And not much (if any) different from 0.9.6. But way better than previous versions. I use no other media players now. VLC plays everything I throw at it without any complaints.

I just recently learned of VLC and have not had a chance to fully test it. I've downloaded this latest version and will check it out.

My big concern is that like most of these "FREE" utilities they will start charging a fee.

You can download ALL of the source files and customize the player
yourself.

My big concern is that like most of these "FREE" utilities they will start charging a fee.

It's GPL. I can sell you a copy for $5000 if you want, I just need to include all source code.

Get it direct from the site: here

Actually, it's 0.9.8a - !

And I have just done it too! Dunno why my previous came back with the 0.9.4?

Grazie

Well I just tested it and I'm not impressed. The first thing I did was to check out the preferences. I saw a place to change the Skins. First I have to browse to the skins folder and manually choose a skin. Nothing happened. I decided to check the documentation which only exists online. I went here: http://wiki.videolan.org/Skins and the instructions were totally wrong. I decided to close out of VLC and end my testing for now. But before I typed this I opened it one more time and now it has the skin. However, it also gives the error: File reading failed: VLC could not open the file "C:\Temp\vlt2\layout/cone.png". Furhtermore it will not let me change to other skins even though it shows them in the list. I selected a new one and it blinked. I closed VLC and reopened it but it still has this ugly skin with a white screen and a blue fuzzy strip through the middle. If it can't do skins then I can't trust it to do more complex things.

YEah, bad idea V777, don't use it.

Grazie

YEah, bad idea V777, don't use it.

I'm not sure I understand. You are the one who started this thread and spoke so highly of it. Yet you can't even give some sort of idea as to why this is a problem. Is it that this is a great player but it's just poorly documented and skins are a long way from how great WMP and others do it? If so, just tell me. Thanks.

Grazie, are you now changing your position from the first post and saying do not use it or are you just telling V777 to not use it if he doesn't like it?

Grazie has a sense of humor! ;-) Yea, if being compact and playing about anything for free is a secondary concern verses a skin option, which is truly a secondary issue in performance designing outside the Apple world, then don't use it.

Terry, the latter.

Grazie

Thanks for the tips everyone. I decided to find out if there was something else out there that was fast AND customizable. I found the PERFECT player - KMPlayer which can be found here: http://www.kmplayer.com/forums/showthread.php?t=8351

Within seconds I had customized it the way I wanted it. Not only that but it will play virtually everything you can throw at it without downloading any extra codecs. It is also blazing fast even when you use a skin like "Ironman" with all it's flash videos, etc. While I'm not likely to use it, my son will love it. I do understand that skins are secondary but being able to customize what I use is important to me.

In fact I can state that this is by far the best player I have ever used.

For those who want something just as powerful but without the eye candy use Windows Media Player Classic and install the K-Lite Codec Pack (pretty much everything you'll ever need).

I guess that's why there are so many options out there - because we all have different tastes. :-)

TNX V777! I'll give that a try too!

Grazie

video777:

Thanks for pointer to KMPlayer.

I just gave up my long time favorites ( the VLC Player and Zoom Player) for KMPlayer. It outclasses them both. It even played native AVCHD files from my Sony CX7. Of course my computer couldn't keep up but it looks like the app can. Very impressive player. The best I have see also.

I tried KMPlayer in the past but found it too unstable! VLC has always been rock solid and I've never had problems with skins (other than none of them appear as good to me the the default).

I'm guessing the 'a' at the end of 0.9.8 means 'alpha' so if it isn't behaving for you, try 0.9.6.

I'll look at KMPlayer again. Out of interest - does it play DVDs, complete with menus?

"tried KMPlayer in the past but found it too unstable!" Agreed, but maybe the new is stable. Never hurts to have a couple of "options" to use if "something" goes wrong. Thanks Video777 for the heads-ups about the improved KMPlayer! Still prefer VLC 9.6

Of the three versions of KMPlayer listed by Filehippo, two have been beta versions. Only the oldest was a stable release. I'll give the latest beta a try...

Normally I just use Nero Showtime but it's been giving me some head aches lately. I've looked at both these freeware players (KM and VLC) and I must say I like the flexibility of KM.... but VLC seems to be more stable. VLC will play everything I throw at it except Blu Ray and HD DVD disks (which neither will play).

I can't seem to get KM to play MTS files even when choosing external decoders. I think I'll have to go with VLC. I just wish that it would play Blu Ray/HD DV.... then I could get rid of WinDVD player and go with one player only.

"then I could get rid of WinDVD player and go with one player only. " Couldn't agree more! Must be the Holiday spirit or that spiked coffee drink, I'm agreeing with Blink without debating about it! ;-) Happy holidays to everyone, especially our frozen forum neighbors up north!

"Happy holidays to everyone, especially our frozen forum neighbors up north!"

Yeeeah... It's -34C right now and with windchill it brings it to a real neat -46C.... It's not even January yet.... gonna be a cold one this year I think.

Let's see, I just went outside, its about 80 deg F, 75 with windchill. ;)

But we will get ours, it should dip into the high 60s by mid-Feb!

kairosmatt

Sounds kind of nice... but to be honest I couldn't imagine a green Christmas, no ski-dooing, or even not plugging the car in. It just wouldn't feel right.... although I could live quite nicely without paying massive heating bills!

A Winter without a heating bill.... now THAT would be something to talk about!