Best Media player

What do you think the best media player is. It's not WMP!

Winamp 5 with the classic (2.x) look, none of the new skin crap.

Its got a small visual footprint, tons of features that are unobtrusive, and plays audio and video files. Video files get their own seperate window with a very small 'window frame' around them so you can drag the video where you want without moving the whole player.

WinAmp for me as well! Never did like WMP.

Media Player Classic. It's light, no need to install and support all video/audio files. VLC Player is good too.

WinAmp or Sonique for me.

Depends on what you need to play back. If it's everything then I'd say VLC. If it's just audio then foobar2000. If it's just video then back to VLC. If it's a file format supported by WMP then I'll use WMP11 - unless it has subs.

Does anyone have any other suggestions

i prefer itunes, because i have an ipod,
it plays 90% of files, and will convert wma to either aac, aac lossless or mp3 without the need for addons.

Does anyone have any other suggestions
Video-Lan VLC Media Player
or
K-Lite Mega Codec Pack (this has media player classic in it as well as REAL ALTERNATIVE and QUICKTIME ALTERNATIVE and all the possible codecs to play just about any media file)
or
Gom Player
.
i use VLC and K-Lite media player classic for video and winamp for audio. and Real Player for real media files (although real media files play in media player classic or WMP thanks to K-Lite).
.
it doesnt bother me to use all 3.

The problem with VLC is if you fullscreen it there is no (easy) way to get to a different part in the movie. In MPC (I think), WMP, and Winamp you can get a progress bar just by moving the mouse and then click to anywhere you want.

VLC will give you a progress bar at the bottom if you want, but as far as I can tell you can't make it go away, so it is stuck there the whole time.

DIVX player is pretty cool i guess

but personally i dont see the problem with WMP infact i cant get enough of it
its prolly coz media center loves it and that its less hastle to change it for anything else :D

Thanks for all the suggestions. I really just want a media player that can do everything. With all the baggage the WMP comes with i just want to simplify. WMP has locked up on me, on more than one occasion.

Then Winamp, just like I said in the 2nd post.

I hear you man, Just trying to get a broader overview. I already have winamp and have been using it. I want to know if there is something I don't know about.

Winamp 5.35 is my favorite media player and Winamp also features some free XM radio stations. Although Winamp does crash now and then but it's far better than Windows Media Player.

jetaudio, it's free, small and does everything including video and organize your media, it will burn, rip etc..

So does winamp gguerra. And I'm sure winamp looks nicer than jet. Example:
http://web.umr.edu/~ddavison/temp/winamp.png
And of course the playlist window can be made taller (or wider) if you want to see more of your playlist at once. Playlist window and equalizer can be closed even if you are going minimalist.

When it comes to video formats, I swear by VLC and Media Player Classic - both are easy to use, come packed with options to get the best results for your machine, they're free from DRM :grinthumb and anything that doesn't work on one will work on the other.

VLC will usually override any region lockouts on DVD's and MPC also has extensive screen options that help you get the best "look" when watching films. On my Sony Vaio laptop it will fill the 16:9 display. :approve:

Jay

Media Player Classic. It's light, no need to install and support all video/audio files. VLC Player is good too.

agree on both..Classic player can play everything bs player couldnt play,no video/audio sound etc.Its really good.

ddot, I'm not sure what you are looking for here.

Multiple people have suggested Winamp and VLC (Which I agree with) as the best all around players. Yet you insist on getting more choices. If those are the ones recommended the most, then I wouldn't think you would look anywhere else.

Just my thoughts.

I use Media Player Classic for 99% of my videos.

http://sourceforge.net/projects/guliverkli

Unless you want to install loads of codecs, use the latest ffdshow beta. This will play almost any video format you throw at it.

http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=173941

Additionally, install Real Alternative and Quicktime Alternative so that you can play Real Media and QT files. If you have to.

