Which the best media player for Windows? That’s the question that probably will be hunting you before searching for a media player on the net. In our opinion, one best media player should be defined actually based on the taste and preferences of the user.
You know why? Because each person looking at it from different perspectives, which is, of course, varying from person to person. Some may need just a basic player playing audio and video with average quality, whereas some would prefer, special effects like audio controls, video presets, 3D effects, and many.
What the first person considers as Best may not be the second person’s best choice. Some would even prefer for free than paid ones. Therefore, bringing a complete list of some of the Best Media Players with details has become an important task.
Let’s brief here on what can be called the best media player. A player, which plays almost all file formats (eg.: MPEG, WAV, AVI, FLV, etc) with some special effects for both video (eg.: Movie and 3D) and audio (eg.: Equalizer and Surround/Dolby effects for Audio) can be called as the best one in general terms. But again there are many more factors that determine the best one according to users, like Playlists, Library, Skins, Multi-language, compatibility, etc.
Let’s discuss a few of them below. We have shortlisted a few of the best media players available in the market, mainly free, and some of them may be paid for high-end versions as well. Hope this article will help to end your search for the Best Media Players.
1. Windows Media Player (FREE)
Windows Media Player is the most easily available and free-to-use Media Player in your PC. WMP is part of Windows OS, which is pre-installed in your PC during the OS installation. This can also be downloaded separately from the Microsoft website.
Windows Media Player supports most of the file formats available, except a few, which is not very commonly using. WMP plays Audio and Video in HD Quality, and also in various bit ratios.
WMP can also use as a tool to burn CDs – Audio and Data CDs both. There is another feature called ‘Rip Music’ with which you can copy songs to your PC from a CD. You may also sync any portable device with WMP for playing music.
Windows Media Player is compatible with all Windows versions from Windows 7, Windows 8.1, and Windows 10. It is also a lightweight player. WMP is also preferred by some users, since its unique features like media encoding and movie creation.
Let’s see some of the main features of Media Player below:
- Plays almost all video and audio formats
- Create Playlist
- Sync Music, Videos, and photos with your device
- Play music and videos from even iTunes Library
- Flip Video feature
- CD Burning – Burn Audio, Video, and Data CDs
As mentioned above, Windows Media Player is a pre-installed version with every licensed Windows OS software. And in case you need to download for any reason, you may click on this link: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/14209
2. VLC Player (FREE)
Here comes another popular Media Player, which kept displaying a powerful presence in the market, VLC Player has always an important space in the heart of all media lovers. It is a simple, yet powerful one, with a big lot of media format support.
Originally from VideoLAN, a Paris-based Non-profit Organization developed this application as a Student Project way back in 1996. It then, rewrote in 1998 to become an Open Source. And now it is a global open source project with developers from at least 40 countries and driven by an autonomous non-profit organization.
As a media player, the VLC player performs its duty by playing most of the multimedia file formats, along with DVDs, VCDs, Audio CDs, etc., and it is absolutely FREE to use. It will play Files, Webcams, Discs, and Devices for you. Variety of Codecs doesn’t matter when it comes to VLC Player, it supports almost everything, like MPEG-2, MPEG-4, WMV, WebM, H.264, MKV, MP3, and many more. And don’t worry about platforms, as it works on all – like Windows, Mac, Linux, Unix, Android, and iOS.
They are also kind enough to give away the source code through a download from their portal, apart from their technical support through the Forums.
Key Features of VLC player is as follows:
- A Cross-platform Multi-Media Player – Windows. Mac, Unix, Linux, iOS, and Android
- Useful to play Files, Devices, Discs, Webcams, and Streams
- Multi-codec Player – MPEG-2, MPEG-4, WMV, H.264, WebM, MP3, and many more
- 100% Free application
- Adopt skins you prefer and customize skins
- No Spyware, No Ads, and No User Tracking
- Hardware Decoding feature
- Advanced Video, Audio Controls, and Filters
VLC Player is 100 % Free to use. Free download VLC player from their website directly. Use this link to download: http://get.videolan.org/vlc/3.0.11/win64/vlc-3.0.11-win64.exe
3. GOM Player (FREE)
GOM Player offers you a much better experience as a Video Player, with its support to multiple file formats. Also, don’t worry about codec compatibility, the application will search it for you. And, the file you want to play is damaged/downloaded? , never mind, GOM will ensure that you play it.
