Free video, DVD and audio player applications
I have been very dissatisfied with Windows Media Player since I first saw it. Although Media Player 12 included in Windows 7 does its job much much better than previous versions, I don't like the look and am still faithful to its free replacements. Try them, love them!
Codecs
Start with – for many people mysterious – codecs. These coder-decoder programs take care about decoding (or encoding) all those different media file types out there. Codecs are fundamental to playback of your multimedia files. They are usually included with good multimedia player software (and more codecs a player has, the more different multimedia files it can handle) or it is possible to download them in a codec pack or separately.
So, if you’ve ever wondered why you can’t watch certain videos on your computer but your friend’s machine plays them perfectly, all the magic can be just in codecs your friend has installed. I recommend using codec packs as they will install all codecs you will ever need (but also the ones you will never use) and prevent you from searching the new specific codec each time you are unable to play back some multimedia file. I was using All In 1 and K-Lite Codec Pack which were very good but every now and then I needed to play some strange file format that these codecs couldn’t handle.
Rescue came with CCCP codec pack which is great piece of software. Since I got it, I haven’t had a problem with playback or creation of any multimedia file. I definitely recommend visiting CCCP (website) and download the codec pack! Also download QuickTime Alternative to play back QuickTime files (.mov, .3gp, …) without having to install the official Apple’s QuickTime Player.
But now, lets talk about players finally…
Audio player
AIMP player
Searching for the best audio player and not wanting to use resource hungry Winamp? AIMP player is for you. This little application is pure genius you can use for playback of audio files and CDs, ripping audio CDs (making .mp3 files (and other) from your CD collection), conversion between different audio formats, editing ID tags of MP3 files or recording from microphone.
AIMP audio player
Intuitive interface and keyboard control, 18-band equalizer, sound effects, support for different playlist formats, recording online radio, multilingual support, customizable skins, simple minimized version of the player… all that and for free!
You can’t go wrong with AIMP installed on you computer!
Video and DVD players
The KMPlayer
Video, DVD and audio player – that’s a short description of The KMPlayer (don’t confuse it with KMPlayer for Linux). Simply a complete multimedia player. If you don’t need advanced audio playback, this can be the only multimedia player you will use. I actually used it that way for some time, but as I need to play back my recorded material which is in better audio quality format than usual audio files, I left audio playback for AIMP and set up The KMPlayer to take care just about video files.
But for video playback I am using exclusively The KMPlayer as it handles everything I throw at it. There is no problem for the player with displaying subtitles, playing back damaged AVI videos, making screenshots from video, applying audio and video effects, changing playback speed, looping sections of videos, using remote or keyboard control, changing skin of the application and many others due to extensive possibility of configuration. And, of course, it supports a lot of different video and audio formats.
KMPlayer
Visit The KMPlayer’s homepage and download this amazing program.
Just to mention an alternative to The KMPlayer, you can use fantastic open-source cross-platform application called VLC media player which doesn’t look that nice out of the box, but you can always change it by applying different skins.
Miro
The last amazing multimedia player I’d like to tell you about is Miro. The difference here is that Miro is Internet television application and I doubt anybody uses it for standard multimedia playback as it is really huge (for multimedia player) and resource eater.
Miro offers large amount of video and audio RSS channels divided to different categories. You just simply find the channel you are interested in and subscribe to it. Miro will download new videos from the channel as soon as they are available. Don’t have to remember you need Internet connection, do I? The videos will be deleted from your computer after some time if you don’t choose otherwise.
Miro Internet television
Miro is completely free and can be installed also on Mac or Linux. Just grab it and try it out.
That’s all for today, next time we will have a look at free picture viewers and organizers.
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