Sponsored Links

looking for Windows media player alturnatives..

timeless

ULTIMATE Member
Staff member
Volunteer Mod
basically lve run into some privacy issues with Windows Media Player (on Win7), the issue being that if l turn them off (which l did recently) l loose my notifications area icons, clock and show desktop.

l can get them back easy enough by going into control panel and opening the notifications icons settings and ticking and unticking the show all, but it takes resetting Windows media player and then removing and re-enabling windows media player as a windows feature to resolve the issue, and to recreate the problem all l have to do is touch any of the privacy options... :mad:

so can anyone recommend me something similar to use as my secondary media player? and dont say media player classic, because l normally have files queued in MPCs playlist which l dont want to mess up windows media player l use for browsing random files and occasionally mp3s in my library.. ideally lm looking for something that has a library feature so l can keep my mp3s sorted etc but not something like winamp.. l dont need the bells and whistles, just a good video player that l can use to play mp3s and play video files while also keeping thumbnailing of video files when viewing folders.
 
l wasnt sure about VLC, a mates machine it seemed to change all icons to traffic cones and he lost video thumbnails, also this is going back some years, but l heard it messed ppls codecs up so lve always been weird about trying it.

that said lve been asking about elsewhere as well, currently trying something called "Potplayer", seems pretty light weight.. only downside is the lack of a playlist library feature, but l guess l can live with it just as long as l dont get any more issues.
 
I'm going to second the VLC proposal from butler, it's served me well for many.. many years. As for messing codecs up, I've not seen that but you could always get the Portable Apps version as that doesn't to go through the automatic installation. However the Portable Apps copy of VLC might also run a little slower due to how its caching works, although I doubt you'd notice the impact it has on loading with a modern PC.

Another option is Media Player Classic from a certain codec pack, but that may have copyright issues ehumm.
 
Sponsored Links
MPC l already use, l said elsewhere that technically MPC is my primary player. its what l use to watch series of content so generally l have thngs queued up which is why l set my secondary player WMP to pick up all files than l just want to open randomly or listen to some odd music.

the only thing Potplayer seems to be missing is a library feature, but l only have a few playlists and l guess it wont take me long to get used to it.
 
I use PotPlayer, and gave up on VLC as it kept messing up audio AND video codecs on older files.

I use MPC for audio only stuff though.
 
guess that now makes us opposites :D
 
What about Kodi?

Not that I use it but it may be worth looking at Kodi? It presents a nice user interface and has good format support. On the rare occasions that I watch video on my PC I use VLC or Plex. For music I use Spotify and for video I use Plex that streams to an Intel NUC on my TV. As great as Plex is, it sounds like overkill for what you need.

C.
 
Sponsored Links
indeed.. tho all theses suggestions are useful if l dont get on with Potplayer.
 
Plex has mysterious issues with some video codecs, it wont play/stream seemingly identically encoded videos in my collection that work on EVERYTHING else.
 
Odd Plex bahaviour

Plex has mysterious issues with some video codecs, it wont play/stream seemingly identically encoded videos in my collection that work on EVERYTHING else.

Plex works great for me and plays anything I throw at it. I run a Plex server on my QNAP NAS but because it does not have enough horsepower I direct play everything (no transcoding) and use Plex Media Player on a NUC to do the video decoding. I have little desire to watch Plex remotely or on mobile devices so server transcoding is not important for me.
 
I put Plex on my main PC to stream stuff to the TVs, stuff that will play perfectly on the TVs via other streaming services and from USB drives wont via Plex. It is a known problem mentioned on and off on the Plex forums for several years, but no solution has appeared.

The idea was to test it out before putting on my NAS, but as it isnt reliable enough, I didnt do it.
 
Sponsored Links
Plex has mysterious issues with some video codecs, it wont play/stream seemingly identically encoded videos in my collection that work on EVERYTHING else.

I had that problem. Plex was transcoding some files but not others. I think it turned out to be something to do with slightly different audio bit rates.
 
Top
Cheap BIG ISPs for 100Mbps+
Community Fibre UK ISP Logo
150Mbps
Gift: None
Virgin Media UK ISP Logo
Virgin Media £24.00
132Mbps
Gift: None
Shell Energy UK ISP Logo
Shell Energy £26.99
109Mbps
Gift: None
Plusnet UK ISP Logo
Plusnet £27.99
145Mbps
Gift: None
Zen Internet UK ISP Logo
Zen Internet £28.00 - 35.00
100Mbps
Gift: None
Large Availability | View All
Cheapest ISPs for 100Mbps+
Gigaclear UK ISP Logo
Gigaclear £15.00
150Mbps
Gift: None
YouFibre UK ISP Logo
YouFibre £19.99
150Mbps
Gift: None
Community Fibre UK ISP Logo
150Mbps
Gift: None
BeFibre UK ISP Logo
BeFibre £21.00
150Mbps
Gift: £25 Love2Shop Card
Hey! Broadband UK ISP Logo
150Mbps
Gift: None
Large Availability | View All
Sponsored Links
The Top 15 Category Tags
  1. FTTP (5468)
  2. BT (3505)
  3. Politics (2523)
  4. Openreach (2290)
  5. Business (2251)
  6. Building Digital UK (2233)
  7. FTTC (2041)
  8. Mobile Broadband (1961)
  9. Statistics (1778)
  10. 4G (1654)
  11. Virgin Media (1608)
  12. Ofcom Regulation (1451)
  13. Fibre Optic (1392)
  14. Wireless Internet (1386)
  15. FTTH (1381)
Sponsored

Copyright © 1999 to Present - ISPreview.co.uk - All Rights Reserved - Terms  ,  Privacy and Cookie Policy  ,  Links  ,  Website Rules