Best media player for fans of customisation?

[meneedit]

Hey all,

I used to have The KMPlayer as my media player but these days it is infested with spyware, ads for rogue cleaning programs and most likely malware too.

What I liked about the KMplayer is that it had settings/preferences for just about everything I could think of. I'm now looking for a new media player that has just as many options and is completely free of infestation. I have absolutely no interest in VLC because it is hideous and even if it supports skins I'm still not interested.

So aside from VLC, which media players have seemingly endless customisation?

[sheppaul]

Potplayer from the same developer of The KMPlayer.

[Hoser Rob]

I don't think SMplayer is necessarily what you want as far as skins goes but it's a Linux port and is blissfully free of spyware et al. In Linux you just can't get away with those sort of things like you can in WIndows when you install apps. It also comes with its own codec library and won't install some crap codec pack and then repoint the whole system to it like so many WIndows media apps do when you install them.

I run it in Linux now but when I still used Windows it was my default video player. It's indeed very customizable ... in Linux I can even direct both the video and audio directly to the hardware ports. And it has a very good interface.

Agree about VLC ... it's not quite as bad IMO as yuou think but it's extremely overrated. SMplayer video playback performance is WAY better. Though if I still ran WIndows I'd probably use VLC for music playback.

[hello_hello]

MPC-HC is quite popular. One of the reasons I like it is it's not bloated with a squillion options and features, but if you're into lots of options and features, Potplayer would be a good choice. It appears to support skins.

I can't say I'd ever use a video player as an audio player. I prefer separate programs. foobar2000 is my choice there. It's fairly ugly as it arrives out of the box, but it's extremely configurable and there's lost off third party plugins for it.

The popular Windows video players come with their own built in codecs these days (MPC-HC, MPC-BE, Potplayer, VLC, SMPlayer etc). None of them install or rely on codec packs or system codecs even if they can use them.

[meneedit]

The popular Windows video players come with their own built in codecs these days (MPC-HC, MPC-BE, Potplayer, VLC, SMPlayer etc). None of them install or rely on codec packs or system codecs even if they can use them.

That's pretty cool. I thought occasional codec updates are required though in order for some formats to play correctly?

[hello_hello]

If need be, the codecs are updated when the player is updated.

Non directshow players such as VLC have always had to provide their own codecs. Back in the dark ages when directshow players such as MPC-HC could only decode a limited range of formats you were forced to install system codecs yourself. ffdshow was a pretty popular choice as it's a combination of codecs in a single directshow filter (I still use it). Codec packs were more common back then. They'd often install a player with a bunch of directshow codecs, but to the best of my knowledge non of the players I've mentioned have ever installed system codecs or codec packs themselves, and these days they play all the common formats "out of the box" anyway.

Codec packs are pretty 90's. I don't think there's many left these days. The only ones I can think of off the top of my head are CCCP, Windows 7/8 Codec Pack and K-Lite, none of which I think are particularly bad, as long as you only install one.

MPC-HC and SMPlayer have portable versions so you don't even need to install them. Just download, upzip and run.

[jseidel]

I agree PotPlayer is the best. I have downloaded PotPlayer from the author's site many times and never had any problems with adware or malware coming along for the ride. The amount of customization is amazing. Wish I could figure it all out
I also abandoned KM Player due to the payload of adware, malware and junk that comes with the download. I had to run Malewarebytes after every update install and it would come up with five or six new adware programs each time. Many of the sites that review PC software have been warning against KM Player for some time because of the junk that comes with the install no matter where you get the executable download.
J