List your favorite software player/codecs

[Pliny]

I'm trying to find out the best video player and video software to use on WinXP when I watch HD content on my LCD TV through my black Macbook (C2D, 2.0 GHz, 2 GB RAM). It's connected by a mini-DVI-to DVI converter and a DVI-to-HDMI cable. The audio is run through an optical cable from the Macbook.

I have 300 the movie in converted avc1 1920x800 progressive MKV with AC3 sound. I tried The Core Media Player. It started to play the video fine, then I noticed the lip-sync went off. Then the video would stop, but the audio would continue and the video would catch up. Not good. I like this player a lot, so I'm wondering if there's a way to increase its usage priority.

I tried Media Player Classic, but it forced display of the built-in subtitles even though I had automatic subtitles turned off in the prefs. It would not let me turn them off in the menu even after stopping playback. No other player display the subtitles automatically (they are not burned in either). Also, my receiver doesn't display the Dolby Digital signal when using this player. It says PCM, but that's it.

I've written off VLC for now because it makes a skipping sound when outputting AC3 and DTS through SPDIF. I tried VLC on the OS X side and the sound played fine, but it started doing the same video stuttering that MPC did.

I have the Haali Media Splitter installed. Any other suggestions? I'm curious about other people's setups.

[Krispy Kritter]

I've never used a Mac, but I would check your cpu usage (if possible) during playback. Playback of HD content is beyond the limits of the average users PC. Aside from that, most playback issues are driver (specifically video) and/or codec related.

[redwudz]

I've been using The KMPlayer lately. But if your system isn't keeping up, it may not help.