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Vlc player alternative


Wolf_

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For the longest time I used vlc player because it was the best, however I feel once it reached the top of the pile it stagnated and made no major improvements. As a result things like videos turning gray randomly would happen fairly often. It got to the point where I simply wasn't happy with vlc player anymore. Then I made the switch to SMPlayer which is a fork of MPlayer and haven't had any issues at all as well as it simply running faster. I remember hearing that vlc player was giving you issues so perhaps you may want to check out mplayer or one of its many forks. This article was a large reason I made the switch: http://www.in.techradar.com/news/software/applications/The-best-media-player-for-performance-2014/articleshow/38644460.cms?page=2 (Pot player is also really good but it is windows only so I assume that is a nono)
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If we made the switch we would probably go towards Media Player Classic, as I believe they're fully open like VLC. We've since actually gotten rid of a majority of bugs with VLC, which was only giving a small amount of people issues. If we switched though, it might end up taking more time because we also can't say for sure there won't be any bugs for us to fix. In terms of LaunchBox as well, we still offer WMP Playback which is still also perfectly fine. The only draw back is a user needs to install something like K-Lite Codec Pack Standard (which they should anyways as it's essential for video and audio playback), and it's not readily aparent to most users.
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SentaiBrad said If we made the switch we would probably go towards Media Player Classic, as I believe they're fully open like VLC. We've since actually gotten rid of a majority of bugs with VLC, which was only giving a small amount of people issues. If we switched though, it might end up taking more time because we also can't say for sure there won't be any bugs for us to fix. In terms of LaunchBox as well, we still offer WMP Playback which is still also perfectly fine. The only draw back is a user needs to install something like K-Lite Codec Pack Standard (which they should anyways as it's essential for video and audio playback), and it's not readily aparent to most users.
oh yea, and you could probably just link them to the codecs in the settings area to enable WMP. I just wanted to let you guys know mplayer was a really solid choice if you are thinking about shopping around.
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I'm a big fan of MPC myself - I haven't used VLC in years. Basically all of my viewing is via Plex or Kodi these days, but as just a standalone video player MPC is my favorite. I was having some issues with the videos in LB/BB when using the VLC option, but that was when it was first implemented - I switched it to WMP and have had no issues since so I haven't tried switching it back to VLC. I didn't install an independent/standalone codec pack on this machine, but if memory serves MPC actually comes with one (or some fork thereof) prepackaged in the installation; I think it comes with K-Lite although it could be CCCP. In any case, if you've installed MPC and used the default installation options, you shouldn't need to install any additional codec packs. In fact, people should be really really cautious about that and avoid ever installing multiple codec packs at once. I can attest first hand that it can cause some major issues/conflicts as I did it many moons ago on and old PC when I had no clue what I was doing - "What? This video won't play? Well, better find a different codec pack and install it too! Surely one of them will work!" BAD IDEA :(
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I have to disagree I've been using codec packs for years specifically started because WMP in Windows 7 used to not support mp4 back a few years ago. I still grab them whenever I do a fresh setup and I've never ran into any problems once you have one you know you can trust then its not a big deal installing it just have to watch for the bundled crapware.
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DOS76 said I have to disagree I've been using codec packs for years specifically started because WMP in Windows 7 used to not support mp4 back a few years ago. I still grab them whenever I do a fresh setup and I've never ran into any problems once you have one you know you can trust then its not a big deal installing it just have to watch for the bundled crapware.
That's not what I'm saying at all - I'm not saying there's anything wrong with codec packs, I'm saying that 1) if you install MPC, you're already installing a codec pack as part of the installation so you don't need a separate one and 2) you do not want to install multiple codec packs at once because it can cause problems. If you didn't have MPC, VLC, or something similar (just your native WMP) and then you installed say K-Lite, that's totally fine.
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I have to agree that multiple codecs packs is a horrible idea and usually will end up in some major lag/loading time/memory leak issues, or just you having a bunch of outdated standards on your computer taking up needless space. If you need to use a codecs pack then k-lite is 100% the way to go and should play anything you would reasonably encounter. Personally though I prefer a media player with some kickass theming options, customizable shortcut keys, fast startup times, and that won't gray screen mid video which is why I use PotPlayer (but that is windows only) and SMPlayer on my linux systems.
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How I got in to MPC was through K-Lite. I used to tell it to not install it, and one installation I forgot to uncheck it. I still use MPC for certain things, but all my TV Shows, Anime and Movies are through Kodi. I also do suggest anyone who has issues with WMP Playback to install K-Lite and it usually fixes their problems. It even has some detection for errors in the codecs and will fix them too.
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A
SentaiBrad said How I got in to MPC was through K-Lite. I used to tell it to not install it, and one installation I forgot to uncheck it. I still use MPC for certain things, but all my TV Shows, Anime and Movies are through Kodi. I also do suggest anyone who has issues with WMP Playback to install K-Lite and it usually fixes their problems. It even has some detection for errors in the codecs and will fix them too.
I agree completely that k-lite is absolutely essential for wmp, but wmp is completely optional and I would never suggest anyone stick with it anymore than I would suggest someone stick with internet explorer.
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@SentaiBrad

I typed on another thread, but FYI, this is due to an old version of VLC being used inside LB (2.2.6), which had a lot of hardware decoding issues. This is why some people have grey playback issues and other don't.

The current version of VLC (3.0.4 as of writing this) fixes all the grey playback issues.

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1 hour ago, MADMAN said:

@SentaiBrad

I typed on another thread, but FYI, this is due to an old version of VLC being used inside LB (2.2.6), which had a lot of hardware decoding issues. This is why some people have grey playback issues and other don't.

The current version of VLC (3.0.4 as of writing this) fixes all the grey playback issues.

Please see my response here: 

 

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