Better media player than VLC?

[meneedit]

Hi all.

I used to occasionally have problems with PowerDVD playing burnt DVDs. If I tried to fast-forward PowerDVD would come up with a message saying "The DVD disc might have been damaged so as to inhibit playback operation."

All the DVDs I use are trusted high quality brands and the movies are burned at 8x in Nero.

So anyway, to cut a long story short, nowadays all the movies that I burn using the same discs/method/program wont play in PowerDVD at all. As soon as the disc starts to load i get the same message.

The same movies work fine in other media players and all hardware DVD players that I have access to.

So rather than try to find a way to fix the problem so that I can keep using PowerDVD, I thought I would just bite the bullet and find an alternative player.

So I asked around on a few different forums and VLC popped up quite a few times being highly recommended. When I inquired about an alternative media player I specified that there are some things that PowerDVD does that I cannot live without:

1. The shuttle for fast forward.
2. If I wanted to go to the DVD menu all I would have to do is right-click on the screen and then click on title menu.
3. Easy access to turn subtitles on/off.
4. Ability to skip warnings and intro logos (with "anyDVD" in the system tray.)


....I had already used VLC before a few times and used to think it was OK. However, today, even with the latest version of VLC it is still VERY buggy and has lots of annoying things:


1. For starters you can't have Alt-F4 as exit.
2. VLC crashes a hell of a lot if I go through a folder containing hundreds of videos and open them up one by one (not all at the same time obviously).
3. I tried to set a shortcut key to enable me to skip through warning messages, etc.... but it just keeps going back to the main menu of the dvd. Something I used to be able to do in PowerDVD... hmmm.... demented. (VLC doesn't seem to like anyDVD)
4. There is no shuttle to fast forward with.


So I am just wondering if anybody knows of a decent media player that doesn't crash randomly and is ideal for playing DVDs? (No annoyances)

[redwudz]

Maybe Media Player Classic Home Cinema?

[PuzZLeR]

Copy to, and run it from, your hard drive instead when you want to view it in full, which you can always delete after.

It's an extra step, but it relieves alot of headaches with alot of different players when they are not burdened with a decoding task from a fast spinning disc on a tray likely not optimized for movie viewing in the first place.

[meneedit]

Maybe Media Player Classic Home Cinema?

I dunno.... sorry mate but I'm really gonna need specifics along with recommendations.

e.g. Does media player classic home cinema cover the things that I would like in a player?

I'm guessing it probably doesn't.

[KiwiKid]

I suggest trying KMPlayer. Changing to another built in skin gives you a fast-forward button. I didn't find VLC that good for subtitles...KMP is great. The default keyboard shortcuts are also one of the reasons I use it (VLC's leave a lot to be desired although you can change them).

[meneedit]

yeah, ya might be able to change them but it doesn't let you have alt-f4 as exit which is absolutely retarded.

I'll check out KM PLayer. Thanks mate.

Does it crash when you open several small files (of different types) one after the other?