Listen to music, watch videos, tune in to radio, burn CDs and more from one convenient player! AMP is an application that works outside of the AOL client, and can be used to play audio and video content on your computer when you are not connected to the Internet.

Download AOL Media Player 0.6.1.7 Beta in Softonic

Portable VLC media player is the popular VLC media player packaged as a portable app, so you can take your audio and video files along with everything you need to play them on the go. It reads all types of formats like MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, DivX, XviD, WMV, DVDs, VCDs and streaming.

Download Portable VLC Media Player 0.8.6i in Softonic

There was a time when video files all conformed to some basic requirements and could be played without protest using any media software. As technologies change and licensing becomes more restrictive and specific, simply playing a video file has now become a challenge and thanks to the plethora of obscure proprietary formats now available, finding a media player that works for the majority has become more hassle than it’s worth. Thankfully the open source community have come up with a solution in the form of VLC, otherwise know as VideoLAN.

This cross platform player doesn't strike as particularly good-looking when put side by side with Windows Media Player or Winamp, but you'll appreciate its far superior usability within moments. Its power can be demonstrated with any video files you happen to be downloading, which can be played in whatever form they exist, be it an actual video format or an unclassified temporary one. As you preview a video, it will skip the parts that have yet to be downloaded and let you see the rest – Media Player in comparison, can't preview files in this way.

Apart from playing incomplete videos, because lets face it not many people want to do that anyway, VLC has support for a huge range of video formats. If it doesn't recognize the file type it will try playing it anyway often successfully or if it's an encrypted file it will display the scrambled video in its raw form. The interface is stripped down to the bare bones, with the apparent objective of making it as unobtrusive as possible. With superb hotkey support, you can do practically everything you want without touching your mouse.

Put simply, VLC is a video player that doesn't stray in to other areas. There is only one alternative skin available, but all it will take is one look and you'll quickly be switching back to the default.

This free player should appeal to true cinephiles who want as little distraction as possible from their viewing experience. Being open source it's free to use and thanks to a small file size and a friendly installation process, we would recommend it to absolutely everyone as their "backup" or "catch-all" video player.

Download VLC Media Player 0.8.6i with Softonic Toolbar in Softonic

In an age of multiple media players all with different codecs and formats, it's nice to know there's at least one out there that can play just about anything.

Haihaisoft Universal Player supports almost all popular digital media formats and can also play digital media files protected by DRM-X. Amongst the players it can emulate are Windows Media Player, Real Player, Adobe Flash Player, Apple QuickTime Player, PowerDVD and Flash Video (FLV) Player. Whatsmore though, this player embeds itself into Internet Explorer meaning that whenever you are presented with a format compatible with any of these file types, you can watch it instantly. The number of formats it can play is mind-boggling, including those protected by DRM such as WMV(Windows Media Video), WMA(Windows Media Audio), ASF, WMS, DVD, VCD, SVCD, MOV, RM, RMVB, AVI, MPEG, WMV, 3GP, FLV, SWF, MP3, AMR, M4A, ACC, OGG, MIDI, GIF and JPEG file format. Best of all, the program is constantly updated with the latest codecs so you don't need to worry about it suddenly not being able to play files.

A completely free player that supports just about any format imaginable and embeds itself into IE perfectly.

Download Haihaisoft Universal Player 1.0.7.1 in Softonic

There comes a time when we all get tired of heavy and bloated media players such as Windows Media Player and even iTunes.

Sometimes you just want to insert a track or play and mp3 and not be bothered bu codec warnings, updates or RAM shortages. That's why Complete Media Player has been designed and while hardly the most sophisticated media player on the market, it's refreshingly easy to use and light in operation. Complete Media Player is a highly simple player which not only plays music, but also allows you to watch videos and compile playlists. However, what is annoying is that there's no codec pack - you have to install each one separately depending on what you are watching. In a way, this is good because having too many codecs can slow a player down but ultimately, it's very tedious to insert a new DivX file and find out that you are lacking a specific codec. The play controls are very basic - there is shuffle, repeat and start, stop fast forward and rewind functions. And you can also watch your videos in full screen mode either by right clicking or using the basic file menu at the top.

I would only recommend this player if you have a particularly slow machine or need something that is extremely light on ram and only intend to play one specific type of film.

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Download Complete Media Player 1.0 in Softonic

MooPlayer is a free, open-source media player for audio and video files with some interesting features.

To begin with, MooPlayer doesn't require installation: you only need to copy the app's files to your hard drive. Also, being open-source, anyone can develop plug-ins of their own in order to improve the player or add new functionalities to it.

MooPlayer supports the most popular formats both in audio and video. As for the latter, it can also display subtitles and lets you use zoom to play a video in double or half its original size.

On the downside, I personally found the program's interface design to be quite annoying. The arrangement of button and other controls is fine, but having a cartoon cow constantly flashing on the background is not my cup of tea.

MooPlayer can play both audio and video, supports subtitles, doesn't require installation and is open-source. Pity the interface doesn't go along with these nice features.