GOM Player has the ability to find movie subtitles and show from its subtitle data collections. Also, enjoy a 360 Deg Vivid Virtual Reality (VR) payback with this application. GOM Player is also available for mobiles, which is also as good as the desktop version. But they offer only the Windows version for you at present. And remember, it does not support Windows XP with all its features.
Features of GOM Player includes the following:
- Supports various file formats (eg.: AVI, WMV, MP4, FLV, etc)
- Multi-codec compatible
- Plays even damaged or downloaded file
- Automatic Subtitle search and display
- Vivid 360Deg VR playback
- Ads-Free operation
- 4K UHD Movies can be viewed without buffering
- The best technical support offered
GOM Player is a completely FREE application to download and use. You may download it from the GOM website: https://www.gomlab.com/gomplayer-media-player/. Note that, it does not support Windows XP anymore.
4. KODI (FREE)
Kodi is an All-in-One media player, which can play, Movies, Music, Photos, TV Shows, etc. for you. Kodi (former XBMC) is made to entertain media lovers. And nothing to worry about technical glitches, and a massive community is there globally to support Kodi technically. Kodi is a free and open-source application and therefore can be used without fear of payments and restrictions.
Kodi will run on almost every platform like Windows, Mac OS, Linux, Android, iOS, etc. It plays almost all formats includes MP3, WMA, FLAC, WAV, etc. in music and you can stream all Movies and TV Shows over the internet. And keep control over your playlists using their cue sheet, tag reading support.
Though Kodi is a beautiful player, you still can enhance its beauty by using ‘add-on skins’ and customize. It is fun doing. And it has a vast number of Add-ons in the box which you can utilize, and convert your association with Kodi, a variety of Media experience.
Kodi is also an interface between your Remote Control and CEC compatible TVs for media control. The same is also possible using tablets and smartphones to connect with Televisions. Its JSON-RPC-based remote interface makes it possible to interact with Kodi.
Salient Features of Kodi is listed below:
- Plays Music, Movies, TV Shows, Photos, etc
- Runs on a wide range of devices and OS (like Windows, Mac, Android, iOS, Linux, Raspberry, etc)
- Variety of skins to choose
- 100% Opensource and Free
- Offering user interface to connect between Remote Controls and Televisions
- Stream Music and Videos by connecting to the Internet or a Network
- Huge community support worldwide
Kodi is a 100% Opensource application, and completely free to use. You can download the application from the link: https://kodi.tv/download
5. POT Player (FREE)
Pot Player, a wonderful Multimedia player with many enhanced features compared to other competitors, has been introduced to the market by the South Korean developer Kakao. The player has built-in hardware acceleration for better performance, and it ensures minimum resource usage for achieving this, using DXVA, CUDA, and Quicksync.
Need not worry about Codecs (it supports Opencodec) and multi-formats, it supports many of them. Pot player is available for download in Windows OS from XP to the latest. Also Pot player allows you to watch your favorite movie or video in the 3D format if you have a set of 3D glasses.
Key features of Pot Player are:
- Supports OpenCodec
- Hardware Acceleration with minimum resource usage, and hence lightweight
- 3D viewing experience with support for various types of 3D glasses.
