Software player

[EpiMann]

Hi,

Can anyone recommend any software player for playing AVI, MPG, SVCD, VOB, MKV etc content from the hard drive?

It should be capable of:
- playlist so that you add many clips which it randomically plays
- put the player on the top of other windows
- define it's size which it keeps even if the new track starts to play with different aspect ratio

Windows media player does everything else but not the last bullet. It would be also nice if you can keep that window without any menus etc.

BTW, I have some .mkv files on my external hard drive and my computer doesn't know how to play them from there (tried VLC and WMP). If you transfer those files to the internal hard drive, it plays them correctly. What is causing this?

Thanks for your answers in advance.

Br,
EpiMann

[redwudz]

VLC Media Player would be my first choice. It includes it's own codecs, so nothing else to install. It will play VOBs and ISOs and most any format. Media Player Classic and MPC-HC (Home Cinema version) are also popular, especially for MKV.

MKVs should play fine from a external drive unless it's slow. I would try MPC-HC for them.

[EpiMann]

Thanks for the answer.

I have VLC myself but somehow I haven't learnt to use it

How can I make a playlist there and how to keep it's window size when it's playing videos that are different sizes? I found an option for keeping it on the top of the other windows. I think I also need to find some skin for it since the original appearance is not so appealing ...

And what comes to playing .mkv files from the external hard drive, I think I have reboot my computer as soon as I have a possibility to do so. VLC crashed everytime when I started .mkv from the external drive but from internal drive they worked. WMP didn't want to play them at all but it didn't crash.

BTW, I forgot to mention that I have Windows Vista but I do not think that is relevant.

[redwudz]

With VLC 9, just click on Playlist>Show Playlist and you can add the files to it. But MPC-HC is still better for MKV playback. Not sure about keeping size with VLC, but there should be something for that in the setup. VLC has a lot of options.

[EpiMann]

I rebooted my computer but it still doesn't play those .mkv files from external USB hard drive. But I installed that MPC-HC and it plays them ok. Strange.

In fact this MPC-HC would be perfect but I wasn't able to find one option that I really would need. You cannot lock the window size so whenever it starts to play next video clip, it changes the window size according to that clip. I would like to have one fixed size (very small one). Isn't there any software that can do it or did I miss some setting from MPC-HC?

The reason for this demand is that it's not nice if the screen size varies when I'm playing poker online

[jagabo]

MPCHC -- try turning off Auto Zoom. View -> Options -> Playback.

[EpiMann]

GREAT, that did it!

Thanks for both of you.