VLC player vs. WMP 12

[Chiefcrowe]

hi everybody!

so i was wondering, what are the major differences between these two players?

 

[hclarkjr]

i use VLC ovfer wmp 12 and prefer it. much more options to me. to me it is more controllable. more custom settings. just my opinion though

 

[KeypoX]

Doesnt using WMP require installing codecs and codec pacsk, all that nastiness? Havent used it in years, so not sure?

I prefer VLC to WMP, and Kmplayer to VLC.

 

[hclarkjr]

good point, with vlc no need for codec packages as long as you use latest version. just install and tweak few setting and you are good to go. try that with WMP12

 

[lxskllr]

I like VLC cause it's light. I have it set to be the default player for all media. That way when I click on a video, or audio link, I don't have to wait for some behemoth to open up and play it. I don't use video playlists, so it works great as my video player(playlists are a bit of a PITA imo). I use Foobar2000 as my audio player for playlists and stuff.

 

[The Boston Dangler]

I like VLC cause it's light. I have it set to be the default player for all media. That way when I click on a video, or audio link, I don't have to wait for some behemoth to open up and play it. I don't use video playlists, so it works great as my video player(playlists are a bit of a PITA imo). I use Foobar2000 as my audio player for playlists and stuff.

we think alike. when i look at how good some freebies are (vlc, foobar, mpc) i have to wonder wtf microsoft was thinking.

edit:
here's a video from the vlc website
http://images.videolan.org/images/vlc-player.mp4

 

[Chiefcrowe]

i like VLC a lot, but as for codecs, i haven't had to install any so far in win7.

 

[lxskllr]

Win7 is better than all the previous versions from what I've heard. MS included more codecs than they have in the past.

Funny video TBD :^D

 

[KeypoX]

Yeah vlc, and kmplayer are installed right after essential stuff. So i havnt opened media player in a while.

I remember how bad install codecs would mess stuff up though, i was relectant to use VLC when people starting talking about it. Was using MPC at that time, but I was pleasantly surprised when i finally tried vlc.

I rmemeber about a year ago they were talking about killing vlc or charging for it. Anyone know what happen with that?

edit:
here's a video from the vlc website
http://images.videolan.org/images/vlc-player.mp4

Wow that is a really awesome video.

 

[AdamK47]

I like using VLC on my lowly P4 shuttle PC. It's connected to a 32" TV in my computer room for storing and playing media. When playing a DVD it never uses more than 30% of the CPU with the highest deinterlacing option enabled.

 

[lxskllr]

I rmemeber about a year ago they were talking about killing vlc or charging for it. Anyone know what happen with that?

I never heard anything about that. All Google is giving me is a report of a website(not official) charging for VLC. It's open source in any case, so if it went to a pay model, someone else could pick it up and continue it free if they chose to.

 

[DarkTXKnight]

what tweaking \skinning is anyone doing for VLC? I install it by default for my customers but havent been able to shake the habit of winamp\MPC for myself.

 

[blinblue]

I've been using VLC pretty much exclusively for video playing due to its efficiency and the fact that it works with just about everything (not really all that great for music in my opinion, unless its a somewhat obscure format). However, I did notice that on some videos VLC used more CPU than WM12 (like 30% vs 5%). Haven't had time to really investigate it much, anyone else experience that?

 

[lxskllr]

what tweaking \skinning is anyone doing for VLC? I install it by default for my customers but havent been able to shake the habit of winamp\MPC for myself.

I don't do anything. I like it light and lean. I've tried some skins, but they just don't add anything for the way I use the player, so I keep it default.

 

[konakona]

I couldn't get used to VLC's interface, it lacked some key features I needed (finer subtitle controls, easier screenshots, etc). kmplayer used to be good, but I think it started going downhill ever since the original developer sold the copyrights to pandora and started working for another place to develop a new media player (called "PotPlayer", YEAH BABY ). Specifically, I have tried different iterations of kmplayer that fixed one issue with EVR introducing another. Not sure if they finally got it sorted out, but took them long enough for me to jump ship. PotPlayer is mostly similar to kmplayer excpet it is lighter, has more streamlined interface with less but most essential features intact. Works flawlessly with EVR too, not sure if they made an english version for it yet.

There you go: http://www.myp2pforum.eu/threads/27667
Just disable all the extra crap for streaming TV after you install it.

On a related note, there is a very much kmplayer-like smplayer frontent on the linux side if you swing that way. It's called cmplayer, comes with an attractive skin and a clean, pragmatic UI.

 

[Scouzer]

KMPlayer > VLC > *** > WMP > ********** > Quicktime

 

[konakona]

KMPlayer > VLC > *** > WMP > ********** > Quicktime

yeah, if you liked kmplayer, you really should give potplayer a shot. People have been urging me forever until I did something about my laziness and it paid off well.

 

[homercles337]

I use WMC for TV and movies. VLC is used for music and videos.

 

[Rottie]

I like WMP because it doesnt give me any problems. I would switch to VLC only if WMP gives me headaches.

 

[phreaqe]

i never used WMP really until the current version. it is so much quicker then the previous versions and i love the interface, and it plays anything i have...back when i needed to install codec packs i just installed vlc and called it a day, but i have not needed it on Win 7.

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

VLC player is free and clean of malware, trojans etc right?

i'm downloading 1.10... just wondering before I run anything... thanks

 

[lxskllr]

VLC player is free and clean of malware, trojans etc right?

i'm downloading 1.10... just wondering before I run anything... thanks

Oh, yea. VLC is the premier media player imo. It's free, and open source. If you don't trust it, you can look at the code, or have someone else look at it for you.

I setup VLC to be my default player for all media types. That way when I play a single clip of something, VLC will open it very quickly due to being so lightweight. When I want to use a playlist for music, Foobar2000 is the program I use.

Edit:
Just to justify why I said the exact same thing in this post as I did above, I thought this was the other VLC thread :^D

 

[bunnyfubbles]

really, the only thing holding back programs such as VLC/foobar is their default interfaces are barebones/fugy in comparison to other options (ie WMP, iTunes, etc...)

they are some of the most flexible and feature rich media players but they look like they're still from the 90s.

but then maybe their humble appearance is for the best, we wouldn't want such apps to stray from what truly makes them great - function > form

 

[theprodigalrebel]

I find that the default H.264/AVC decoder in WMP12 is superior to just about everything else from my informal testing. By everything else, I'm referring to VLC, libavcodec/ffmpeg-mt (found in ffdshow) and Quicktime. I do like libavcodec (or rather ffdshow's postprocessing) for cleaing up Xvid content and VP6 Flash Video, most of which is low bitrate stuff I have grabbed off the Internet in the past years.

I use WMP12+Shark007 Codecs. Since most content these days is H.264 to begin with, ffdshow only really steps in with myriad audio formats and the aforementioned video formats. And the configuration utility makes it super easy to switch between different decoders. For instance, for H.264 playback, I can choose between Microsoft's in-built decoder, ffdshow DXVA, ffdshow libavcodec/ffmpeg-mt, MPC-HC, DivX (with DXVA) or CoreAVC all from the same tab.

And it works brilliantly.

 

[GodlessAstronomer]

There are a lot of myths going around about VLC/WMP. From my completely unscientific tests I have found that WMP loads faster and uses less memory than VLC. VLC tends to use significantly less CPU time. But I certainly wouldn't consider VLC "lightweight". It just looks that way because it has an ugly, minimal UI with too many cascading menus.