Video player usage 2017

[stax76]

I'm using mpv and kodi since one month and musicbee since 6 months, before I was using mpc-be and mediamonkey. Most important requirement are scripts/addons so I can add a couple of features I want, I've written scripts/addons for many apps for personal use but mpv and musicbee addons are the only ones I still use. Features I added are mostly very special or strange if you want but still I believe the scripting/addon concept is crucial, not only for browsers and text/code editors but also for any kind of player. I don't want to spend weeks learning Lua which as far as I know is very limited to what can be achieved compared to mainstream general purpose languages which most I already know.

I've various requirements like x64 AviSynth/VapourSynth script playback and instant startup (maybe 200 ms), high performance and responsiveness especially for seeking (mpv being unrivaled here in a good way and VLC in a bad way). Typical problems I saw are poor or broke look and feel or skins and poor or no high DPI support. Poor usability due to too many features causing cognitive overload and poor structuring and no search features, I only remember jriver and vlc having a search feature. I've also very bad experience with support but I know it can be very difficult and it's impossible to help everybody, when I get requests I prioritize certain people like long time users and highly experienced users.

[jihyo]

PotPlayer:

- easy to install/configure (don't really need configuration, only some specific options for user usability - mouse buttons behavior, video/player resizing)
- fast enough
- modern codecs
- a lot of preferences (you can actually ignore them if you ok with defaults)
- the best gui
- great youtube support
*everything is built-in the player

[Dorohedoro]

Potplayer

[stax76]

It has like mpdn a extreme slow startup, about 2 seconds, for apps that many users start very often like a text editor for me it's absolute show stopper.

[Asmodian]

I am surprised more people don't use Zoom Player.

It has an amazing GUI, with enough options that everyone should be able to make it behave exactly how they want. It even has completely customizable gesture support and magic corners.
It also has codec install and management, and with a configurable custom filter graphs for all formats individually, if you want to get that specific.

Including decoders in the player is not a positive. :p
Current nightly LAV and madVR, both installs managed by me, thank you. Zoom Player's Install Center can also manage and update automatically from their server of all the filters one might need (of course with options to configure it to only install and/or update the filters you want).

[stax76]

I'll try it as soon as it supports x64 avisynth/vapoursynth scripts.

[pirlouy]

MPV starts in 2 ms, but you need 10 years to configure it so in the end, you did not gain that much time. :D
I use MPC-HC for many reasons: simple GUI with enough options, front-end to LAV filters & madVR, subtitle renderer, Gabest MPC is good souvenir.

Since you're a MPV fan, let's see if it can remplace MPC+LAV+madVR:
1) Is it able to change resolution before playing file ?
no 2) for now

[aufkrawall]

mpv surely is king on Linux.
I also really like it on Windows, however ffmpeg or something else cripples its livestreaming capabilities (only on Windows, for some weird reason).
Still, it's the only player that manages 4k 60fps VP9 YT for me without buffering issues.

There are scripts for it, also for automatic refresh rate adjustment (haven't tested it myself, I'm using sinc interpolation):
https://github.com/mpv-player/mpv/wiki/User-Scripts

[Asmodian]

I'll try it as soon as it supports x64 avisynth/vapoursynth scripts.

Yes, no 64-bit version is a major downside. :(

[stax76]

MPV starts in 2 ms, but you need 10 years to configure it so in the end, you did not gain that much time.

LOL, it's true but once you start to understand how it works it's fun, it allows you to do things players without automation support will never allow you.

Personally I didn't had a choice, I absolutely needed two features:

1. for me a shortcut key to rate a file by writing a rating to the filename, this can only be done with scripting/addons

2. for staxrip defining audio and subtitle track id via CLI and add a external audio and subtitle file and select it.

In the end extending mpv was the only choice since automation and extensibility is a mpv core concept, the design and support is good if not great.

[pose]

mpv is great. I love RAVU!

[sauma144]

mpv is great. I love RAVU!

Is it better or faster than NGU-AA?

[pose]

Is it better or faster than NGU-AA?
I like the looks more with RAVU. Its much faster for me than NGU AA High/Very High. NGU AA works better with heavy ringing low quality sources though. Also keep in mind that current RAVU was trained on anime only! It probably will look bad with live action movies.

