6 ms·

Or for folks like me: I just want to play my video files no fuss, no muss. Something other major media players seem to have more trouble with than they should.

Or for folks like me: I just want to play my video files no fuss, no muss. Something other major media players seem to have more trouble with than they should. But not VLC! 100% of the time it works every time!

aerovistae 10y ago
Doesn't matter what filetype it is...it just runs them all, instantly, like magic. I have never missed Windows Media Player for even a moment.
- rsync 10y ago
  "Doesn't matter what filetype it is...it just runs them all, instantly, like magic." Does it play DVD ISO files ? Can you use the menus, etc. ? Just curious ... XBMC back in 2004 could do this (navigate and use DVD menus in a DVD ISO) but then that feature actually went away in the following years, never to return ...
  - antisthenes 10y ago
    > Does it play DVD ISO files ? Can you use the menus, etc. ? Those are semi-loaded questions. It can and does play .vob files, which is enough if you actually just want to watch the video, which is VLC's primary use case. It is not a full media manager with additional functionality.
    - nereus 10y ago
      It does play DVD ISO files. Just drag and drop them in, hit play.
  - thaumasiotes 10y ago
    antisthenes notwithstanding, VLC does play DVD .iso files and you can use the menus.
    - rsync 10y ago
      Wow - that's fantastic. Thanks.
  - ewams 10y ago
    Yes, with mouse, keyboard, or remote.
  - matt-attack 10y ago
    The question you should be asking is, "does it properly ignore DVD menus?"
    - kagamine 10y ago
      The question you should be asking is "can it find its way around DRM?" When I play some bought DVDs with VLC the DRM stops the DVD getting to the menu stage (on Linux especially) and I need the menu to change the language for my children who don't always want English[1]. Skipping the menu doesn't let me change the language, and not using the skip-menu option means the DVD won't play. Disney are not alone in this, but are the guilty party that comes to mind. 1. Even better when the nordic regional edition of a film has something crazy like Finnish as the default language, and English isn't there at all, but my children want the voices in Norwegian. So skipping menus goes straight to the film in language that doesn't even make sense to Finns. Thanks DVD producers, there isn't enough frustration in my life but with your help and my money we're reaching levels close to 100%.
      - heinrich5991 10y ago
        I was usually able to switch the language by right-clicking, there's a submenu that lets you select which audio stream (i.e. which language) you want to listen to.
- ignorantguy 10y ago
  You are right. I found vlc in 2006 and never looked back.
DanBC 10y ago
On my low end machine VLC struggles with H265, where KMP doesn't. (But I still strongly prefer VLC for everything else.)
- Nadya 10y ago
  Have you tried MPC-HC? I haven't put it up to the test with KMP, but I do know it beats VLC for H265 playback.
  - astrange 10y ago
    All these players use the same code, you know. Here it is: https://github.com/FFmpeg/FFmpeg/blob/master/libavcodec/hevc.c https://github.com/FFmpeg/FFmpeg/blob/master/libavcodec/hevc... I'd be pretty surprised if there was a major difference between them. Maybe some bugs in the rendering path, or one player isn't doing threads properly?
    - gcb0 10y ago
      not really. they have some particular demuxers, and renderers. e.g. you can get better color output and better subtitle features on mpc-hc
    - Nadya 10y ago
      They should run the same in theory - but they don't in practice. It is typically more noticeable on older hardware, on my current rig I probably wouldn't be able to tell the difference. Maybe that's changed in more recent versions, but I no longer have my older rig to do comparison tests. Also what gcb0 said is true as well - but not everyone needs subtitles for their videos. My 'expertise' in media player selection is based on getting the absolute best quality playback for my anime. My primary reasons for switching from VLC were not due to efficiency - but due to shadow being washed out and the NVidia color issues. Both "fixable" in that you can "improve them" but not quite "remove them entirely". (Both issues are easily Google-able as well) There are many, many, many image comparisons between VLC and MPC-HC (and sometimes MPV for Linux). The one thing in common is that MPC and MPV both look very similar while VLC always has a washed out look and occasionally faulty colors (by default). Unfortunately, many people are terrible at screenshotting the exact same frame but even from similar frames one can pretty easily spot the differences between VLC and MPC-HC. Example of the shadow/color differences: Side-by-side w/ CPU usage difference: http://i.imgur.com/xJnrS2f.jpg http://i.imgur.com/xJnrS2f.jpg http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/176895 http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/176895 (excuse the distortion, I was 1px off on my cropping) E: Some people prefer the washed-out look finding it more aesthetically pleasing. That's fine and I'm cool with that, long as I don't need to watch anything with them. Many people also "don't give a shit" because they'd never know the difference without seeing the side-by-side or comparison of the frame. That's fine too - but not something I personally agree with. :) I prefer better quality even if I have to looking for it.
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]

aerovistae 10y ago

Doesn't matter what filetype it is...it just runs them all, instantly, like magic. I have never missed Windows Media Player for even a moment.

