Features

These days, it's an app that attempts to be all things to all people - play DVDs, organize music, catalog photos, convert video, interact with social networking sites, browse internet multimedia....there's no end to what RealPlayer offers to its users. Even so, it's not an out-and-out success...

Usability

For a start, installation of RealPlayer is annoying - it takes a while, requires lots of "nexts" and tries to install and enable several features that users don't really need. Finally, when it starts, you're offered a chance to upgrade to paid versions of RealPlayer before you have to register yourself with Real Networks. If all this messing around doesn't appeal, check out a slimline app like UMPlayer.

When you're up and running, RealPlayer features a wide interface where you will notice ads and videos recommended by Real Networks. This looks cluttered and messy, and it's hard to know what the app actually offers. In reality, RealPlayer is ideal for playing and sharing video with your friends and followers on Facebook and Twitter and it works easily with BlackBerry, iPod, iPhone and other game systems. The new video converter allows you to copy online video to your iPod, Xbox, PS3 and other devices. Unfortunately, you can't rip DVDs with RealPlayer, although this is available as a feature if you upgrade to RealPlayer Plus.

Most recently, RealPlayer has been updated with far better mobile and social networking integration. You can now copy your favorite videos to an iPhone, iPad, Android, BlackBerry and dozens of other popular devices automatically. Downloading internet videos is faster, and for those of you with something to hide, RealPlayer offers a new Private folder. Social media has also been bumped up, with direct access to Facebook videos and usefully, a built-in feature to transfer videos to your mobile devices.

Quality

That said, RealPlayer isn't bad at all. It's comparable to Windows Media Player 12 as they both have some impressive ways of organizing your music. For me, the best feature is the CD burner which is something I've used from the early days of RealPlayer. The sheer quality of some of the media only available in Real formats makes RealPlayer an essential item in the toolkit of any fan of internet video and audio.

Conclusion

There's no shortage of media players theses days, and RealPlayer is by no means a bad option. It offers lots of features, good options and is a high-quality player that will do justice to your media. The only problem is that despite its modern features, it feels like a bit of a dinosaur. It's heavy and slow, looks chunky and takes an age to respond to clicks, and for many people - especially those who have experience of lighter options - it's just not the most comfortable player.

RealPlayer is a media player that, although powerful, has suffered from serious feature-creep over the years.

Download RealPlayer 16.0.2.232 in Softonic

Most user will never need to use K-Lite Codec Pack Full. It contains the same set of codecs that exist in K-Lite Codec Pack Standard, but also add the ability for users to encode their own videos.

K-Lite Codec Pack Full is best utilized by users who understand bitrates, frames per second, and resolution aspect ratios. Even though K-Lite Codec Pack Full is a great codec pack, it is not recommended for users who will not be creating and encoding their own videos.

The playback capability of K-Lite Codec Pack Full is like K-Lite Codec Pack Standard. The tests playing various file formats showed the same quality and function with the AVI, WMV, MKV, and MP4 videos. All played with no problems and K-Lite Codec Pack Full also contains subtitle support. K-Lite Codec Pack Full along with K-Lite Codec Pack Standard can re-time subtitles so if a user had issues with subtitle playback, it can be customized.

Using K-Lite Codec Pack Full as an encoder is the bulk of the purpose of the program. Since it layers more functions on top of K-Lite Codec Pack Standard, it is possible to view the exact specific audio and video codecs are being used, how they are utilized, and how they interact with the hardware they are running on. It is interesting information for the curious, but unnecessary for standard playback.

K-Lite Codec Pack Full is a great starting point for novice users who want to understand how media formats work and a good tool for working with different media types for customization.

