Windows Media Player Alternatives

Using verison 9 of WMP under Xp but wanted something with small footprint, nice interface and handles all files WMV and maybe more. Anone know any good alternatives that you use instead of WMV. I don't rip music but I mostlyh play WMV files. Thanks.

Gary

 

VLC is one, only it can't play some formats i believe, due to the licensing schemes. But it plays most, and without codecs.
Then there's Media Player Classic with some codec pack (search Wilders you should find it). Should play everything.
Then there is a port of mplayer in Windows too. Never tried it but should be good.

 

I like KMPlayer (uses builtin codecs) or MPC with Vista Codec Pack.

 

I'm also fond of VLC player but I quite like WMP11 as well

 

I use AVS dvd player, it will play almost anything from music to videos and dvd's. http://www.avsmedia.com/DVDPlayer/index.aspx It is also free.

 

VLC is one of my favorites. Nowadays I like MPlayer for Windows even more.

MPlayer for Windows

 

I like to use media player classic. Its part of the klite mega codec pack that i use. It can play almost any format and is updated frequently.

 

Hello,
I second MPlayer and VLC. But I also quite often use WMP. It's ugly, but it obeys my orders.
Mrk

 

Tried installs of the AVS player and also MPlayer but could not get either one to open WMV files. Can someone help? Also, I tried media classic but no go on WMV files - must be doing something wrong. Thanks for help.

Gary

 

LOL, there's that personal preference again, not only do I like the look of WMP11, I have a skin for VLC which makes it look like WMP11

 

Try KM Player,which plays WMV files for me-an outstanding app!

"KMPlayer is an excellent video and audio player which can play a large amount of formats such as VCD, DVD, AVI, MPEG-1/2/4, WMV, RealMedia, and QuickTime among others. It handles subtitles and allows you to capture screenshots"

Download

 

I think you do have a problem somewhere. I would say you haven't tried VLC yet, but WMP classic with the codec pack can/should play wmv. And it's light as a feather.

 

Try the GOM player. Fast, easy, powerful. It's free, simple and light! I love it!


http://www.gomlab.com/eng/main.html?langgtype=eng

 

Thanks a lot. I tried almost all of them and the only thing I could not get any of them to do is open links to WMVs from my Web site but they did all play WMVs fine on my drive.

Liked WMP 11 also but could not find where it showed me the total minutes on my WMV files like WMP 9 does. That is something I use all the time. Thanks again. Right now, will stick with 9 or go to WMP 11 if someone finds that I just missed display of total minutes on files. Thankas again.

Gary

 

Ah, then perhaps your problem lies in the browser settings. Are you trying to open inside the browser or click link - open media player? Inside the browser is a plugin thing; to open the player, you need to have that file extension configured in browser settings to open with the mp.

 

Anybody know how to configure mplayer to play WMV files you click on in Opera and thanks.

Gary

 

I've been using smplayer, a somewhat new frontend for mplayer, and have been impressed so far.

http://smplayer.sourceforge.net/

 

MPlayer for Windows includes SMPlayer too.

 

Everyone, meet OP.

Look under Preferences- Advanced- Downloads. Look for the extension, Edit.

Preferences- Advanced- Content- Plug-in options for available plugins.

 

Thanks and for now using SMPlayer with no problems and am able to open WMV and Mp3 files from Opera fairly well. Thanks to all.

Gary

 

What is this Mplayer site?

Are they repacking Mplayer, or do anything different to it?

I guess these guys are doing their own Mplayer updates, or changes...

 

There are various GUIs for mplayer (like SMPlayer or MPUI); they arent updates to mplayer itself.

 

Ok, I'd guess to say that VLC is an older project then SMPlayer.

I remember the day when MPlayer was the bomb in Linux, but then as it progressed issues were popping up all over the place, and I personally gravitated more towards Xine.

Overall Xine is a better media player then Mplayer, so I'd never use it in Windows, and VLC gets my vote!

 

I don't know where you got that info, but mplayer is one of the most popular media players..

 

I've ran Linux for 10 years and it's a known fact that yes Mplayer is very popular but Xine has better stability, and amongst Unix/Linux geeks that have been around both, at times Xine has a greater following.

Xine also has had less issues with it then Mplayer.

Now granted this is all taken from a Unix/Linux platform what I'm sharing, but based on what I've seen with Mplayer on these systems, that's why I'd give VLC a thumbs up over Mplayer in Windows...