Which media player is your favorite

[Shindo_Hikaru]

Here is the link to Zoom Player

http://www.inmatrix.com/

[Chozo4]

Winamp 2.91 for audio

Winamp 2.91 for video using VID4WA plugin (+full dvd support)

Plays any audio\video as long as the codecs are installed.

Reason for winamp 2.91? Does what I need with low resource usage and zero complaints.

thats a great verrsion of winamp for older computers or if you just dont need/want all the extra stuff. besides, it does what winamp 5.1 does, plays mp3's right?

Does everything 5.1 does but without the cd burning capabilities. Also does everything most other players can do while playing every format I've come across.

Edited July 28, 2006 by Chozo4

[ideas]

i've tested them all and the playback does'nt run smooth, but i like the GUI of zoom

[CoffeeFiend]

i've tested them all and the playback does'nt run smooth, but i like the GUI of zoom

If the playback isn't smooth, then it's a configuration problem (or perhaps a filter or drivers issue). I've *never* even had that happen, even in "simple" mode. It's quite lightweight, so i can't see it cause the problems itself (had it running perfectly fine on a Duron 800 a few years ago).

The real strenght of ZP is the configuration (one could argue that there is such a thing as too many options though, but I like it that way- btw, you gotta pick advanced mode). The most useful part of this being the custom media playback mode. Which is only useful if you know what you're doing... You pick the actual renderer you want (not whatever the player feels like like with every other player). You pick the demuxer for every container (MS', gabest, haali, etc - useful for sometimes with some "picky" files). You get to pick what filter decodes each format (be it ffdshow, xvid, elecard, or whatever you want instead of whatever crappy decoder the other players will semi-randonly pick for you - based on filter merit alone), or even stack 'em! Extremely useful for DVDs... Decode with whatever mpeg2 decoder your eyes prefer (nvidia's in my case) and then post-process & scale with ffdshow! (try doing that with another player!) No other player will let you get a better picture quality. Same for audio, you pick the decoder as always (and can use DS filters for effects if you so please too)... You can even make your own filtergraphs with graphedit and use 'em in it (again, something no other player supports). This feature also enables it to work on PCs where nothing else will work as some codec pack (nimo and such) screwed up everything badly. This is a *NECESSARY* feature as far as i'm concerned, and NO other player has it AFAIK.

Also, the GUI and menus are nice and well laid out (better than every other player IMHO). So easy to get to anything you need (DirectShow filter properties, aspect ratio controls, etc). And every single key/mouse action/event can be remapped. It's the only player besides WMP (which I truly dislike) that can also play DRM'ed WMV files (like my copy of T2 extreme and such). Works great for HTPCs and remote controls too. It supports pretty much all formats/containers/subs and all as well (DVDs, H.264, flash, matroska, etc).

The big downside? Too complicated/too much work for most people to configure. And it's not free either (well, the std ed is, but it's severely crippled) - 35$ IIRC, but it's definitely worth it (to me at least).

If one doesn't need/want those features, then VLC is usually a good pick (good for previewing temp files too), or MPC if one doesn't care for VLC's GUI (especially the seeking bar)

[Reino]

Zoom Player + DSFP + FFDShow

A highly advanced DirectShow Media Player for music, video, dvd.

Edited July 30, 2006 by CoRoNe

[ideas]

currently trying out media player classic 6.4.8.7 and am trying to change the color ( brightness, contrast, hue, saturation ) of a xvid file and it won't change....

how can i change this?

plus i hav all the codecs ( using Advance FilterCodecPack )

i don't see all the fuss over zoom player & its extras

can u tell me all its features or all its advantages over VLC player?

Edited July 30, 2006 by ideas

[HTS-500]

Windows Media Player 11 for video (i almost never watch videos on my pc.... i have a pretty big home theatre setup, why should i use a 15" monitor with only 2 speakers? )

Quintessential Player for audio

its old and discontinued (though they recently reopened the work, but no new final version, just betas) but its still the very best (yes, better than winamp, better than itunes, way better than WMP.. well, for music)

just see it for yourself: www.quinnware.com

[Maleko]

Winamp 5 for Audio, and Power DVD XP for DVD's

[bledd]

winamp for audio and mpc for video (and dvd)

they can both run as standalone apps, and can be easily assosiated with their tyoes

also, they're tiny!

[Nerwin]

I use ITunes for my music and my music videos only. for other I use WMP 11, winamp and quicktime 7 pro.

[Woomera]

MPUI (MPlayer Frontend), MPC (MediaPlayerClassic) + FFDShow, rulesPlayer (another MPlayer Frontend), VLC, XMPlay (audio player).

what do you guys mean by mpc+ffdshow? whats ffdshow?

i use mpc and vlc.i hate vlc because of slide moving problem but sometimes it plays files that mpc cant.

and for music and mp3 JETAUDIO was always a friend

Edited September 24, 2006 by fatalwoomera

[Jeremy]

FFDShow

[bonestonne]

i use WPM10 for ripping and burning and also DVD playback

and Winamp as my main music player, better for my computer, it doesn't really get along with WMP very well.

[nitroshift]

For music: WMP11

Video: BSPlayer 2.0 Pro

DVD: built-in Media Center

Only 1 codec: FFDShow B)

[#rootworm]

zoom player + my more stable version of corone's filter pack

for everything.

there's only one downside i've ever found to using directshow filters for everything: p*** poor support for regular music cds. the gabest cda filter is really horrible, but now that i know how to manually register directshow filters i'll probably dig up a better one.