looking to replace Windows Media Player? Need help.

[bwid_s_01]

I'm using Windows XP "Professional" Edition (I'm kindof forced to) and use the Micro$hit Windoze Media Player 8.0 that is bundled in XP. Although I must admit that the audio/video quality in it is really good (especially in full screen), I want to switch to another player. I wanna switch because a)WMP8 has spyware (I know that for a fact), b)It takes forever to load files (even tiny mp3s), and c)I hate Microshit products.

I need suggestions as to which player to use. I need ONE player that does the following:

1) Plays all file types in good quality (wav, mp3, mp3pro, mpeg1/2, avi, etc. Support for .mov quicktime or .ram Real would be nice but not necessary.

2) Plays DV-AVI files REALLY WELL in full screen. For some reason I havent seen one player so far that plays DV-AVIs as well as WMP7+. I don't know why this is.

3)Plays Audio CDs

4)Plays DVD Videos.

If nobody knows of a player that does all those 4 things, then I'll be satisfied with one that does #1 and #2 well.

By the way, please don't suggest me to use QuickTime Player or RealOne Player because both of those are shit on Windows. THanks for any help.

[Stryker]

I think xine can do those.

[bwid_s_01]

Sorry, tried it and didnt like it one bit. Doesn't look that great and keeps crashing.

[Stilly]

heres one that looks like it will do what you want, but I haven't ever tried it so I don't know:

http://download.com.com/3000-2139-10206920.html?tag=lst-0-2

[Roshbo]

VLC - the cross-platform media player and streaming server

http://www.videolan.org/vlc/

Ultra Player.....this one is kinda cool

http://www.ultraplayer.com/products/products.asp

[suselinux]

Whats wrong with winamp?

But, you know what, it does look better when running in Linux.  Then again,everything does

[bwid_s_01]

Winamp kindof sucks with professional video.

[skyman8081]

Winderz Media Player Classic

it is a player I found that plays all the newer codecs, looks likie WMP 6ish, and is F/OSS umder GPL.

I use it on my winderz partition. it is really good at playing video.

[Ailean]

I think RealOne does most of it pretty good

[Mirrorball]

I'm pretty sure Microsoft did something to Windows so that WMP has better sound and image than any other app. You'd better use another OS if you want to get the best sound and video without Microsoft produts.

[Fett101]

quote:Originally posted by Mirrorball:
I'm pretty sure Microsoft did something to Windows so that WMP has better sound and image than any other app. You'd better use another OS if you want to get the best sound and video without Microsoft produts.

  :rolleyes:

[raptor]

if you are forced to use M$ products just use their windows media 9 seriesapplication to do your stuff.

i agree xine doesnt look that great but it is getting better.

or you could just go out and purchase a mac.

[ShawnD1]

quote:Originally posted by raptor:
or you could just go out and purchase a mac.

After winning which lottery? try to think of a more affordable answer.

As for a mac being good with music, think again.
http://www.g4noise.com/

"Many machines from the first revision of the Apple Power Mac G4 (Mirrored Drive Doors) are intolerably loud, well above Apple and ISO standards, including high pitched whines that give users headaches. In some cases the noise is picked up by audio equipment installed in the Power Mac, and the motherboard emits its own whine (33/34 Hz)"

I'm not dumping on you, I'm just trying to prevent anybody from making a mistake  

[Faust]

Macs are renowned for their high quality in multi media applications not to mention that Trent Reznor (worship! worship!) and a lot of other high profile artists swear by Macs.  Do some research - bagging the "opposition" on things they're good at is just petty and stupid.

[Faust]

Also I saw some dude in SOS mag (sound on sound) praising beos of all things - apparently it's supposed to be really good at multimedia.  (and he used lots of terms I didn't understand to prove it!  I thought that thing was dead.  :-D  Anyway back in the real world where we can't have just one computer that does nothing but audio / video editing and actually want it to do like word processing and crap as well...

Quit picking on Xine guys, it looks cool.  Anyway it's skinnable so whats the problem?  Maybe some of us dont like a garish 500 pixel border around the movie detracting from our viewing pleasure.