Best software to play DVDs

Any suggestions on best software for playing DVDs on the computer? I've looked into PowerDVD and InterVideo among others, but am wondering if VLC Player isn't the best/easiest/lightest way to go.

What do you guys use?

I'm mostly looking for something simple that doesn't take up a lot of space. That's why I'm thinking of using VLC for DVDs since I already use it for media clips.

 

Over the years I have tried most of the DVD players for windows and have finally settled on Windows media Player 11. It does about as good a job as any of them.

 

Windows Media Player works well, but Media Player Classic can play DVD's on my insanely low-spec laptop when nothing else can. On my newer machine I also like KMPlayer.

 

Same here but im always open for suggestions on the best video quality

 

Dunno if its the best but I like to use media player classic, it handles all my video/audio playback just fine.

 

I have to agree, I also have Media Player Classic installed and it does work well also. But of course the quality of the picture reproduction depends more on your hardware than your software player.

bigc

 

I'm using PowerDVD and have been quite happy with it, other than it seems to take forever to load. Plus occasionally it gets confused about settings for subtitles -- normally I'm set for none, but it'll occasionally decide to display French.

 

I agree with PowerDVD being a little quirky. I use it on my pc where I have more power than my laptop.
Thanks for the suggestions everyone. I tried a few, but I like the playback on VLC best so far.

 

I have tried many, and like the fact that VLC has a zip format. No installs is fine by me.

Sul.

 

WMP 11 does a swell job, you can easily control the video brightness, contrast and hue on the fly.

 

But WMP 11 does not just play a movie or some streaming shows if you download it from the net.
I bought XP Pro when I built my pc.
I need to install codecs and I think some drivers.
What is the best program to add to WMP 11 to get it to show movies?
Hugger

 

By itself, WMP cannot play DVDs; you need a plug-in that is not free.

My favorite "paid" application for playing DVDs is Showtime.
-Just a personal preference.

Overall, (and because I'm cheap !), I prefer the free VLC player because it offers every feature I need, is constantly updated, and never fails to work in my installs. Other applications such as MP Classic and KMPlayer are not as consistently reliable.

 

I like PowerDVD myself but like someone said before it`s too slow at startup. Other than this i think it`s one of the best DVD playback apps available with both HDDVD & Bluray support.

I`m running either VLC or MPC for dvd playback at the moment