Download MooPlayer 1.3.0 in Softonic

It allows you to save flash movies, flash videos and flash games extracted from Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox and Opera browsers. Can save and store favorite flash movies on your computer using the "Favorites" feature. For people who collect and enjoy watching funny flash movies.

Saves all flash movies from Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox and Opera browsers, save SWF to disk. Capable of extracting and saving text and JPG images from flash movies.

Download Movie Extractor Scout Lite 2.40 a in Softonic

KenbushiTM is a powerful Media Server with full-screen media control (like Apple TV) and integrated support for Quicktime and VLC (so plays avi, divx, H264, flash, etc.), built-in cross-platform file sharing, web server and data backup over LAN/Internet.

it's Perfect for building your own home media server. Many home users, developers, media consultants and businesses already use Kenbushi so check it out yourself!

Download Kenbushi Lite 7.0.2 in Softonic

MediaPortal turns your PC in a very advanced Multi-Media Center / HTPC. It allows you to listen to your favorite music & radio, watch your video's and DVD's, view, schedule and record live TV and much more.

You get Media Portal for free and best of all it is opensource. This means anyone can help in the development of Media Portal or tweak it to suit their own needs.

Download Media Portal 0.2.3.0 in Softonic

Quintessential Player (a.k.a. QCD) is a feature rich media player for Microsoft Windows. It supports all popular audio formats including MP3, WMA, Ogg Vorbis, and CDs. QCD is highly skinnable and has a robust plug-in architecture.

QCD performs CD Ripping and Encoding, streams Internet Radio, and can Clean and Tag all your audio files. QCD uses Gracenote for the best music recognition. QCD even plays videos.

Download Quintessential Media Player 117 in Softonic

More and more compact, multimedia players are a great choice for users: a single application that enables you to play both audio and video, just like Xenorate.

This player features an interface similar to that of other popular players. It allows you to view videos and listen to your favorite music, supporting more than fifty different multimedia formats without having to install external add-ons or plug-ins.

The program offers also a wide range of functions such as:

• Fading effect
• Suppor for skins
• 10-band equalizer
• Support for hotkeys
• Video image quality control
• Several image ratio presets
• Can play video in window mode, full screen or even as desktop wallpaper

Download Xenorate 2.50.0.0 in Softonic

Powerhouse all-in-one converter, burner, audio and video editing software for all popular audio and video formats...and much more! Some of the formats supported by the software's audio editing and video editing include MP3, WMA, WAV, OGG, AVI, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, WMV, and more.

Blaze Media Pro includes an audio and video converter, audio editing and video editing, video capture, audio recorder, data CD/DVD burner, audio CD burner, Video CD (VCD/SVCD) burner, audio CD copy, effects, media management, playlist, full-screen video support, and more all-in-one software application!

Download Blaze Media Pro 7.1 in Softonic

FastStone Player is a FREE multimedia player intended to enable users to play all common media files (MP3,AVI,MPEG,DivX,xVid, Windows Media as well as Real Media) within one program with high flexibility and simplicity. It employs a Window-Resource-Explorer user interface to allow ease of media file access. Special but lovable features such as Slow-Motion, Frame-Step, Zoom-In are nicely supported. Track bar controls are used to adjust sound volume, balance and clip position with mouse wheel support easily.

Download FastStone Player 13.2 in Softonic

Play AVI, MPEG, DIVX, MP3, WAV and other media with this easy-to-use player.

Features:

• Playback speed control
• Opens broken AVI files
• Zoom, aspect ratio control
• Brightness, contrast
• Reads MP3 tags
• Detailed file information
• Customize keys and mouse
• Subtitles and OSD
• Internal and external playlist

Download Light Alloy 4.0 in Softonic

Ace Media Player is the most convenient mpeg, divx, rm(Real), mov(QuickTime), dat(Video-CD), asf, wmv, avi media player under windows platform. It focus on playing and managing all types of media files within one player, It focus on playing and managing your local media files - the Movies and Musics(MP3s) on your hard disk, CD-ROM etc.

In order to increase availability of this movie player, Ace Media Player throw out all the unnecessary gadgets that user never or rarely use, and it does not play the streaming media files over the internet. Thus, Ace Media Player saves lots of system resource and offers you a light and handy media player with powerful playlist, full-screen support, onscreen controls, free resizing etc.

Key features:

• Play all your local media files with a uniform interface
• Play Full-Screen movies with onscreen controls
• Powerful Playlist with drag-drop, add, crop, copy, paste, inverse, multi-select items
• Freely resize movie window, Fit to movie window, Zoom to 50%, 100%, 200%
• Save more desktop space with the Shade Mode
• Snap to desktop(docking to desktop), Snap to other window
• Auto play high quality CD and VCD(Video-CD)
• Support hundreds of media formats

Download Ace Media Player 2.2.683 in Softonic

iFever is a full application suite to take advantage of your media. You can use it watch TV program on your pc (tv capture card is required), playback audio and video. It includes the following tools:

TV Suite

My TV offers a simple way to browse, watch, and record TV, even on multiple channels at the same time (both analog and over-the-air digital). TV features work with an antenna, cable, or satellite TV signal and have a fast and easy setup.

