Most popular video player on XP/Vista - What do you use?

[prankstare]

A very simple and basic question: which software are you using for video playback on XP? And why?

I make use of Media Classic Home Cinema as of now.
Reason: as I am newbie to video, this player is what has suit me in the sense of format compatibility.

Thanks!

[redwudz]

Zoom Player Pro, VLC, MPC-HC. I prefer Zoom for the easy configuration. [s:e0c674aad0]MPC-HC seems a PITA at times. When you are in full screen mode, there's no way I've found to quit the player using the mouse, so you have to use the KB or exit full screen first. [/s:e0c674aad0]

I use VLC for playback of .ISO video and .VOBs or VIDEO_TS folders. I use MPC_HC for HD MKV files. I also use Arcsoft TotalMedia Theater 3 for Blu-ray playback.

EDIT: It turns out my context menu was selecting an older version of MPC. Fixed that and 'Exit' is now available.

[johns0]

MPC-HC seems a PITA at times. When you are in full screen mode, there's no way I've found to quit the player using the mouse, so you have to use the KB or exit full screen first.

With mpc-hc i just right click on the screen in full screen mode and choose exit from the submenu,you dont get that option?

[prankstare]

Dang... Have just tried VLC here, and it shows a much brighter and clearer picture image than MPC-HC (in the default codec parameters).

[jagabo]

I use MPCHC most of the time now.

Prankstare, I see no significant difference between MPCHC and VLC. Are you sure you don't just have a video renderer issue?

[neomaine]

MPCHC here....

[usta]

Primary Player: GOM Player. It is simple and intuitive. Just like VLC, the decoding of video is based on internal codecs.
Secondary Player: VLC Player. Just in case GOM Player fails...

[prankstare]

Prankstare, I see no significant difference between MPCHC and VLC. Are you sure you don't just have a video renderer issue?

I think my MPCHC is using ffdshow and VLC its internal codecs. I haven't changed anything as far as codecs settings are concerned.

[jagabo]

prankstare, once again, I doubt the differences you see between VLC and MPCHC have anything to do with the video decoders but rather what output device they are using.

[prankstare]

jagabo: by output device you mean what exactly? Like my CRT or LCD monitor for example? Pardon my ignorance, hehe - you're definitely talking to a newbie here =p

All I did was play two identical video files at the same time side by side, one using MPCHC and the other VLC.

[redwudz]

MPC-HC seems a PITA at times. When you are in full screen mode, there's no way I've found to quit the player using the mouse, so you have to use the KB or exit full screen first.

With mpc-hc i just right click on the screen in full screen mode and choose exit from the submenu,you dont get that option?

I found out I had multiple versions of MPC and MPC-HC and my context menu was selecting the version bundled with Real Alternative player. Deleted them all and reinstalled MPC-HC and now I have a 'Exit'. I've modified my earlier post. Thanks for getting me to fix it.

[Constant Gardener]

MPC-HC usually, rarely VLC. Sometimes I encounter DVD menus that do not work properly with one but will work with the other.

[Gavino]

All I did was play two identical video files at the same time side by side, one using MPCHC and the other VLC.

That's the problem - you can't do a proper comparison this way, as only the first will be rendered optimally.
You need to view them one after the other (and have a good visual memory ).

[jagabo]

jagabo: by output device you mean what exactly? Like my CRT or LCD monitor for example? Pardon my ignorance, hehe - you're definitely talking to a newbie here =p

All I did was play two identical video files at the same time side by side, one using MPCHC and the other VLC.

All modern graphics cards support video overlay. This uses a separate part of the graphics chip to display video. Video overlay has it's own proc amp (brightness, contrast, color controls) and other video processing options like deinterlacing, deblocking, sharpening, etc. Only one program at a time can use video overlay. So if you play a video with two media players at the same time one will be using video overlay and the other will be using Windows GDI to display RGB video on the desktop. The two can look very different. Try starting them in the opposite order and you may find the opposite one looks much better. You can adjust the video overlay settings via the graphics card's setup applet (from the Control Panel).

By output device I don't mean the monitor but the graphics card's rendering device -- that which accepts video from the player and displays it on the screen. In MPCHC you can go to View -> Options Playback -> Output and select any of several renders (Systen Default, Overlay Mixer, VMR7 VMR9, etc). In VLC it's Tools -> Preferences -> Video -> Output.

[redwudz]

From our Glossary, because overlay can be confusing. You can also look at the Wikipedia page for a bit more info:

Overlay, Hardware Overlay, Video Overlay
Hardware overlay, also known as video overlay, is a method of rendering an image to a display screen with a dedicated memory buffer inside computer video hardware, to display a fast-moving video image such as a computer game, a DVD, or the signal from a TV card. Hardware overlay is supported by most video cards (since about 1998) and media players. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hardware_overlay

EDIT: I looks like jagabo covered it pretty well.

[prankstare]

Man, now I have a million questions to make - although this is getting a little off-topic, I think (if moderators could split and open me a new thread under the subject "Overlay", that'd be nice ).

That's the problem - you can't do a proper comparison this way, as only the first will be rendered optimally...

...Try starting them in the opposite order and you may find the opposite one looks much better...

Yeah, I noticed. I started the opposite way now and MPCHC looks much better than VLC this time.

All modern graphics cards support video overlay.

Is this related to what they call "PureVideo" (NVIDIA) and "Avivo" (ATI) in their videocards? And do these cards, which have these technologies, have a specific amount of physical hardware dedicated only to process video in them? If so, then that means if no dedicated physical hardware, no overlay is possible in the software player and thus decreased quality during playback.

I wonder if motherboards with on-board video chipsets are capable of overlay though.

In VLC it's Tools -> Preferences -> Video -> Output.

Hum, just checked this here. In the "output" it says default - does this mean it is using overlay by default? There is also another box on the right called "accelerated video output (overlay)" which is ticked.

[redwudz]

Accelerated in VLC is referring to the overlay setup. Most all cards now seem to have overlay settings. My motherboards with on-board video do and my laptop does. If you want to play Blu-rays, hardware acceleration is pretty much required.

Is this related to what they call "PureVideo" (NVIDIA) and "Avivo" (ATI) in their videocards?

I believe so.

Since this is your topic, you can discuss overlay without being off topic, since it still concerns software video players. But if you have specific overlay questions, you can start a new topic in the 'Software Playing' Forum.

[jagabo]

Video overlay was originally developed to allow full motion, full color video on computers before they were powerful enough to do so themselves. The computer would draw a black box on the screen and a second video card (daisy chained via cables) would find the black box and put the video there. That same basic technique is still used but it is now handled by the graphics card.

So video overlay itself deals mainly with putting YUV video onto the RGB monitor and scaling it (small window to full screen). Subsequent generations of Directshow along with PureVideo and Avivo build upon that and add all kinds of video processing features. These can include color correction, sharpening, deinterlacing, deblocking, inverse telecine, and now even the full decompression of MPEG 2, h.264 and WMV video with the latest Microsoft DXVA interface.

Set MPCHC up to use the "VMR9 (renderless)" output device. While a video is playing try selecting Play -> Shaders... any of the filters. These are done on the graphics card using the shading hardware, originally developed for 3d.

[prankstare]

Hummm. Interesting! Thanks!

Now I wonder if VirtualDub also uses overlay because as far as I can recall whenever you load some video up it shows two screen windows of that same video.

[jagabo]

VirtualDub does not use video overlay for it's before and after windows. Using Options -> Preferences -> Display you can see options for using DirectX and video overlay but I've never seen this work with the main I/O panes. Being an editor, it shouldn't use video overlay. You need to see pixels exactly as they are when editing.