Download K-Lite Codec Pack Full 9.9.0 in Softonic

NextGen Media Player remains one of video players that is light on system resources and handles DVDs as well as most video formats flawlessly. The app supports the majority of media formats, including AAF, 3GP, 3GP2, 3GPP, H261, H263, H263I, H264, MOV, VOB, GIF, ASF, AVCHD, AVI, CAM, DAT, DSH, FLV, M1V, MKV, M2V, FLA, FLR, SOL, M4V, MATROSKA, WRAP, MNG, MPG, QUICKTIME, MPEG, MPEG-4, MP4, MP4V, MXF, ROQ, NSV, OGG, RM, SVI, SMI, SWF, WMV.

All in all, thanks to its extensive support for media files, playlists and multiple customization's, NextGen Media Player can easily become the player of choice for many users.

Download NextGen Media Player 1.0.17 in Softonic

Features

KMPlayer has a small desktop footprint and its minimalist interface makes video playback quick and hassle-free. The player's interface is fully skinable, and there are some nice aesthetic touches, such as the changing of colour on the player with every new track.

There are all sorts of options to help you pimp and customize KMPlayer, such as visualizations, plug-ins and playback options. But the beauty of KMPlayer is that these are turned on at your request rather than being forced upon you at the outset.

Quality

KMPlayer handles both audio and video, and supports a wide range of different formats, meaning that once installed, you should never need to touch another player.

Video playback is particularly impressive thanks to the range of processing tools available that allow you to sharpen, change picture properties, apply filters and even make video captures from within the program.

Conclusion

If you're looking for a customizable, light yet powerful video player, KMPlayer is exactly what you need.

What's new

Supports 3D Formats. (Side-By-Side, Top-and-Bottom) to (Anaglyph, Interlaced)
Supports 10-bit H.264. (Libcodec.dll)
Supports Intel Widi
Added video codec "DV5P"
Add new function album art (Thumnail image extraction from FLAC file)
Thumbnail image display enhancement when playing audio files. (MP3, FLAC, WMA)
Fixed ColorSpace bug
Fixed Intel Codec H.264
Fixed Winamp plugin
Error correction of images infected with malicious codes. (EIP register Corruption Vulnerability. Provided: KISA)
Fixed view as a desktop mode in Windows 7
Fixed improper load of Album Art bug
Correction of screen display error when using EVR(C/A) - if you skip from the WMV file.
Fixed KMP HTTP Reader
AAC codec Parser error correction from MOV file
MKV Skip Problem

Download KMPlayer 3.6.0.87 in Softonic

Features

Version 2 ("Twoflower") brings a new interface, faster decoding, support for more formats and the ability to play HD and BluRay. It still remains however the most stable, flexible and lightweight audio and video player around today. While other media players will play unusual formats after downloading a codec, or simply refuse to play things,

VLC media player handles tons of formats, from MPEG to FLV and RMBV files. Version 2 has seen some important additions too such as support for 10 bit codes plus multi-threaded decoding for H.264, MPEG-4/Xvid and WebM.

Also useful is the fact that you can use VLC media player to preview files you are downloading since it plays incomplete parts of video files. VLC media player is not just for video playback however. It also offers superb integration with video channel streaming services such as Channels.com giving you access to channels such as ESPN, Reuters and National Geographic. Just right-click or CMD-click on the playlist, select Services Discovery and Channels.com.

Channels.com will then appear in your VLC media player playlist. Click on it to reveal the the different categories of channels available. Click on the category you want and a drop down list of all available channels appears in VLC media player. Just click on the channel you want to watch and streaming should begin almost immediately.

Usability

VLC media player also has great hotkey support and if you take the time to learn the shortcuts so it can be controlled without touching your mouse. If you're watching DVDs or video files through it, this is not an issue. For music, it plays more or less any file and features an equalizer and playlist creation. VLC media player isn't as intuitive as iTunes as a media manager, but it's a much more flexible player in terms of file formats. You can even use VLC to convert your files, and on top of all the formats and physical media it will play, many streaming protocols and TV capture cards are supported.

VLC media player makes it easy to add subtitles to your video files too - just add the SRT file to the folder where your video is kept, and it will automatically play with subtitles.

