This is a perfect topic for one of those Software Review Shootouts that were once fairly common here at DC. That way a group of video players could be reviewed and all features, all pros and cons could be spelled out clearly giving users good, solid info to help them find a video player that suits their own desires. It's a shame that they are so time consuming to write.
-J-Mac
J-Mac, I agree with all of your thoughts here. Those shootouts are extremely difficult to churn out. It burns you out very quickly. I tried to do one with the notetakers and I just couldn't sustain it. I've tried a variety of ways to contribute good software reviews here apart from the normal forum participation. But all the ways I tried were nothing I could sustain. The best solution I came up with, and that i'm very happy with, is asking DC to host my website, and there I have a special section for short reviews ( on the level of the "mini-reviews"). And they aren't complete in any way, and they don't offer much in the way of comparison to alternatives. But I highlight the features that really stand out, and all of the ones I list are the software that I prefer and use every day. So it's one of those things where if people trust my opinion, then they have some assurance that the software I'm talking about is a good choice. I based this model on Zaine's now-defunct Great Software List. Once I realized and trusted that he knew what he was talking about, whenever I wanted to pick a software, I'd just go to his list and choose the one he recommended and I knew I'd be happy with it. So that's the best model I've found so far, and it's something I can sustain no matter what my schedule is like.
Not to be off-topic, but you brought it up. And it is my thread, after all!
back on topic. Regarding this thread, I kind of knew that it would go off-topic eventually. I tried to be clear in identifying the one particular feature that I was interested in. But as soon as you say "video player" and "best", it opens the floodgates. You knew you'd have to fight through all the usual VLC vs. KMPlayer vs. MPC posts. But it did help me find my answer. i also think it's a good reference thread to come to sometimes. Such is the nature of forums. Still, donationcoder is remarkably well-behaved compared to any other forum I've ever come across.
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