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Official players - What is the big deal?

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app103:
Personally, I don't want Quicktime, Real Player, or their alternatives. And I don't want DRM forcing me to use WMP, either. Like I said, my player of choice is falling short by not being able to handle everything I could possibly come across.

But it's better than the old days when there were even more formats requiring even more players. (anybody remember Liquid Audio, pioneers in DRM?)

I think that was one of the things that contributed to making AOL so hated as an application, because back then, it installed all of this crap in order to make it's built in media player capable of handling everything.

Deozaan:
I am not saying make any of these your DEFAULT player, I am saying why go through all of the other hoops just to get another player to play them?-Josh (March 15, 2009, 04:31 PM)
--- End quote ---

I don't know what you're talking about. I downloaded the K-Lite codec pack and VLC and I haven't had to go through any hoops to play any video I'd like to see.

To me, installing Quicktime and getting rid of iTunes and other crappy bundled software/services is going through hoops to get a video to play. RealPlayer may or may not be a good media player these days. I don't know because I haven't touched it for probably close to ten years. I haven't needed RealPlayer in all that time.

I even have an mp4 video file I got as a bonus for buying Coldplay's X&Y album on iTunes and it plays nicely in VLC. I have no desire and apparently no need for RealPlayer or Quicktime.

Ehtyar:
Software that installs additional programs and adware without customer consent is not worth a second chance (Real Player). QuickTime was, and is a bloated, slow piece of junk. It has gained a userbase purely through the same avenues that gave IE a market share: bundling.

I'm perfectly happy with VLC + Real Alternative + QuickTime Alternative. Together, they play any format you care to throw at them.

Futhermore, I'm not into supporting unnecessary proprietary formats. With any luck, those players will eventually become so obsolete that no one will encode to their formats anymore.

Ehtyar.

f0dder:
Formats should be available through official codecs, that didn't require a shitload of other garbage. A codec really doesn't need to be more than a megabyte in size, and even that is stretching it.

Preferably formats should be DRM-free, but that's a completely other debate.

As for players... fine, make an "official player" if you want, but make it optional and use standard codecs like everybody else ought to.

lanux128:
i don't think i even install the alternates anymore. i use KMPlayer which has internal decoders for almost everything. so i just point my browser to just one site.. :)

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