Media Player Choices
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I’ve been using VLC for a couple years now, and only recently found that it doesn’t quite do everything. I then realized that in those years new media players that were comparable had cropped up. This guide will help you to choose the media player that is the best for you.
First, you’ll need to understand the difference between the two types of media players. There are the types that read codecs you install separately, which are tiny media players, but they can barely do anything without heaping piles of codecs which can amount to hundreds of megabytes. These codecs, however, also enable encoding programs to encode quite often. The other type of program is codec-less, or has its codecs embedded. This is the type I prefer, as the installers are tiny and they always come with everything they need to play almost anything.
Codec Media Players
Media Player Classic & BSPlayer
These, as well as a few other players, fall under the category of players that are bundled with codec packs. These two happen to be bundled with K-Lite. This is a huge comprehensive codec pack that works well. However, it is massive (~100MB for the full version). They both, and any other codec player you install, draw on the codec pack, so the programs themselves are fairly small.
Middle-ground Media Players
These are media players that integrate lots of functionality but require codecs to do anything even vaguely uncommon (XviD, mkv, etc.)…
Windows Media Player
WMP, or Windows Media Player, is perhaps the most widely used media payer there is. It comes with Windows, which means that all the clueless users will use it by default. It isn’t a bad media player, and v11 is actually quite nice. It is a bloated piece of software, however, and has some quirks with legality of certain filetypes, making it impossible to read music you rip from CDs without strange certificates, etc.
RealPlayer
Back in the day, when WMP was young and crappy, RealPlayer was hailed as the superior media player. It quickly grew into commercial bloatware at the advent of XP, and has continued that way. It is now a boiling pot of spyware that I do not recommend. It has some features that are not bad, but it is in no way worth the install. It’s file formats, which are nice, can be played by RealAlternative, which is essentially a single codec and Media Player Classic.
iTunes/Quicktime
Perhaps on MAC this is nice… on Windows it is slow and bug-filled. It has issues playing video, an annoying interface (IMO), and is full of all manner of other annoyances. The only reason it has a following is that iPod supposedly requires it to transfer music. This is not the case, as there is a driver you could find on Google that lets you read your iPod like an external hard drive, and copy things to it normally (without iTunes).
Quicktime is essentially Apple’s response to Flash player, and any number of web-based content engines. It can play all of these, and adds mov files to the repitoire of web video. This is actually a nice format, because it is high quality video compressed to a small enough level to view in-browser. There are also various videos for on-computer that you can watch in mov format, even in HD mov. Therefore one may consider installing Quicktime. Don’t, there is also a Quicktime Alternative, by the same people that made the RealAlternative. Less bloated, same content.
Codec-less/Integrated Players
VLC (Video Lan Client)
This is a very nice, very feature-filled program. It is more of a media master than a media player. It’s installer is ~9MB, it plays every format conceivable (except RM), and it can stream over the network, play files that are partially transferred and transferring without interruption or slowdown, and capture/encode video. It can essentially do everything, and is very useful. It does, however, have issues with HD wmv files. This is what caused me to switch to KMP (though I keep VLC because it has numerous other uses and features).
KMP (KMplayer)
This player is my personal favorite now that VLC has failed on one count. It plays everything, has better video cropping/ratio-sizing options, prettier subtitles and GUI, and a fully separate specifically-tailored interface for audio, which VLC did not have (VLC is primarily a video player, though it can do audio too). This player is the best choice, unless you’re going to stream or encode, in which case VLC will blow it out of the water. Oh, and it has one feature I love. If you press escape, it pauses and puts whatever you’re watching into the tray. Useful if you’re not supposed to be watching anything. It also minimizes to the tray when playing audio, which unclutters the desktop.
GOM Player
I tried this player after discovering KMP, and it seemed very similar. I didn’t extensively test, but if KMP and VLC can’t satisfy your needs, or you dislike them for some reason, try GOM out. I can’t detail it’s every feature, but it should be similar to KMP.
Conclusion
Until KMP and VLC combine there isn’t quite a program that does everything, but we’re getting there. In my opinion, for a media player, KMP is the best one out there. VLC is excellent for specific tasks: streaming, playing incomplete files, tweaking sound playback, and acting as a client for streamed content. VLC is excellent at what it does, and has tons of features, and in general is a great program, but unless you need those features, KMP is better as a general player. I keep both because the specifics of VLC are useful to me, but I find KMP as a superior player for most things.
Note: I only covered free media players, there could be a purchasable one out there that does everything and more, but it’s rather silly to buy one when all these free ones are at your fingertips.
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