A/V Center

It supports common video types including standard avi, .mpg, and .wmv files.

Picture Album

Picture Album provides a fun new way to instantly enjoy and share your digital photos. Download pictures from your digital camera, view your pictures and graphics, create a near-instant slide show, touch up and change the photo format.

Download iFever 1.3.0.1 in Softonic

KoolPlaya will play any video file if you have the appropriate codecs installed and has lots of features. It offers you all of the following:

• Free zoom + fullscreen
• Customizeable interface
• Screenshot function
• Import extra audiotrack
• Easy internet-update (klick help -> update)
• Loop + partial loop
• Multi language support
• No installation requiered
• 159.5 kb small & only one file

Download Kool Playa 1.2.0.3 in Softonic

Black Widow Media Desktop is a toolset for searching networks for media files (music, video, pictures, Flash Games/Movies), downloading/previewing media files found in the searches, playing your DVDs, CDs or other media file types, encoding files from one format to another (WAV to MP3) , ripping audio files as you listen from your computer or from over 7000 radio stations (multiple radio stations can be ripped simultaneously) into separate MP3s.

It is a multi-tasking system so that you can do things like play several videos at one time in a grid on your desktop, rip multiple radio stations at a time, plus other similar features. All features are independent tasks and are controlled in a Zion Control GUI like atmosphere. The program is skinable and you receive 15 pre-designed skins plus a feature that allows you to create your own skins or modify the ones you receive.

Download Black Widow Media Desktop 5.4 in Softonic

Pixelfusion technology is at the heart of neuview surrounded by a solid framework that gives you the unique neuview experience. A sliding control panel makes neuview an unobtrusive and efficient player for all your media files.

Features:

• Incomplete/locked AVI file playback
• Subtitle support
• Grab a snapshot of the current image or frame of a movie
• Bufferered playback
• Audio crossfade option

Download neuview media player professional 6.01 in Softonic

With Windows Media Player (WMP) 11 Microsoft aims to counter iTunes’ dominance. The interface has been beefed-up, usability has been enhanced and Microsoft has worked at turning its flagship media application into a full multimedia center, linked to online stores and compatible with mobile devices. We take a look at its new features.

The first thing that will strike you when you start up WMP 11, is the complete revamp of the interface. No more deep blue, the whole application is now dark and shiny and you can customize it by selecting a hue of your choice. The left side is a drop down pane for your library, the centre displays your lists and the right side is used to create playlists which you can rip, burn or sync with a mobile device.

Compared to version 10, we feel that Microsoft actually made an effort to simplify the whole interface and give you more ways to browse through your media list, whether by using the drop down menu or the quick rollout line on the top left. The “play” and “previous” and next” buttons are now nested at the bottom of the interface and have a jazzy glow whenever you roll over them. Microsoft has finally succeeded in integrating a good search function into its WMP interface. As you type the name of an artist or title the application will bring up the results in the main window.

WMP 11 makes all your media more accessible. Double click the Media Library button to browse from your music to pictures, movie files and recorded TV. The thumbnail view is a great way to quickly scan through pictures and videos and to include the album image to audio tracks. By clicking the “Media information changes” option under the Library button you can also scan your PC to automatically find new media files. Creating a playlist is a case of drag and drop and oddly enough you can integrate audio, video and pictures. Burning and ripping is also very simple, yet disappointingly converting is limited to WMA, WAV or MP3.

The sync process is promising yet remains a bit unstable. While it’s very easy to create a list and sync media, WMP can occasionally crash or fail to load your mobile device, even if you press the refresh button. When we tested it with a Pocket PC, we had to restart WMP 11 so that it would recognize it and let us sync our music. As soon as the device became accessible though, it also became visible on the left sided menu, making it very easy to browse through it for music or pictures.

The Media Guide is Microsoft’s answer to Apple’s Media Store. The first page it leads you to is Windows Media , an attempt at music and entertainment news linking to albums on sale. The page works like an inbuilt browser window and loads up fairly quickly. Even though you will not get access to the Apple Media Store, you can still buy music via other known sites such as Napster, MTV’s Urge (the default store) or eMusic. Whilst on the subject of online features, note that WMP 11 doesn’t let you save and update podcast feeds, something that iTunes does very well.

WMP 11 is a huge improvement from version 10. The whole interface is snazzier and makes browsing through your media simpler. Microsoft has also made creating playlists, syncing, burning or ripping just a case of drag-and-drop. WMP lets you check out music on dozens of online stores and is loaded with small features to customize your interface and change how you interact with your media. While the syncing process still remains a bit unstable and we lament the lack of podcast feed support, WMP 11 is a solid competitor to Apple’s iTunes.

Download Windows Media Player 11 in Softonic