[sheppaul]

mpv is not for end users. :p

The most widely used video player is easily VLC without any doubt.
https://lifehacker.com/five-best-desktop-video-players-1503859883/1506086048

[StainlessS]

The most widely used video player is easily VLC without any doubt.
https://lifehacker.com/five-best-desktop-video-players-1503859883/1506086048

Maybe so in 2014, I still mostly use it (and mpc-hc, potplayer on occasion), but it is very annoying.

[Clare]

Mpv for me, I like the simple interface and the quick way to change audio streams and subtitles.

[Schattenspieler]

I have been a user of MPC since the very beginning, when it was an easy replacement for the (even then very) old Windows MP (and could easily be included directly into the installation media). Later switched to MPC-HC and quickly MPC-BE, simply because it looked better. And also I felt more comfortable with its handling.

For a long time I had VLC setup as a fallback solution for any weird or probably damaged files, but at some point VLC started to fail me on that ability more than not. Also I never found a skin that I really liked. And usability is quite a thing for me. That's why I still used the old MPC even on later Windows systems with their fancy new players, until it's more recent incarnations -HC and BE. MPC-BE mostly just did the job fine and so the only other player I have lying around now is KMP. It's overloaded with tons of stuff, no good menu strukture and also annoying ads … but it has support for old Winamp addons and so I can still use iZotopes Ozone when playing music, if I want to.

I'll probably check out some of the other players mentioned here (and of course mpv.net) , after reading some pros 'n' cons about 'em. But I agree in that customizability of a software, and player in particular, only starts with extensive (but easily accessible) settings. The ability to add features the authors did not see use for, without actually having much or anything to do with the development of the app itself is an enormous bonus. As seen with browsers where features from addons made it into the software itself, that might not have developed at all if not at first just as an addon.

[jihyo]

It has like mpdn a extreme slow startup, about 2 seconds, for apps that many users start very often like a text editor for me it's absolute show stopper.

PotPlayer? What do you mean?

there is no such problem in 2 seconds: https://gifyu.com/images/gifd1e9f.gif (screen capture, 40mb)

I tried mvp, but it looks pathetic, it's like just an empty window (where its functionality?), of course it starts fast

for apps that many users start very often like a text editor for me it's absolute show stopper.

why do you need to open it "very often"?
like 20 times in 1 minute? xD (just a joke)
are you using video player to enjoy watching some movies/music videos or for some work?

[stax76]

I'm getting 2 seconds using the CLI: potplayer videofile

On Mac mvp has a main menu, there are some libmpv based players that have a GUI, mine will have a context menu, it's implemented and soon uploaded. It's still an elite player since the keys are still defined in input.conf and mpv compatible, technically it's hardly possible to build a noob friendly GUI and still support input.conf, it's one or the other, an app can support both as option but not implement an easy to use shortcut editor and then save and read the settings to input.conf. For experts input.conf actually is more user friendly, a shortcut editor with 200+ commands but no search feature or navigation feature is a fail fail fail, let me say it again it's a fail, a config file is more comfortable because it's search-able and easy to backup, many pro tools have only a config file, mpv, vscode, sublime text etc. and it can be very efficient to work with these files.

In the next mpv.net build the context menu is defined in input.conf comments, looks like so:


#key command key caption menu path/caption

o script-message mpv.net open-files #menu: O; Open Files

Space pause #menu: Space ; Play/Pause
s stop #menu: S ; Stop

F11 playlist-prev #menu: F11 ; Navigate | Previous
F12 playlist-next #menu: F12 ; Navigate | Next

For staxrip development I often encode short sample files so it's normal for me to start a video player dozens of time, I like fast starting apps and while I don't think it's crucial for staxrip I still spend some thought on startup performance, otherwise it would start 3 times slower and would appear badly implemented.

