"Best" media player for Windows?

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CuriousMike

CuriousMike

Diamond Member
Feb 22, 2001
3,044
543
136
For years, I've used VLC and haven't thought about it.
It just works. I've never used any "settings" in it other than play and pause.

However, I'm not sure if it uses "all the features of my ATI 6850."
Presuming that my ATI 6850 has any features that make video playback "better."

Should I blissfully and ignorantly keep using VLC ? I don't really have anything bad to say about it; I just don't know if I could get something better; and "get something better" would include a large helping of me not having to dick with it to get it to perform.
 
K

keyed

Senior member
Feb 21, 2001
478
0
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I use Media Player Classic, and VLC for files that MPC won't play properly.
 
C

Crow550

Platinum Member
Oct 4, 2005
2,381
5
81
Matrix Leader said:
Just go to VLC Settings, Input and Codecs, then Enable GPU Acceleration
Click to expand...

Cool, thanks!

What about Video quality post-processing level? Leave it at the default?

Also under Video set De-interlacing to Auto & mode to yadif (x2).
 
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DirkGently1

DirkGently1

Senior member
Mar 31, 2011
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MPC-HC. Plays everything you can throw at it and at a much better quality than VLC. I did a side-by-side comparison recently, with both programs using default settings. VLC looked terrible in comparison.

I'd suggest doing your own comparison to see which you prefer.

For music you can't really beat Foobar 2000.
 
Z

Zorander

Golden Member
Nov 3, 2010
1,143
1
81
DirkGently1 said:
MPC-HC. Plays everything you can throw at it and at a much better quality than VLC. I did a side-by-side comparison recently, with both programs using default settings. VLC looked terrible in comparison.

I'd suggest doing your own comparison to see which you prefer.

For music you can't really beat Foobar 2000.
Click to expand...
Seconded.

These are exactly what I'm using.
 
D

d3fu5i0n

Senior member
Feb 15, 2011
305
0
0
DirkGently1 said:
MPC-HC. Plays everything you can throw at it and at a much better quality than VLC. I did a side-by-side comparison recently, with both programs using default settings. VLC looked terrible in comparison.

I'd suggest doing your own comparison to see which you prefer.

For music you can't really beat Foobar 2000.
Click to expand...

If you're [as in anyone] just doing BD playback - from the disc directly -, I haven't really found an alternative (EDIT: Just noticed in the 'Blu-Ray Software' thread that 'abaez' has mentioned that you can use "AnyDVD" to allow VLC to play BDs) to PowerDVD (Ultra).

I find that without extensive tweaking, WMP 12 has far better colours and better standard sharpness with video playback, (especially retail DVDs).

For other formats which WMP 12 doesn't support, I use VLC.

Music - well... Foobar - ONLY. Love it, clean, simple interface, blisteringly quick, great format support from the get-go, as well as easy tweaking abilities - such as the editable decoding value for audio [standard being 44.1KHz] :)

Thanks for the mention of MPC-HC. I've never really given it a side-by-side test. I shall do so. :)
Any tweaks that we need to make to it, or is the standard configuration more-or-less 'perfect'?
 
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lxskllr

lxskllr

No Lifer
Nov 30, 2004
57,407
7,591
126
I use VLC for video, and Foobar2000 for music. I don't care much about video, so you can take the VLC recommendation with a grain of salt. It does what I want it to do, and I'm happy with the results. There is no better music player than Foobar2000.
 
D

d3fu5i0n

Senior member
Feb 15, 2011
305
0
0
lxskllr said:
I use VLC for video, and Foobar2000 for music. I don't care much about video, so you can take the VLC recommendation with a grain of salt. It does what I want it to do, and I'm happy with the results. There is no better music player than Foobar2000.
Click to expand...

That's basically my current feeling. Although I am very keen to have superb-quality video output.

foobar2000 though, wow - I can't think of any bad things... :p
 
DirkGently1

DirkGently1

Senior member
Mar 31, 2011
904
0
0
d3fu5i0n said:
Thanks for the mention of MPC-HC. I've never really given it a side-by-side test. I shall do so. :)
Any tweaks that we need to make to it, or is the standard configuration more-or-less 'perfect'?
Click to expand...

You can download my config file here:

https://docs.google.com/open?id=0ByoocqOb5mWvNTk0NGNlMDEtZjE3Ny00ZmRkLWJmNTMtNmE1ZDUxZTFmMjZl

Just copy it to your MPC-HC install folder and the settings should be used the first time to run it. Mostly it's keyboard shortcuts and general settings, the way i like them. For instance i like to have no controls in the window at all, not even a window border, just the video itself. (Behaviour can be toggled with the main 1,2,3 keyboard buttons).

Everything else i need is mapped to Keyboard Shortcuts, Space (Play/Pause), Arrow Up/Down (Volume), Arrow Left/Right (Faster/Slower), Ctrl+Arrow Left/Right (Jump Forward/Back in 30 Second increments).
 
CuriousMike

CuriousMike

Diamond Member
Feb 22, 2001
3,044
543
136
Matrix Leader said:
Just go to VLC Settings, Input and Codecs, then Enable GPU Acceleration
Click to expand...

DirkGently1 said:
MPC-HC. Plays everything you can throw at it and at a much better quality than VLC. I did a side-by-side comparison recently, with both programs using default settings. VLC looked terrible in comparison.

I'd suggest doing your own comparison to see which you prefer.

For music you can't really beat Foobar 2000.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the suggestions; I'll try enabling the GPU acceleration from within VLC, and also try MPC-HC. I'll do the side-by-side and see if it warrants switching over.
 
shimpster

shimpster

Senior member
Jul 5, 2007
458
1
0
'I'm reading up on PotPlayer, and the fact that there's a 9 step software checklist followed by a 4 step "verify it works" software checklist followed by 6 * 18 steps to do the install isn't exactly simple.'->notsure where this installation info cums from, but its a simple 1 or 2 clik install.....

Best Free Media Player

http://www.techsupportalert.com/best-free-windows-media-player-replacement.htm

"PotPlayer is now our new king of media players.:) PotPlayer is an intuitive and a powerful Multimedia player published by Daum written by the same author as The KMPlayer. It’s feature packed, easy to use and provides awesome video and audio quality. Some may call it KMPlayerRedux with more stability and versatility."

"Warning: DO NOT update PotPlayer from the options menu within the program. It downloads the Korean version of the player. Download it from the link given in the Quick Selection Guide only, which is the English translated version. Additionally you can toggle the updates setting to 'Do Not Use' through Right click->Preferences->General menu"

"You can always get the latest english translated x86 beta here
http://www.dvbsupport.net/download/index.php?act=view&id=230 (thank you so much to the translators, without whom none of this would be happening ) and the latest english translated x64 stable build there
http://www.dvbsupport.net/download/index.php?act=view&id=236 (they don't release x64 betas)."

It plays any and everything!!
 
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T

The Keeper

Senior member
Mar 27, 2007
291
0
76
DirkGently1 said:
MPC-HC. Plays everything you can throw at it and at a much better quality than VLC. I did a side-by-side comparison recently, with both programs using default settings. VLC looked terrible in comparison.

I'd suggest doing your own comparison to see which you prefer.

For music you can't really beat Foobar 2000.
Click to expand...

+1 to this. MPC-HC & foobar2k combo is great.
 
sm625

sm625

Diamond Member
May 6, 2011
8,172
137
106
I like VLC because it has a nice remote app, and it actually works too.

I dont like VLC because they simply refuse to fix the bug where you switch to fullscreen and the windows taskbar will not go away. You have to click on the stupid cone, twice, to toggle the desktop which then makes the taskbar go away.
 
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