Whats better than Windows Media Player?

[ForceMajeur]

What is a superior media player to Windows Media Player in XP? Thanks.

 

[SoundTheSurrender]

VLC player for videos.

itunes for music.

 

[Sureshot324]

Media Player Classic

 

[duragezic]

Media Player Classic for video.

It's simple, small, quick but full-featured, no BS or bloat, open source, updated occasionally. The interface is basic, it's just like WMP 6.4, so nothing fancy, but works fine. I can't stand WMP since v7. Maybe I just don't get it, but the interface in WMP 7/8/9ish is complete garbage and there seems to be no customization/options, and a ton of useless stuff like Now Playing, Media Guide, etc, well pretty much everything. I guess the library seems OK for music but no way would I ever use that when there is much better audio players. With ffdshow and MPC, you have a very tiny/simple combination that can play most any video format. If you need any Real or Quicktime support, get Real Player Alternative and Quicktime Alternative. I have them but haven't encoutered one of those POS formats in many months so I don't have either installed.

VLC Player is another one of the top ones like MPC but after trying it several times over a couple of years, I could never use it. From some screenshots, the interface looks good with some effort, but I haven't ever gotten it anything like I want so I can't stand it for more than a day. It takes a bit more customization than MPC (which requires almost none), but it's also cross-platform which MPC isn't.

Winamp for music. The library in the 5.x versions (unsure if they included it in earlier versions) is perfect for me, but other users may have different needs. Can't stand iTunes one bit myself. Though I used to be hardcore Winamp 2.9 or so, the newer ones are much better. The modern skins are great with ones like clearONE. And it still requires less resources than most players, and for what it does require is nothing for modern machines.

 

[VIAN]

the only thing that sucks about MPC is that there is no shuffle option.

BTW, I love using itunes.

 

[VIAN]

I just found out that MPC does have a shuffle option. Right click on the playlist. I think I may switch from WMP to MPC.

 

[Lonyo]

I use BS Player, but an old version without spyware and bloat. Very easy to use and better for dual monitors than MPC or VLC I find.
Winamp 2.8 or so for music. I don't bother with complicated playlists.

 

[KoolDrew]

For videos my favorite is Media Player Classic. However, I also like Zoom Player and I have VLC on my computer. When it comes to music I like musikCube. foobar2000 is another great option, but only if you want to spend time customizing it. If I had any idea what I was doing when customizing it and wasn't so lazy I'd probably use that, but musikCube is exactly how I want it by default and very lightweight.

 

[Schadenfroh]

Which software replaces Windows Media Player?
Best Media Player?

 

[Inspector Jihad]

try media monkey for music. its working well for me

 

[bunnyfubbles]

I'd say MPC/VLC for just about all your video needs (don't even need quicktime or realplayer). Winamp for audio, unless you're willing to learn the ins and outs of foobar.

 

[Maximilian]

Does Media player classic do everything? Currently i use a mix of itunes, wmp11 and VLC for dvd's and its a PITA. I want somthing that will do everything, ill still need itunes for the ipod but at least i can cut out wmp11 and VLC out of the frame.

 

[duragezic]

Well yes, MPC can play pretty much every video format I've come across. With just ffdshow + MPC you have almost everything covered, and anything else you come across (example: something in the Mastroka container) is a small download that works with MPC. It also plays DVDs, and supports external codecs such as Purevideo, CoreAVC, etc. very easily. I suppose it can also play audio files, but it doesn't seem like the interface would be any good for audio versus something like the media library in Winamp. But for videos, you can get the 3.6MB ffdshow (ffdshow_beta1_20061211_clsid) and the 5.5MB MPC v6.4.9.0 (and it doesn't need to be installed, just a single executable that makes a directory for settings in Documents & Settings) and you got a very powerful package that is easy to use.

You can use 3rd party programs or a plugin for Winamp for iPods I hear, but don't have one myself.

 

[Maximilian]

Wow.... pretty neat lil program. If it had a basic music library function it would be awsome, although i need to use itunes for conveniance with ipod syncing. It can change the aspect ratio too, fixing star wars empire at wars stupidly small aspect ratio on wmp.

It couldnt play a .CUE or .BIN file, i dont know which is which but one of thems a movie and it needs VLC to play.

 

[duragezic]

Oh. I don't have any .CUE/.BIN to test, but it does play the .VOBs from a ripped DVD. So if you mounted the .CUE/.BIN in Daemon, there should be some resulting files in VIDEO_TS that play in MPC.

 

[Frintin]

I use Media Monkey for tunes on one computer and WMP 11 on my main computer. WMP 11 is nice...I love it!

 

[Gooberlx2]

VLC and MPC are good for video, foobar and winamp are good for music (personally, I think winamp sucks hard for video). I might lik iTunes if it had a good video interface, but it doesn't. However, at the end of the day, when I'm tired of fitzing around with a bunch of programs that do one or the other, I still prefer WMP11 because it does all of them well.

 

[potato28]

VLC, MPC, and Foobar2k for everything. I don't like most of the other music players because of the lack of .flac support. If WMP 11 had .flac support, I'd be using it for music and some video.

 

[vulcanman]

Which media player allows me the option of dragging and dropping URL links from a browser ... which will result in the link being added to the play list. Note ... I said add to the play list ... i.e. not jump immediately to it.

I ask because ... I listen to podcasts on NPR ... and would like to drag and drop them to the playlist so I can listen to them all in streaming mode one after the other.

Thanks.

 

[GundamSonicZeroX]

Originally posted by: Sureshot324
Media Player Classic

:thumbsup:

 

[mercanucaribe]

I have a problem with MPC, and didn't want to make a new thread. When I resize the window, it reverts to 1:1 size when it goes to the next video in the playlist. I selected the setting to "Remember last window size", but it does absolutely nothing. This is the same with all my computers, so it's obviously not something a reformat would solve... yet no one seems to complain about this.

 

[mercanucaribe]

Nevermind, found the problem. It's the auto zoom setting under playback.

 

[Imyourzero]

I always read that VLC was the best & most compatible, but I just tried MPC and really like it. It's definitely a keeper

 

[pcnerd37]

WinAmp FTW!

 

[0roo0roo]

klite codec pack which includes media player classic. plays everything, even streams real/wmv video and stuff.

nice compact no fuss no nonsense no interface flash that does nothing to improve usability etc. hitting ctrl+number keys removes/restores parts of the video window like the stats/menu bar etc so you can have a video window that takes minimal space. crtl/alt+arrow keys let you jump ahead/back 5-20 seconds at a time quickly etc. simple and takes little resources.