Media players

It is to a large extent a matter of individual taste which one of these media players you choose, although some come with some additional features like ripping and converting. They are all good players, but they all have a slightly different "feel" to them, both regarding video and sound, and as far as the visual impression goes, there is no doubt that some look better than others. As for their performance, they come with a great number of A/V decoders and are generally highly customizable.

DAPlayer                                                                                               

Publisher's description: "DAPlayer is a Powerful, Simple to use and All-in-one video/audio player software for windows that plays most audio/video multimedias easily and smoothly. It is designed to give users a complete free solution for playing High-definition videos, which include Bluray, AVCHD, TS, MKV, MPEG4, H264 video formats as well as DVD video and music CD. It comes with more than 320 video codecs and 130 audio codecs, builds in numerous customizable controls, fully supports Multi-track video/audio and subtitles, TrueColor System, compatible with almost all multimedia formats and owns fast launch speed. DAPlayer is guaranteed to deliver the highest quality viewing and listening experience on Windows PC."

Get the program:
http://www.digiarty.com/

Daum PotPlayer                                                                                   

Daum PotPlayer prides itself of having all the features of KMPlayer (and more) and to be more stable.








Get the program:
http://www.dvbsupport.net/

GOMPlayer                                                                                           

Publisher's description: "GOM Player is a video/audio player with additional multimedia functions. This is a player of the new generation, which allows you to quickly and conveniently use the advantages of digital technologies. GOM uses low CPU utilization while giving you the best possible image and subtitle quality and plays incomplete files without buffering. You can play any media files with GOM’s built-in codec and Codec Finder service: GOM’s built-in Codec supports the following codec: AC3, OGG, XVID, DIV1, DIV2, DIV3, DIV4, DIV5, DIV6, DIVX, DX50, MP41, MP42, MP43, H263, AP41, MPG4, MP4S, M4S2, MP4V, BLZO, MJPG, RMP4, DXGM, H264."

Get the program:
http://www.gomlab.com/eng/GMP_Introduction.html

KMPlayer                                                                                              

Publisher's description: "The KMPlayer is all in one media player, covering various formats such as VCD, DVD, AVI, MKV, Ogg Theora, OGM, 3GP, MPEG-1/2/4, WMV, RealMedia, QuickTime etc. It has an extra feature to play Incomplete/Damaged AVI file, Locked Media Files while downloading or sharing, Compressed Audio Album (zip, rar) and so on. It handles a wide range of subtitles and allows you to capture audio, video, and screenshots in many ways. The player provides both internal and external filters with a fully controlled environment without grappling with DirectShow merit system. The player can set multifarious audio and video effects, control playback speed and octave, select parts of a video as favorites, do a powerful A-B repeat, remap the keys of remote interface for HTPC including overlay screen controls, change a skin dynamically depending on a media type playing, and many more. It is completely customizable thanks to a wide selection of skins and color schemes, and configuration options are extensive. KMPlayer is one of the most powerful video players in the world and trying to offer the best media entertaining environment for users. With new vision and dedication for the better user experience of video entertaining, we will keep listen and communicate with users of KMPlayer."

Get the program:
http://kmplayer.en.softonic.com/

MediaMonkey                                                                                      

Publisher's description: "Audio / Music Manager (for Rock, Classical, Audiobooks, etc.), Audio Player & leveler (MP3, AAC, OGG, WMA, FLAC etc.) + DSP Effects, Podcatcher, Auto-DJ & secure jukebox mode for parties, CD Ripper & Audio Converter: Encode MP3, OGG, WMA, FLAC, Auto Renamer / File Organizer, Auto Tag Editor with Album Art Lookup, Find Duplicate Tracks and Missing Tags, Playlist Manager (auto music mixes), Generate reports and statistics, Customization via addons and plug-ins, Sync and backup iPod, iPhone, iPad and other MP3 Players."

Get the program:
http://www.mediamonkey.com/download/

Media Player Classic - Home Cinema                                              

Publisher's description: "Media Player Classic - Home Cinema is an extremely light-weight media player for Windows. It looks just like Windows Media Player v6.4, but has many additional features. Supported Decoding: MPEG-1, MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 playback. Media Player Classic is capable of VCD, SVCD and DVD playback, without the need to install any additional software or codecs. It has built-in codecs for MPEG-2 video and codecs for LPCM, MP2, AC3 and DTS audio, and also contains an improved MPEG splitter that supports playback of VCDs and SVCDs using its VCD/SVCD/XCD Reader. A *.mp4 and MPEG-4 Timed Text support added. An AAC decoding filter makes MPC suitable for AAC playback in MP4. MPC Home Cinema also has H.264 and VC-1 with DXVA support, DivX, Xvid, and Flash Video formats is available in MPC HC. MPC can also use the QuickTime and the RealPlayer architectures. Media Player Classic supports native playback of OGM and Matroska container formats. Supported Video, Audio and Image File Formats: WAV, WMA, MP3, OGG, SND, AU, AIF, AIFC, AIFF, MIDI, MPEG, MPG, MP2, VOB, AC3, DTS, ASX, M3U, PLS, WAX, ASF, WM, WMA, WMV, AVI, CDA, JPEG, JPG, GIF, PNG, BMP, D2V, MP4, SWF, MOV, QT, FLV."

Get the program:
http://mpc-hc.sourceforge.net/

UMPlayer                                                                                              

Publisher's description: "UMPlayer comes packed with dozens of advanced features, such as skinnable interface, built-in subtitles search, audio / subtitles sync, enhanced filter rendering and YouTube™ player / recorder, yet has a simple and intuitive user interface that was designed for ease of use. With over 270 built-in Audio and Video codecs UMPlayer can handle nearly all media formats, including AAC, AC3, ASF, AVI, DIVX, FLV, H.263, Matroska, MOV, MP3, MP4, MPEG, OGG, QT, RealMedia, VOB, Vorbis, WAV, WMA, WMV, XVID and many more."


Get the program:
http://www.umplayer.com/

VLC media player                                                                                

Publisher's description: "Simple, Powerful and Fast, Plays everything, Files, Discs (DVD, CD, VCD), Devices and Streams, Plays most codecs with no codec packs needed, Completely Free, 0 Spyware, Ads or User Tracking, Best Mpeg2, x264, DivX player, Works on most platforms: Windows, Linux, Mac, Unix..., Media Converter and Streamer."



Get the program:
http://www.videolan.org/vlc/