- Various subtitles format – Text subtitles, DVD and Blu-ray sub-titles, and more – support
- Choose your Sound Card (when you have multiple)
- Multiple device support, like DVD, TV, HDTV, etc ….and many more
Pot Player is free to download and use. It is available for Windows OS only. You may install it from XP to the latest. Available for 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows. Download link: https://potplayer.daum.net/
6. SM Player (FREE)
SM Player is a multi-platform Opensource media player from 2006 and traveled through several enhancements till now. You don’t need to add any codecs to it, as it has its own built-in codecs for a smooth start and plays any audio & video formats. It even supports now, Chromecast.
Though SM Player is a GUI of another player called ‘M Player’, offering almost all the features of M Player, it went ahead to provide support for playing videos from Youtube and also downloaded subtitles.
Moreover, note that SMP is a genius, as it remembers from where you left playing the video/album and your settings even. And plays it from where you left with all the previous settings like Audio track, Volume, subtitles, etc. you have set. These all make SM Player an awesome player among the competitors.
The main Features of SM Player are:
- Multi-format support: All from MP4, MKV, MPEG, AVI, WMV, h.264, and many more. View all Formats
- Youtube Support: It plays Youtube Videos and also provides a Search Videos option with the player
- Multi-lingual: Supports more than 30 Languages
- Change Look and Feel with the available Skins
- Subtitle Download: You can download subtitles for the videos/movies you play
- Video and Audio Filters
- Change Playback Speed
- Video Equalizer
- Multi-platform: Available for Windows and Linux
- Free and Opensource
SM Player is an Open-source software and FREE to download and use. You can download the player from https://www.smplayer.info/en/downloads.
7. Real Player (Free & Paid)
Real Player, one of the oldest but solid, Multimedia Player available free for you to play movies, music, and images. Real Player was first launched way back in 1995, by Real Networks a US firm, is still, a strong presence in the market with visible changes in look & feel and features by now. During this time, it changed names multiple times, as it was first known as Real Audio Player and then changed to Real One Player.
Real Player is a cross-platform multimedia player and available for Windows, Linux, Unix, Mac, and Chromecast. The player has mobile versions also, with Android and iOS apps. Their releases for X-box, Amazon Fire TV, etc are may expect soon.
Real Player is one of the fastest and powerful players which can help you from playing Online media to CDs. It can even enable you to convert Videos to other formats, along with burning (with Upgraded Plan only) CDs and DVDs.
Below are the main features of Real Player:
- Multi-Platform: available for Windows, Mac, Linux, Unix, etc
- Supports almost all formats – like WAV, WMA, MP3, MP4, FLV, AVI, etc.
- Fastest and Powerful Player
- One-click download of Web Videos
- Online Media Streaming – from Youtube and Netflix, etc
- Convert your videos to many other formats including MP3
- Play and burn DVDs, CDs, etc.
- Enable secret pin to keep your videos Private
- Discover celebrities in your videos
- Get information about famous people in just one click.
Real Player is a Freemium, and hence you have both FREE and PAID versions available. The free version is available for download from the link https://www.real.com/thankyou?rppr=explore_realplayer with limited features and Advanced Features are available with their paid version starting from $24.99. Have a look at the comparison of Price here: https://www.real.com/in/realplayer_pricing
8. 5K Player (FREE)
5K Player is one of the most advanced in new generation Media Players, with a combination of 4k/5k/8k UHD playback of your music and movies. The player gives you a smooth experience, as it is faster in rendering with 64-bit technology and thus delivering a high-quality experience.
While you enjoy 4k/5k and 8k FUHD Video Playback on this player, you may also have the choice to select DTS Surround Sound at 5.1/7.1 configurations. Moreover, it plays almost every format without any hassles.
You have many other add-on features inside the box, like Cut Videos, Sync Video and Audio, Rotate Videos, Adjust Playback Speed, Add Subtitles, and more, at no cost. The Player is absolutely Free to use and ads-free.
