Best program for watching films

[RossG]

Is there any way in VLC to get the progress bar, play, pause etc to display while it is in full screen mode? It's a great player but this has always bugged the hell out of me.

 

[knowlesy]

VLC

theres been a few of these thread's should we have an ocuk recommended list or ocuk suggests ?

 

[platypus]

I really don't like the vlc interface or controls, but it does play absolutely anything.

 

[blastman]

Download the Combined Community Codec Pack.

Don't do this.

I'd read somewhere that you'll get better results by only installing the codec's you need.

I use VLC at work and on my laptop but my HTPC is running mediaportal.

Hope it helps.

 

[knowlesy]

I really don't like the vlc interface or controls, but it does play absolutely anything.

agreed but i like the slight redesign, it makes you think its not from windows 95 anymore lol

 

[eXor]

Media Player Classic - Home Cinema

 

[Dakotacs]

Vlc. Never had a problem playing my files, even without any additional codecs installed.

 

[SimonTW]

Don't do this.

I'd read somewhere that you'll get better results by only installing the codec's you need.

I use VLC at work and on my laptop but my HTPC is running mediaportal.

Hope it helps.

Better results in what way? Am genuinely interested to hear how it isn't as good as the indivdual codecs/what sort of performance increases one might notice from changing.

I've always used the CCC Pack thinking it was just an easy way for getting pretty much every codec you needed, I didn't really consider if it wasn't the best way of doing so.

 

[blastman]

tbh, now I think about it I read it in the installation guide of media-portal.

I'm not sure it if it's only apical to media-portal or whether it's something that should be general pratice.

 

[ThriceNightly]

mainly windows media player home cinema v1.1

sometimes vlc

 

[Shamikebab]

I really don't like the vlc interface or controls, but it does play absolutely anything.

Same

 

[Dappy]

MPC HC

 

[strumpusplunket]

Yep, either VLC or MPC will play virtually anything. MPC is arguably more reliable but I prefer the interface of VLC.

This is pretty much what I found. For that reason I've always had both of them installed on my PC for a while now, but I find myself almost never using MPC anymore, tbh.

 

[HighlandeR]

Seems its boils down too

VLC- Easy use and 720p mkv/avi and the rest of the video formats

MPCHC- 720/1080p HD formats and everything else



Still prefer MPCHC + Community Codec pack

 

[Furton]

Or Windows Media Classic HD with FFDShow

For the win

 

[dragy2k]

vlc / Kmplayer.......theres no video that wont play with these two installed.....Kmplyer has better ui and more tweakable options.

 

[Greenlizard0]

How are you guys playing matroska (MKV) files?

I'm finding that VLC continually stutters with them, and for some weird reason MPC-HC can't keep the sound and video in sync.

 

[Furton]

FFDshow + Windows Media Player on my main PC, or through VMC on the HTPC

What spec is your PC? If it's rather old use CoreAVC

 

[Greenlizard0]

It's not that old :

Asus M2N-E SLI Deluxe
4GB PC6400 DDR2 ram
AMD AM2 6000+ cpu.

I'll give FFDshow and CoreAVC a go I think. I've downloaded the CCCP (community pack thing) but the same delays crop up.

Hmm, a similar thing happened with another file as well, whereas I have have some that play fine without even the CCCP thing installed. I think it's a case of duds, but I appear to be the only person finding this.

Edit - it appears that using the 32 bit version of MPCHC works slightly better, but shouldn't really do this in all honesty..

 

[Furton]

Only use FFDshow OR CoreAVC, much better to just have one codec.

Don't forget Haali media splitter http://haali.cs.msu.ru/mkv/