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☖ Forums → Discussion Forum → Good Media Player
Good Media Player
2008-04-08, 8:20 PM #1
whats a good media player i can use in vista? i normally use Power DVD in XP but due to something in vista's coding (according to graphics card companies) WMP11 and PDVD both do not work in Theater Mode(video plays windowed on primary display and fullscreen on secondary display.) in vista.

just like some input on other players, cause i'd make the switch in a heartbeat if i could get that functionality to work in vista.
My girlfriend paid a lot of money for that tv; I want to watch ALL OF IT. - JM
2008-04-08, 8:23 PM #2
I use MediaPlayerClassic. It seems like it can play everything, out of the box, and I never have ANY issues with it.
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2008-04-08, 8:24 PM #3
Hard to beat http://www.videolan.org/vlc/
2008-04-08, 8:30 PM #4
Why would you want the movie playing on both screens, especially one full and one windowed?
2008-04-08, 8:31 PM #5
Originally posted by Aglar:
Hard to beat http://www.videolan.org/vlc/


Indeed
2008-04-08, 8:33 PM #6
I still use WinAmp for almost everything, although I do have VLC. When I tried to move everything over at one point, I kept running into bugs and it pissed me off.
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2008-04-08, 8:36 PM #7
I use VLC and foobar2000, with WMP tossed in occasionally.
woot!
2008-04-08, 8:38 PM #8
VLC is based on an old verison of ffmpeg. It's decent but it's also extremely slow.

I use Media Player Classic + ffdshow and haali splitter. The easiest way to get all of this is to download the Combined Community Codec Pack. It's just as compatible as VLC and I've never had any problems under Vista. I don't know exactly what you're trying to do with it though.
2008-04-08, 8:42 PM #9
Originally posted by Jon`C:
VLC is based on an old verison of ffmpeg. It's decent but it's also extremely slow.

I use Media Player Classic + ffdshow and haali splitter. The easiest way to get all of this is to download the Combined Community Codec Pack. It's just as compatible as VLC and I've never had any problems under Vista. I don't know exactly what you're trying to do with it though.


VLC is slow..? As in..? It's using 25mb now, playing a 350mb file..
woot!
2008-04-08, 8:46 PM #10
VLC. I like it, it does what I want, and it does it how I want.

Winamp for musics.
D E A T H
2008-04-08, 8:49 PM #11
Originally posted by JLee:
VLC is slow..? As in..? It's using 25mb now, playing a 350mb file..


Please avoid any tech conversations from this point forward.

Anyway, as Joncey said, CCCP + MPC is a fine pick. MPlayer is also good, although it's pretty much the same (runs on ffdshow).
2008-04-08, 8:50 PM #12
Originally posted by JLee:
VLC is slow..? As in..? It's using 25mb now, playing a 350mb file..

What in god's name does memory use have to do with speed?
2008-04-08, 8:51 PM #13
Originally posted by Cool Matty:
Please avoid any tech conversations from this point forward.


Explain it, then, oh elitist one.

I haven't noticed any slow behavior in the program, so I'm at a loss.

Originally posted by Jon`C:
What in god's name does memory use have to do with speed?


If it was a memory hog (ie Firefox), it could affect apparent program speed, no?

Meh, whatever.
woot!
2008-04-08, 8:53 PM #14
Originally posted by JLee:
Explain it, then, oh elitist one.

I haven't noticed any slow behavior in the program, so I'm at a loss.



If it was a memory hog (ie Firefox), it could affect apparent program speed, no?

Meh, whatever.


For the exact reason Joncey stated. RAM usage wouldn't have anything to do with playback speed, unless it was to the point where it was using up all your RAM. Seeing as how none of the players in this thread have that problem, it's a horrible point of contention.
2008-04-08, 8:56 PM #15
Originally posted by Cool Matty:
For the exact reason Joncey stated. RAM usage wouldn't have anything to do with playback speed, unless it was to the point where it was using up all your RAM. Seeing as how none of the players in this thread have that problem, it's a horrible point of contention.


Maybe I'm just extremely dense today, but I still don't understand how playback can be slow. I'm not trying to argue with anyone...I'm just trying to figure out what the hell you're talking about.

I'm not feeling too intelligent..what am I missing? :confused:
woot!
2008-04-08, 9:01 PM #16
VLC is slow because it takes more cycles (in total) to decode the same file as an up-to-date ffmpeg, coreavc, quicktime or what-have-you. Like I said: it's not a bad player but if you have a large media file it's going to choke on almost every system.

RAM has nothing to do with it. We're talking about the CPU. Storage devices are never the bottleneck when dealing with video unless you're working on uncompressed HD.
2008-04-08, 9:01 PM #17
VLC is great.
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2008-04-08, 9:04 PM #18
Originally posted by Jon`C:
VLC is slow because it takes more cycles (in total) to decode the same file as an up-to-date ffmpeg, coreavc, quicktime or what-have-you. Like I said: it's not a bad player but if you have a large media file it's going to choke on almost every system.

RAM has nothing to do with it. We're talking about the CPU. Storage devices are never the bottleneck when dealing with video unless you're working on uncompressed HD.