Below given are the key features of 5K Player:
- Plays 4K/5K/8K UHD videos/audios smoothly
- Intel, DXVA, AMD & NVIDIA powered GPU acceleration
- 64-bit 5K Player for faster and smoother performance
- Multi-format playback: MP4, MKV, WMV, H.264/265, VP8/9, WebP, FLV, and DVDs
- Internet radio playback along with M3U8/IPTV stream, MP3, APE, FLAC, AAC, etc.
- Cut Video clips during playback and store
- Select 5.1/7.1 Surround sound for audio playback
- Multi-language support
- Cross-platform: works on Windows, Mac OS
- Adjust playback speed
- Add Subtitles
- Option to rotate videos to view in Landscape mode
- De-interlace video to avoid blurring and flickering
5K Player is 100% Free to use, You may download it from https://www.5kplayer.com/5kplayer-download-windows.htm
9. DivX Player (FREE & Paid)
Well…while using DivX, you can explore many possibilities apart from just playing a media file. You are entering a platform where you are able to watch movies and videos in 4K quality, listen to music, convert your videos, and also as a Media Server.
DivX Player supports many media formats like AVI, DIVX, MKV, MP4, etc. And its audio features are simply great. DivX offers AC3 Surround Sound, DTS-HD Plugin for DTS Playback, DFX Enhancer, etc. But all these are available with its Pro edition only.
Another feature which you will feel more convenient is that it will allow you to play media from the cloud, such as Google Cloud and Dropbox. That makes you able to play your videos anywhere on the go. Also with DivX, you can ‘cast’ videos to other devices and even Bigger Screens using a variety of devices that has the ‘Cast To’ feature.
Let’s have a look at the key features of DivX Player:
- 4K Video Playback
- Multiformat support: AVI, DIVX, MKV, MP4, and more
- Audio Special Feature like AC3 Surround, DTS HD, and DFX Enhancer
- Video Converter
- Media Server between PC and TV
- Play from Cloud (Google, Dropbox, etc)
- Organize Playlist – Add Videos automatically to the playlist
- Chromecast, Xbox, Samsung Galaxy support – To Cast video to other devices/bigger screens
- Cross-platform support – Windows, Mac
DivX offers two versions, Free and Paid (Pro). The Free version is downloadable from the portal directly using the https://www.divx.com/en/software/divx/ link and the Pro version can be purchased at INR 1621 (approx $21)
10. KM Player (FREE)
One of the most advanced Media players existing in the market since 2002, KM Player, was a favorite choice of all Media Lovers around the globe for a pretty long time. KM Player was initially developed by a Korean Developer and later taken over by Pandora TV, a Korean Video Streaming firm.
K-Multimedia Player (KM Player) is an awesome application that supports 4k, 8k, and 60fps files and optimized for High-end PCs. It plays most media formats as well as various Video and Audio codecs. You can also play Blu-ray Disc and DVDs, along with subtitles and Blu-ray image subtitles in various formats.
The player uses very low system resources as it uses hard acceleration and delivering a high-quality viewing experience. The only disappointment for some of the ‘KM fans’ maybe that, they have removed 3D playback support from their application, from 2015.
KM Player is available as a multi-platform and supports Windows, Mac, Android, and iOS. And language is no barrier for KM Player, as it is multi-lingual with about 40+ world languages.
Key Features of KM Player :
- 4k, 8k, UHD, and 60 FPS Support
- Multi-format Support: AVI, WMV, MKV, MPEG, WEBM, TS, and many more
- Multi-codec support: h.265, h.264, VP9, etc.
- Multi-Platform: Windows, Mac, Android, and iOS
- Powerful Video Renderer and thus High-Quality video
- Low Resource Usage due to Hardware acceleration
- Supports Blu-ray image subtitles and subtitles
- Supports Blu-ray and DVDs
- Plays broken, damaged AVI files
- Youtube video Download option by using URL
KM Player is 100% free to download and use. For download: https://www.kmplayer.com/pc64x
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We will be adding more in the list on the go. Meanwhile we welcome your comments and feedbacks on the topic. We will try to address your queries and clarifications as quick as possible.
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