[jihyo]

ok, so you need video player for some work you usually do (specific topic/issue that we should not compare with ordinary movie watching for fun)

[aufkrawall]

I tried mvp, but it looks pathetic
That's some harsh judgement, why not call it minimalist?
At least write its name properly. ;)

[stax76]

@jihyo

There are some GUIs but on Windows with high DPI most have big issues, I don't know if there are environments where they work better, some probably.

https://github.com/mpv-player/mpv/wiki/Applications-using-mpv


On Mac it seems there is a menu so it seems the lack of menu is mostly due to lack of Windows devs.

https://github.com/mpv-player/mpv/pull/4687

[pirlouy]

With MPC, you can use UI to change settings OR config files if you're really into it.
I naturally use UI.

And MPC is launching instantly too (using SSD though).

[smok3]

Mpv here, starts fast, doesn't have an ugly gui and f1 is patched to 'toggle loudnorm'. Loudnorm also works nicely with youtube playlists/clips. It has ability to use various luts and slogs as well. What I miss is playing dual-mono files as stereo (various mxf files are like that). Another user defined shortcut may copy/paste current time to clipboard for example. It's also easy to do aliases to force tff deinterlacing. And a lot more, like I can compile latest version with my limited skills.

Of course this is slightly OS related, I tend to use win as little as possible, so it's easiest to use mpv there as well.

[stax76]

With MPC, you can use UI to change settings OR config files if you're really into it.
I naturally use UI.

And MPC is launching instantly too (using SSD though).

Did you never miss anything in MPC and never made any feature requests? I miss about 20 features and my requests were never taken care of, not even answered. Not having automation for scripting and addons built into the core is in my opinion a major design flaw. Besides that it does a lot things right, very solid with little flaws and glitches.

[Gser]

MPC is perfect, no extra garbage UI's. It plays video, audio and subtitles files e.g. everything I need a player to do. I don't need scripts or extra addons to do that.

[SamuelMaki]

MPV. It is the only player I've found to allow multitasking with the GPU. Easily able to run two media files in different monitors without any sort of choppiness, which sadly occurs in mpc-hc+madVR. (Tested a year ago with html5 live feed and local bluray file).

I tend to run bilinear scaling and prefer the lack of artifacts and artificial sharpness to bother with fancier algorithms. Deband, interpolation, custom channels manipulation with pan (surround to 2.0 with LFE mixed in, and 4.0 with Quad and LFE mixed in the front speakers (bi-wired with real subwoofer)), dithering, subtitle-stuff and 100ms audio delay are the only mandatory options for me.

[Starks]

I'm sticking with MPC-HC until a worthy successor emerges (eg: supports DirectShow filters). mpv for Linux.

[EncodedMango]

I used MPC-HC before and now I'm on Potplayer, I would move back to MPC-HC because while PotPlayer has features and a LOT of options, too many perhaps, there's certain... annoyances that come with it. However, I really like the ability to see visual preview using the seekbar and that's what keeping me on PotPlayer for now.

A visual preview as in continuosly throughout the seeking process or more like preview pics where you place your cursor on the seekbar? The latter ist also provided by MPC-BE (though not on all files, as it seems), probably MPC-HC too.
The latter, placing cursor on seekbar giving a preview. I have never found a way to do it on MPC-HC but Maybe BE has that.

[Schattenspieler]

However, I really like the ability to see visual preview using the seekbar and that's what keeping me on PotPlayer for now.A visual preview as in continuosly throughout the seeking process or more like preview pics where you place your cursor on the seekbar? The latter ist also provided by MPC-BE (though not on all files, as it seems), probably MPC-HC too.

[Asmodian]

A visual preview as in continuosly throughout the seeking process or more like preview pics where you place your cursor on the seekbar? The latter ist also provided by MPC-BE (though not on all files, as it seems), probably MPC-HC too.

Zoom Player as well. ;)

[petran79]

On Linux I liked Bomi (CMPlayer), but unfortunately support for later distros was discontinued

[aufkrawall]

I btw. solved my livestreaming issue with mpv on Windows by uninstalling cFosSpeed.
I can now watch YouTube Live, HLS etc. with it without issues. I run it with the URLs as argument by using Windows' "Run" (winkey + r) function, which makes it quite comfortable.

Edit: There is also an extension for Firefox/Chromium to directly open web video with mpv. HLS URLs can also be grabbed with other tools/extensions.