haali Renderer... I guess I'm too used to doing things the mpc way to change!