[christopheraries]

I'm looking to install the nicest piece of software I can for avi., divx, mpeg, DVDs - everything I might want to play and at least be able to download extra codecs if I need them.

[CoffeeFiend]

ZoomPlayer, hands down! Both for DVD and media files. Best interface, more options than anything else, custom filtergraphs for outstanding video and audio. Lots of features that nothing else offers...

For DVD I set it up to use NvDVD 4 + ffdshow raw post processing, and ac3 filter for audio;

For media files, in most cases it will use ffdshow for the video (you can choose), and the codec you want for audio, but I also have it use some DirectX filters to enhance the sound (normalize volume, DPSs, ...)

It plays HD DVDs nicely as well (even the DRM'ed ones), transportstreams and what not.

It's controlled nicely by my remote control as well (great to use with a mouse too, and lots of customizable keyboard shortcuts).

There's really nothing even remotely that good imho

Next picks on my list would be:
-for media files: BSPlayer, Media Player Classic, and a whole bunch of very similarly featured DirectShow Players...
-for DVDs: Theatertek 2, NvDVD 4, then WinDVD and PowerDVD...

[magicfly]

i don't agree
i love POWERDVD because sounds better and it's faster than anything else. After that i'd go for WinDVD

[MCT]

for media files (other then DVD) i use BsPlayer & love it
for DVDs i use PowerDVD5

[CoffeeFiend]

@magicfly
PowerDVD cannot possibly sound better than ZoomPlayer if you use it's audio filter with it (you can choose). If you want even better sound, then you can use ac3 filter and/or extra DSPs and such too (in combination with it, and the very nice latest ac3 filter does great things, have a peek at it). Nothing else has the power to let you do that (other than say, graphedit, but that's not exactly a media player) You can choose for every specific sound type (AC3, mpeg, mp3, ...) how it will be decoded. Also, some apps (and I believe cyberlink is still like that, it used to be anyways) aren't even smart enough to use their own filters. They'll just use whatever the merit flags forces it to pick. So in some cases, the better sounding app is in fact using another app's decoders - so you can't necessarily give it the credit all the time... Also, the inherent lack of control over what filters are used, and the fact that you can't configure them as they play is a severe limitation imho. I couldn't even imagine living without it. Same goes for WinDVD. As for pic quality, you should see the very latest NvDVD 4, it really beats them by a good margin - especially with interlaced (480i) stuff, it's even better than DScaler/TomsMoComp. Add that with the amazing, wicked ffdshow post processing power for scaling, sharpening and everything (with VMR9), and you have something that rivals the high end DVD players (those 1000$ toys). WinDVD/PowerDVD cannot possibly match that, not even remotely. (lots of talk about things like that on avsforum's HTPC section...) It especially shines if you're outputting to a HDTV (with nice custom timings in powerstrip). Also, ZP works nicely with any remote control by the use of apps like girder. If you use it a lot to play DVDs and movies, I assume it's plugged to a TV as well, and then having a remote control is nice, just like it's nice having one for your TV or amp (receiver).

BSPlayer is just a good DirectShow player. Nothing really amazing imho. It's missing most of those key ZoomPlayer features I just mentionned above, doesn't quite have the advanced config options and such either. It's not bad, but I can't see how someone that tried ZoomPlayer before would prefer BSPlayer over it (unless they actually don't want the extra options/power). They really make a great deal of difference.

As far as HD DVDs go (DRM'ed), this is the only app other than WiMP that can play them (and I don't care much for WiMP 9 or 10). Also, even if it has all these options, it's not that hard to configure. In under 10 mouse clicks you can have custom video/audio decoding/processing going...

[Aistina]

My favourite is PowerDVD, but Media Player Classic is very good as well!

[Famer]

VLC Is what i use ---> http://www.videolan.org/vlc/