rsync 10y ago
"Doesn't matter what filetype it is...it just runs them all, instantly, like magic." Does it play DVD ISO files ? Can you use the menus, etc. ? Just curious ... XBMC back in 2004 could do this (navigate and use DVD menus in a DVD ISO) but then that feature actually went away in the following years, never to return ...
- antisthenes 10y ago
  > Does it play DVD ISO files ? Can you use the menus, etc. ? Those are semi-loaded questions. It can and does play .vob files, which is enough if you actually just want to watch the video, which is VLC's primary use case. It is not a full media manager with additional functionality.
  - nereus 10y ago
    It does play DVD ISO files. Just drag and drop them in, hit play.
- thaumasiotes 10y ago
  antisthenes notwithstanding, VLC does play DVD .iso files and you can use the menus.
  - rsync 10y ago
    Wow - that's fantastic. Thanks.
- ewams 10y ago
  Yes, with mouse, keyboard, or remote.
- matt-attack 10y ago
  The question you should be asking is, "does it properly ignore DVD menus?"
  - kagamine 10y ago
    The question you should be asking is "can it find its way around DRM?" When I play some bought DVDs with VLC the DRM stops the DVD getting to the menu stage (on Linux especially) and I need the menu to change the language for my children who don't always want English[1]. Skipping the menu doesn't let me change the language, and not using the skip-menu option means the DVD won't play. Disney are not alone in this, but are the guilty party that comes to mind. 1. Even better when the nordic regional edition of a film has something crazy like Finnish as the default language, and English isn't there at all, but my children want the voices in Norwegian. So skipping menus goes straight to the film in language that doesn't even make sense to Finns. Thanks DVD producers, there isn't enough frustration in my life but with your help and my money we're reaching levels close to 100%.
    - heinrich5991 10y ago
      I was usually able to switch the language by right-clicking, there's a submenu that lets you select which audio stream (i.e. which language) you want to listen to.
ignorantguy 10y ago
You are right. I found vlc in 2006 and never looked back.

DanBC 10y ago

On my low end machine VLC struggles with H265, where KMP doesn't. (But I still strongly prefer VLC for everything else.)

Nadya 10y ago
Have you tried MPC-HC? I haven't put it up to the test with KMP, but I do know it beats VLC for H265 playback.
- astrange 10y ago
  All these players use the same code, you know. Here it is: https://github.com/FFmpeg/FFmpeg/blob/master/libavcodec/hevc.c https://github.com/FFmpeg/FFmpeg/blob/master/libavcodec/hevc... I'd be pretty surprised if there was a major difference between them. Maybe some bugs in the rendering path, or one player isn't doing threads properly?
  - gcb0 10y ago
    not really. they have some particular demuxers, and renderers. e.g. you can get better color output and better subtitle features on mpc-hc
  - Nadya 10y ago
    They should run the same in theory - but they don't in practice. It is typically more noticeable on older hardware, on my current rig I probably wouldn't be able to tell the difference. Maybe that's changed in more recent versions, but I no longer have my older rig to do comparison tests. Also what gcb0 said is true as well - but not everyone needs subtitles for their videos. My 'expertise' in media player selection is based on getting the absolute best quality playback for my anime. My primary reasons for switching from VLC were not due to efficiency - but due to shadow being washed out and the NVidia color issues. Both "fixable" in that you can "improve them" but not quite "remove them entirely". (Both issues are easily Google-able as well) There are many, many, many image comparisons between VLC and MPC-HC (and sometimes MPV for Linux). The one thing in common is that MPC and MPV both look very similar while VLC always has a washed out look and occasionally faulty colors (by default). Unfortunately, many people are terrible at screenshotting the exact same frame but even from similar frames one can pretty easily spot the differences between VLC and MPC-HC. Example of the shadow/color differences: Side-by-side w/ CPU usage difference: http://i.imgur.com/xJnrS2f.jpg http://i.imgur.com/xJnrS2f.jpg http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/176895 http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/176895 (excuse the distortion, I was 1px off on my cropping) E: Some people prefer the washed-out look finding it more aesthetically pleasing. That's fine and I'm cool with that, long as I don't need to watch anything with them. Many people also "don't give a shit" because they'd never know the difference without seeing the side-by-side or comparison of the frame. That's fine too - but not something I personally agree with. :) I prefer better quality even if I have to looking for it.

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]