Ah- so in short, it's less efficient than the players listed above. Makes sense now- thanks. :)

Is there a way to measure that? I'm indicating 0% CPU usage on vlc.exe...
woot!
2008-04-08, 9:07 PM #19
download a 1080p h.263 high-motion movie and
2008-04-08, 9:08 PM #20
ok. so what i've learned: theatre mode isnt compatible specifically with aero. must run in vista basic for it to work. media player must be using an overlay renderer.

MPC works fabulously. although i've always used the K-lite codec pack.

[quote=Cool Matty]Why would you want the movie playing on both screens, especially one full and one windowed?[/quote]

i do this because my secondary display (TV) is opposite my monitor and its a pain in the arse to drag a window over to the secondary display and try to use the controls on it whilst looking over my shoulder. with this method i can control it without hurting myself. :P
My girlfriend paid a lot of money for that tv; I want to watch ALL OF IT. - JM
2008-04-08, 9:10 PM #21
Originally posted by Ford:
ok. so what i've learned: theatre mode isnt compatible specifically with aero. must run in vista basic for it to work. media player must be using an overlay renderer.

MPC works fabulously. although i've always used the K-lite codec pack.



i do this because my secondary display (TV) is opposite my monitor and its a pain in the arse to drag a window over to the secondary display and try to use the controls on it whilst looking over my shoulder. with this method i can control it without hurting myself. :P


Solution: wireless keyboard
2008-04-08, 9:11 PM #22
k-lite codec pack has a lot of conflicting components, the configuration isn't done very well and attempting to remove the codec pack from your system has been known to break things.

I can't recommend Combined Community Codec Pack more strongly. It's excellently done, comes with very good preset configuration options and it's simple to enable additional functionality if you need it. CCCP won't support everything but it will support everything produced by the various scenes and communities.
2008-04-08, 9:25 PM #23
I just installed CCCP - it doesn't want to run stereo through front and rear speakers (4.1 analog speakers)..just front..there are tons of audio options and I messed around with a few, but I can't get the rear speakers to work. With VLC, they work by default.. :confused:
woot!
2008-04-08, 9:31 PM #24
CCCP [/COLOR][/SIZE]
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2008-04-08, 9:37 PM #25
sorry, but i'm not going to invest money in a wireless keyboard to use a feature of my video card that works in one operating system but not another. thats just silly. i'd rather change my media player.
My girlfriend paid a lot of money for that tv; I want to watch ALL OF IT. - JM
2008-04-08, 9:42 PM #26
Originally posted by Jon`C:
VLC is slow because it takes more cycles (in total) to decode the same file as an up-to-date ffmpeg, coreavc, quicktime or what-have-you.

It also tends to look uglier. Sometimes I see decoding artifacts that aren't present with WMP or MPC, which are using CCCP on my system.

Also K-Lite should diaf. CCCP is the way to go.
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2008-04-08, 9:45 PM #27
Originally posted by Ford:
sorry, but i'm not going to invest money in a wireless keyboard to use a feature of my video card that works in one operating system but not another. thats just silly. i'd rather change my media player.


There is no media player that offers that functionality.
2008-04-08, 9:48 PM #28
the functionality of overlay rendering? Media Player Classic certainly does.
My girlfriend paid a lot of money for that tv; I want to watch ALL OF IT. - JM
2008-04-08, 9:48 PM #29
Pretty sure they make remote controls specifically for computers for this purpose.
2008-04-08, 10:16 PM #30
Originally posted by Ford:
the functionality of overlay rendering? Media Player Classic certainly does.


No, playing on two screens, with one having fullscreen and the other being windowed.

Your video card option is, as you said, only available in Vista Basic, period. You cannot run overlay mode in Aero, by design. As I said, not going to find that functionality on any media player.
2008-04-08, 10:21 PM #31
The overlay should work as long as the graphics card supports it. The only reason overlay doesn't work in Aero is because Vista is already using the overlay for desktop composition.

Rendering to a texture is faster anyway.
2008-04-08, 11:13 PM #32
i dont have a problem with using vista basic color settings. i dont need aero. its eye candy. unless theres some fancy thing i dont know about that increases usability.

plus if i really wanted to, i could choose to run aero, set MPC to overlay mode, and vista automatically switches to vista basic until i close MPC.
My girlfriend paid a lot of money for that tv; I want to watch ALL OF IT. - JM
2008-04-08, 11:15 PM #33
oh yeah and if you don't want to use vlc use realplayer it r0xx
D E A T H
2008-04-08, 11:17 PM #34
yoshi thinks hes funny.
My girlfriend paid a lot of money for that tv; I want to watch ALL OF IT. - JM
2008-04-08, 11:36 PM #35
Aero has more benefits than "LOL PURTY". It also really accelerates the desktop during situations where the GUI used to lag in XP and such. Stuff like moving windows, minimizing and maximizing, resizing, these should all be much faster under high load.
2008-04-09, 2:48 AM #36
I fail to see the point of fighting over the "best" media player. They like... all do the same thing in the end.
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2008-04-09, 3:02 AM #37
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2008-04-09, 3:40 AM #38
i like media player classic.... it does everything i need it to do... especially considering windvd and powerdvd fail to work ever since flashing my drive's firmware to make it region free

and of course foobar for music
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2008-04-09, 3:57 AM #39
foobar2k for music, MPC for videos, VLC if the earlier players fail in their purpose for some reason (that and non-R2 DVDs)
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