Newbie needing help with picking player type

[lordmajax]

Hi all,

I'm new and just learning about the different media players. I was wondering if somebody could give me their advice. I play alot of .mpg, .avi, .ogm, and almost every other type of extension you can think of. I have a 64 gig hard drive and am not worried about all the different media players taking up room but I;m getting confused at all the different ones. Some, like Quicktime startup as soon as my pc does. I'm looking for a media player that can play all the different type of file extensions. If this player exist could someone tell me about it? Also, would I then be able to get rid of all these other nine billion media players that I've got?

[drewson99]

doesn't WMP play all of those you listed? it is what I use, haven't had anything not play.

[lordmajax]

I didn't think that ogm played on WMP. I've seen where people are saying that WMP takes up alot of memory.

[Prospero424]

I would susggest three players for all of those file types. They are all excellent and free. Basically, it's just a matter of taste in choosing between them.

First is Zoom Player (which I prefer mostly because of it's overwhelming amount of options and the playlist implementation)

Second is BSPlayer (which is definitely the prettiest and every bit as functional)

Third is Media Player Classic (which supports the most variety of file types in conjunction with the Quicktime Alternative and Real Alternative packages and includes its own MPEG2, DTS, and AC3 decoders)

Regardless of which player you choose, however, you will still need to install the Ogg Directshow filters if you want to watch OGMs and you will have to have decoders for all oif the codecs. I suggest installing ffdshow, which can handle most video codecs.

[Prospero424]

I forgot to mention Video LAN Client (VLC), which is the most technically impressive player I have used. It's also open source.