I'd avoid codec packs like k-lite. They just add unnecessary bloat to the amount of software you have, and can thus cause conflicts unless you know what you're doing. Why not just install MPC and ffdshow instead?

I do also have VLC installed

http://www.videolan.org/vlc/

I don't find the interface as user-friendly as MPC, but it will also play just about anything you throw at it, because it actually has the codecs built-in. Additionally, if you have a corrupt or partial file (for instance, a half-downloaded file), then VLC is the best candidate for playing it.

Music is a different matter as I need 18 permanent playlists for each genre of music open and accessible in one click. So I use Foobar2000:

http://www.foobar2000.org/

All the software above is - of course - free. If it's not free it's not worth buying.

/flame

Of course, if you're more more interested in what looks pretty than in technical ability and stability, you could always go for WMP, Winamp, Real Player or other commercial rubbish.

/flame

/me chuckles

Of course, if you're more more interested in what looks pretty than in technical ability and stability, you could always go for WMP, Winamp, Real Player or other commercial rubbish.
I'd agree with you on the WMP or Real Player. But not the Winamp. My install of winamp is purely functional, none of that eye candy bloat bs. Look at my above screenshot, you can't tell me thats focusing on pretty over performance.

Foobar2000 not only looks HORRIBLE but it's layout is so f'ing bad that you think you are using a program from Windows 3.1

I have tried both and found that winamp is prone to crashes. VLC is nice but seems a little ugly(if it work it works though). Thanks everyone

I've never had winamp 5 crash, ever.

Thanks for all the suggestions. I really just want a media player that can do everything. With all the baggage the WMP comes with i just want to simplify. WMP has locked up on me, on more than one occasion.
KM Player, supports many formats. Even real media.

I use Light Allow for half a year and I'm sure it is the best player for me.

Real Player isn't that bad. I use it.

At one time BBC was recommending it (that how I came to learn of it).

try zoom player
n the new Real Player 11

foobar 2000 looks however you want it to look - you just need to learn how to configure it (which can be pretty tough).

Here's my current foobar (http://www.duke.edu/~mepm/foobar.html)

Maybe mplayer + mpui for video. It plays everything (realmedia, divx, mpeg, flashvideo, mp4, 3gp, qt) and it use codecs stored in separate directory. No need to install anything like k-lite pack.

I have somewhat changed my mind. With each successive version of Winamp 5 it has gotten worse and worse. By that I mean more bloated and full of features 98% of us do not need.

I am like a packrat with software installs, and I happened to be going back through my old software and came across "winamp50superprealphaleetness2_full_noaod.exe". I don't remember where I originally got this from, but it is legit. I've been using that for quite some time now and I'm perfectly happy with it. It is Winamp 5 at its absolute purest. It plays Video and Audio and that is basically it. It is all the greatness of Winamp 2 but with the ability to play video.

Here is a screenshot of the About screen.
http://gammaxi1275.googlepages.com/winamp.jpg

When I scroll the page SNGX that picture looks like it's moving, I thought you'd uploaded a video or something.. Like one of those holo' Tazo's

Anyway, I use WMP 11 for all my music needs. I like its layout and I like having a more 'library' type of feel to my music. Movies I generally play in WMP but for some reason DVDs wont work, says there is a region error with my video card drivers :S So DVD playback is done so in WMP Classic.

When I was experimenting with Ubuntu I came across Amarok (http://amarok.kde.org/) and I loved it. It's a great audio player and I'd use it on Windows if possible.

I've seen Winamp been brought up a fair bit in here. Maybe I'll give that a go.

It is a moving image, like a mini video in their about screen, I screen capped it with that image, but I doubt it would have been any better any any other time.

Winamp failed to convince me to change to it over WMP 11. I swear every other thing I clicked on would open its browser trying to get to buy the 'pro' version.

Still I pray for the day Amarok comes to XP.

VLC player is free and open source - give a try. media player is too bloated.