Finally, the interface in VLC media player has been somewhat improved in version 2 although it remains strictly functional. However, you can download skins to completely change VLC media player's appearance. The preferences menu is comprehensive without being overwhelming, and there is extensive documentation online.

Conclusion

VLC Media Player is quite simply the best multimedia application for Windows and Mac. It plays just about anything, hassle free - what more could you need?

What's new

Rework and fixes of the Mac OS X interface

Fix Pulseaudio initial synchronization

Fix MKV, SWF, AIFF and subtitles demuxer crashes

Translations updates and new Welsh translation

DVB-S delivery system detection

Fix audio and video track selection through libVLC

Fix system sleep issue on Mac OS X 10.5

Download VLC media player 2.0.6 in Softonic

With Windows Essentials Codec Pack you get a complete collection of all the codecs you need to play most video and audio files you find on the Internet – up to 99% of them, according to the developer.

Windows Essentials Codec Pack includes filters and codecs for many formats, though only one of them per format to reduce the risk of conflicts and errors. The pack also includes codec configuration tools and a copy of Media Player Classic.

The pack is very easy to install. Simply launch the executable file and follow the instructions. During the installation process Windows Essentials Codec Pack will let you select which codecs you want to install and which you don't need. Also, as the pack includes a special update utility, you'll always have the latest version on your PC.

Windows Essentials Codec Pack includes all the codecs you need to play most audio and video files on your system. The pack includes a media player and is updated automatically.

Download Windows Essentials Codec Pack 4.4 in Softonic

Flash video (that is, FLV files) have quickly become a popular format for online videos. On the downside, not all players are able to open them, but with FLV Player you won't have that problem. It doesn’t support any other format, but in exchange for that it works fast and smoothly.

FLV Player features a simply-designed interface with support for drag and drop, plus a few playing controls. It also allows you to watch the video in full screen and open an extra window with the video's metadata.

There are no other options or features in FLV Player. Its only aim is to be the simplest, fastest FLV player you've ever seen, and it really achieves it.

FLV Player lets you play FLV video on your computer in a snap, without any extra bells and whistles.

Download FLV Player 3.0 in Softonic

Designed to work quickly on Windows XP, Vista & 7 without the need of codec packs. No need for DivX and XviD codecs! It can even record and play TV if a TV tuner is installed.

MediaPlayerLite is perfect for anyone who wants to play video and audio files.

Download MediaPlayerLite 0.3 in Softonic

Download Vista Codec Package 6.4.1 in Softonic

The evolution of computers reveals a trend toward multimedia desktop apps where users can listen to music, watch videos, surf the net, work and view photo albums.
If you’ve gotten hold of media files, you’ve probably had to convert the files to transfer them on a different device or in order to play it in another application at one time or another.
SUPER makes audio and video conversion a breeze thanks to a well presented interface and a slew of options.

SUPER’s single window interface is divided into audio and video and the selection of output options is done via the three dropdown menus at the top.
There are quite a few formats available. SUPER allows you to convert movies and music to play on recent devices such as Apple iPod, Sony PSP and 3gp for use on Sony Ericsson and Nokia mobile phones.
The huge bit rate menu, from 64 to 9792 Kbps, means you can truly optimize and quicken the conversion process. Unfortunately, SUPER only offers 2 video codec outputs (H263 and MPEG-4) and 3 audio codecs (AAC, AMR wideband and narrowband).

On the audio side, SUPER allows you to select your language from individual tracks, but audio is limited to one channel and one sampling frequency (8000).
It seems SUPER is more suited to video conversion. Luckily SUPER includes recognized encoders such as ff mpeg or mencoder, ensuring a decent conversion process for both audio and video.

Use the buttons at the bottom of the interface to play files and check their quality after having converted them. The Player Options button gives you the chance to tweak video features such as aspect, saturation, hue, brightness and contrast.
All files converted or waiting to be converted are visible in a list and you can verify the streaming link and output status.
SUPER is a very open media converter that even the klutziest of users will find easy enough to use.

Download SUPER 2012 build 53 in Softonic