PotPlayer now Adware!

[Chopper73]

I assume all of you that see any kind of Ad screens during installation are actually allowing the installer full access to the Internet then?

When I run the latest (1.7.20538) or previous installers, my Firewall pops up after the unpacking stage; potplayer.exe is asking for access; I select 'disable once' and don't receive a single prompt to install any other software during the rest of the install; absolutely nothing, not one screen or tick-box appears.

Just ran the installer through virustotal.com; not a single detection with any engine. It appears to try and make a couple of network connections, one to daum.net and another to a cloudfront account. I'm guessing if it can't get the latest Ad info from these sites, it doesn't bother showing the relevant installer screens at all.

[teodz1984]

PotPlayer PORTABLEAPPZ
WHAT THESE UNOFFICIAL PORTABLE APP MAKERS DO IT
UNZIP THE ORIGINAL INSTALLER and put just the essential files into a directory you sepcify. These follow a certain file directory structure
.\apps
.\data


Instructions
1. Run the Portable App Maker .. It will unzip the installers into a portable directory without the adware/crapware/spyware
2. If you want a non portable ... just replace the files from you usual intall library with the ones in the .\apps\ directory
If you have to reset settings to default just delete the .\data subdir.


(Optional) Just make you download the latest .exes from the links below
PotPlayerSetup.exe,
PotPlayerSetup64.exe,
OpenCodecSetup.exe,
OpenCodecSetup64.exe in its folder.

Download Portable PotPlayer Online (0.8 MB) 24/12/18



The is a similar tool to make a portable appz version of KMPLayer too
https://portableappz.blogspot.com/2018/11/kmplayer-42217-2018102215-64-bit.html

[terrypin]

OT, but does anyone have a valid email ID for the Potplayer forum administrator (who may also be the developer). Using the link given, my email bounced, with "No such user: <ahahalive@daum.net>"

I'm unable to login to the forum or to complete the Forgot Password routine, or to re-register. Yet I get a message that my username and email ID are already in use.

Terry, East Grinstead, UK

[Dreamer]

I'm not sure if anyone care about the forum, try to contact author via email at homepage > https://potplayer.daum.net/ > scroll down and click to "CONTACT US", but I'm not sure if he will help you.

Anyway, you can report a bug via email above.

[flashandpan007]

This is what you get
https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/393452-PotPlayer-now-Adware!#post2553409

Better use MPC-HC or MPC-BE

[Havokdan]

Email is valid, every beta released, I send an email to that address and so far never failed.

[flashandpan007]

It didn‘t fail. Please read again.

[Havokdan]

It didn‘t fail. Please read again.

I was talking to @terrypin

[ConverterCrazy]

Tried everything above.

The Internet Security still blocks the Ad – blocks access to domain.

Tried @Nilzzon suggestion. Can see all files in 7zip but not executable Setup PotPlayer file.
Can you explain the process, please? Thanks

[Baldrick]

Tried everything above.

The Internet Security still blocks the Ad – blocks access to domain.

Tried @Nilzzon suggestion. Can see all files in 7zip but not executable Setup PotPlayer file.
Can you explain the process, please? Thanks

If I extract all files from the PotPlayerSetup.exe to a folder I get all .exe files, like PotPlayer.exe, PotPlayermini.exe, etc. I'm using 7zip.

[Dreamer]

What about portable version, it has no ad.

https://portableapps.com/apps/music_video/potplayer-portable

[Baldrick]

A portable app is in a zip with no installation. At least in my world.

[ZetaStax]

Even before that, PotPlayer has always and keeps trying to contact multiple servers upon starting, even if you disable automatic updates and the like. Unsure what data is being sent, but it's the reason why I could never trust them. Here is a list of the URLs that I had to blacklist.

::1 play.kakao.com
::1 track.tiara.daum.net
::1 t1.daumcdn.net
::1 p1-play.edge4k.com
::1 p2-play.edge4k.com
::1 p1-play.kgslb.com
::1 p2-play.kgslb.com

[ConverterCrazy]

A portable app is in a zip with no installation. At least in my world.

It worked.

[Catoblepas88]

Pot player just showed me a pop-up ad in the bottom right of the screen as I opened a video! I was too shocked to take a screenshot and then it disappeared. Sneaky!

Edit: I have found another user on reddit who managed to get pictures

https://www.reddit.com/r/potplayer/comments/e7afpj/pot_player_displaying_pop_up_ads_while_playing/


[Attachment 51078 - Click to enlarge]

[ausrob]

Have used Potplayer for many years now and it is the only player that does absolutely everything for me.
I have to use subtitles all the time and Potplayer never failed me UNTIL NOW !!
Latest updates (since about mid this year) have totally stuffed the subtitle display.
Subtitles hang on the screen for long after the dialogue is spoken (till next line of dialogue and that can be several minutes in some cases)
I reported to potplayer and they said they changed things because they were having problems with short duration teletext subtitles.
Funny I use subtitles all the time for 3 years and never encountered any issues at all in fact potplayer was the only player (have tried them all believe me)that did all my subtitles perfectly.
When I told them this they said it is not a bug and was intentional so I told them the subtitles are now "crazy"
They got stroppy and told me to use the older version.
I like to always use updated software for security reasons but since they have ruined the latest versions for my use I will have to use the old version or go back to VLC (the second best player there is)

[Budman1]

I agree wholeheartedly. I need many of the features in potplayer for writing software but lately I have found MPC-BE has the same features I need except return to set size when I hit stop. I also found the author seems to be arrogant now and doesn't care about input. Apparently he thinks it's so good now everyone will put up with any bad changes he implements.

[jazzyguy11]

I just downloaded the update and cause my laptop win10 to freeze, it takes at least 3 mins to open one application.

Which i soon realise the update will prompt you install an antivirus call Segurazo - Everyone beware when you try to update Potplayer

[drstew12]

If I install an old version of Potplayer, can I avoid the adware? If so, which one should I install?

[KarMa]

If I install an old version of Potplayer, can I avoid the adware? If so, which one should I install?

Probably one that was released months before this thread was started.

[netmask56]

If one pays attention when installing you can simply untick what you don't want - I have the latest and no problems...

[darkknight145]

Had an issue yesterday installing the latest update, Kapersky kept blocking the install because it detected adds.... Hadn't even got to the install page that allows you not to install the crap bundled software. Had to pause Kapersky to get the install to complete .... Not good if you have to do this with every update

[p_l]

"Updates" these days seem to be less about bug fixes and improved features than about injecting new spyware and/or spamware.

[Dreamer]

If I install an old version of Potplayer, can I avoid the adware? If so, which one should I install?

You can find the last versions without ads here, with the suffix "Adfree".

https://www.videohelp.com/software/PotPlayer#changelog

New portable versions (32-bit only) without ads are here (no beta versions, releases are not instant):

https://portableapps.com/apps/music_video/potplayer-portable

[october262]

new version just released to warn that potplayer has Ads - https://www.videohelp.com/software/PotPlayer

[scj643]

If anyone is curious. I captured some web traffic that PotPlayer uses on startup and found some interesting results. It logs when you launch the app with the following information.

It logs run information to https://stat.tiara.kakao.com/track

{
	"sdk" : {
	"type": "PC", 
	"version" : "1.0"
	},
	"common" : {
	"access_time": "2020-09-09 07:12:44", 
	"access_timestamp": "1599649964000", 
	"svcdomain": "potplayer.pc.app", 
	"deployment": "production", 
	"kakao_app_key": "6657f9f69b3bda7939f3e9ad0027ae0f", 
	"page": "_0", 
	"section": "-" 
	},
	"action" : {
	"type": "App", 
	"name": "앱실행", 
	"kind": "AppLaunch" 
	},
	"user" : {
	"uuid": "{93DE9072-D1C7-0052-B391-************}", 
	"tuid": "11786AD10EE149698DA017BD061A01E5", 
	"tsid": "8680BA85C663465AA49DC23C7A062565_200909071244854", 
	"suid": "0B5B57D81FF74B479B11C4DEC628CB76_200909071244931", 
	"app_install_date": "2020-09-09" 
	},
	"env" : {
	"app_version": "1.7.21295", 
	"os": "windows", 
	"os_version": "10.0", 
	"language": "en", 
	"screen": "1920x1080" 
	},
	"custom_props" : {
	"LaunchMode": "NoMovie", 
	"potplayer_type": "Mini", 
	"potplayer_bit": "x64" 
	}
}

It also pulls a list of ad domains from https://play.kakao.com/svc/potplayer/api/dns in an attempt to bypass adblocking on the DNS level.

Blacklisting stat.tiara.kakao.com, play.kakao.com, p1-play.edge4k.com, and p2-play.edge4k.com seems to prevent the ads from poping up.

[lordsmurf]

I captured some web traffic that PotPlayer uses on startup

What version is this?
... not that it matters. I don't trust the "ad-free" version whatsoever.

[scj643]

This was on 200908 (1.7.21295)

I don't use PotPlayer anymore for the most part (I use MPV and Kodi now.)

[gendalv]

the links seem to be stored in PotPlayer64.dll

[vanbrocklin]

it was easy to avoid ads with past versions by simply un-ticking an ad box or two during installation, so i never had popup ads.... but the latest version i installed doesn't have the option to un-tick ad boxes (at least not that i noticed) during installation and now i get a potplayer popup logo box in the bottom right corner every once in a while, which is where ads used to popup from what i understand.... in short, i'm not getting popup ads, instead i'm getting a popup potplayer logo box.

so if i select an older version that doesn't have "-ads.exe" in the title, can i be sure it doesn't have ads? i ask because the latest versions don't have "-ads.exe" yet they still install a popup box.

https://www.videohelp.com/software/PotPlayer/old-versions