Author Topic: Video player: What's the quickest (fastest/lightest)? (Read 114071 times)

Innuendo · « **Reply #75 on:** December 16, 2009, 10:29 PM »

There's pretty much nothing that KMPlayer can't do. But Light Alloy is significantly faster in starting up (double-click launch).
-superboyac (December 16, 2009, 07:23 PM)

KMPlayer is just awesome. When i need fast nothing is faster than hitting F3 in Total Commander.

MilesAhead · « **Reply #76 on:** December 16, 2009, 11:34 PM »

If anyone runs into a free Windows player that plays BluRay discs please post.

J-Mac · « **Reply #77 on:** December 17, 2009, 01:31 AM »

There's pretty much nothing that KMPlayer can't do. But Light Alloy is significantly faster in starting up (double-click launch).
-superboyac (December 16, 2009, 07:23 PM)

KMPlayer is just awesome. When i need fast nothing is faster than hitting F3 in Total Commander.
-Innuendo (December 16, 2009, 10:29 PM)

Hmm... I thought pressing F3 in TC was View File? Is that a custom config? Or are there features that I don't know about?

Thanks!

Jim

Innuendo · « **Reply #78 on:** December 17, 2009, 11:10 AM »

If anyone runs into a free Windows player that plays BluRay discs please post.
-MilesAhead (December 16, 2009, 11:34 PM)

I think if anyone were to come out with such a thing The Man would swoop down on them pretty fast. Licensing fees must be paid to Big Brother and all that, you know.

Innuendo · « **Reply #79 on:** December 17, 2009, 11:13 AM »

Hmm... I thought pressing F3 in TC was View File? Is that a custom config? Or are there features that I don't know about?
-J-Mac (December 17, 2009, 01:31 AM)

Yep, F3 is View File & there are a few plugins available that will provide functionality to view movies. For the super-impatient there's also a plugin to play mp3s, flacs, apes, etc. as well. With a little time & effort spent there's not much that Total Commander can't do.

J-Mac · « **Reply #80 on:** December 17, 2009, 11:54 AM »

Hmm... I thought pressing F3 in TC was View File? Is that a custom config? Or are there features that I don't know about?
-J-Mac (December 17, 2009, 01:31 AM)

Yep, F3 is View File & there are a few plugins available that will provide functionality to view movies. For the super-impatient there's also a plugin to play mp3s, flacs, apes, etc. as well. With a little time & effort spent there's not much that Total Commander can't do.
-Innuendo (December 17, 2009, 11:13 AM)

Cool!

Thanks!

Jim

MilesAhead · « **Reply #81 on:** December 17, 2009, 01:16 PM »

If anyone runs into a free Windows player that plays BluRay discs please post.
-MilesAhead (December 16, 2009, 11:34 PM)

I think if anyone were to come out with such a thing The Man would swoop down on them pretty fast. Licensing fees must be paid to Big Brother and all that, you know.
-Innuendo (December 17, 2009, 11:10 AM)

The whole thing is bizarre. I remember there were big furors in the past with VHS and audio cassette. Now if you tell someone there was a big resistance to recording songs off the radio using your cassette recorder they look at you like you're nuts. Then again, with the younger generation it seems before the Garden of Eden was even created, there was cable TV(what do you mean it wasn't always there? You're crazy!!)

sajman99 · « **Reply #82 on:** December 17, 2009, 02:17 PM »

... Then again, with the younger generation it seems before the Garden of Eden was even created, there was cable TV(what do you mean it wasn't always there? You're crazy!!)
-MilesAhead (December 17, 2009, 01:16 PM)

Gotta say--that one killed me!

MilesAhead · « **Reply #83 on:** December 17, 2009, 04:53 PM »

mrainey · « **Reply #84 on:** December 26, 2009, 10:01 AM »

After playing around with Light Alloy (on XP), I have two negative observations.

The program starts very quickly but seems to sit for quite a long time before actually playing anything.

A significant number of flv files won't play at all. I get an error message and Light Alloy crashes. All the files play on FLV Player with no problems.

Ideas?

sajman99 · « **Reply #85 on:** December 26, 2009, 01:15 PM »

...All the files play on FLV Player with no problems...Ideas?
-mrainey (December 26, 2009, 10:01 AM)

If the .flvs play on FLV Player, the odds are quite good they will play on KMPlayer as well (sorry- I don't use Light Alloy).

Also, I recently updated Universal Viewer and discovered it plays .flvs flawlessly. I got the UV portable build, and I cannot give enough positive comments about this brilliant freeware multi-format player.

MilesAhead · « **Reply #86 on:** December 26, 2009, 06:46 PM »

I think if anyone were to come out with such a thing The Man would swoop down on them pretty fast. Licensing fees must be paid to Big Brother and all that, you know.
-Innuendo

From what I read in user comments for Media Player Classic Home Theater, the user claims he can play discs in the optical drive once scanned with AnyDVDHD. AnyDVDHD is running a promo for a few more days... but that's not really enough time for me to try it out. Might be overkill for what I need anyway.

Curt · « **Reply #87 on:** December 26, 2009, 06:51 PM »

... Universal Viewer ... this brilliant freeware multi-format player.
-sajman99 (December 26, 2009, 01:15 PM)

How many plugins are necessary / what can it do by itself ?

Isn't it $23 ?

MilesAhead · « **Reply #88 on:** December 26, 2009, 07:00 PM »

Not sure how fast but if you need to handle large .mkv and .mp4 files on Windows you might try Splash

I use the free Lite version. It can handle large files without crashing, the seek slider seems to work very smoothly whereas VLC will sometimes crash as soon as you advance the slider. Also it claims, even in the Lite version, hardware acceleration for supported video cards. On my quad core I have the acceleration enabled. It doesn't seem to cut down on resource usage, but I haven't noticed any pauses when playing the video as I'll sometimes get with VLC or MPCHT.

sajman99 · « **Reply #89 on:** December 27, 2009, 02:36 AM »

... Universal Viewer ... this brilliant freeware multi-format player.
-sajman99 (December 26, 2009, 01:15 PM)

How many plugins are necessary / what can it do by itself ? Isn't it $23 ?
-Curt (December 26, 2009, 06:51 PM)

http://www.uvviewsoft.com -very bottom of page:

License: the main application is freeware; the add-on "Navigation Panel" is shareware (requires registration)
System requirements: Windows All (32-bit), MS Internet Explorer 4.0+

I've been using the freeware version without the optional navigation panel for the last few years. Unlike in the past when I had to use Lister plugins to get video file types (and also .swf) to play, I installed no plugins in the current Univeral Viewer and everything (.avi, .flv, .mpg, .wmv, mp4) I throw at it plays out-of-the-box.

The name ("universal") is accurate as this app can play/view many different file types--not just video files.

Curt · « **Reply #90 on:** December 27, 2009, 05:48 AM »

- thanks.

I am trying it now, and can surely confirm that it can handle a lot more file types now, on Vista, than the last time I tried it, on XP or Win2000. However, I cannot see how it can be sufficient without the navigation panel. It feels awkward, without. Isn't it supposed to replace Explorer, or are you setting it as default for many file types?

sajman99 · « **Reply #91 on:** December 27, 2009, 12:39 PM »

My preference with Universal Viewer is to enable the "Show Explorer context menu" so I always have that option available whether I'm using a file manager or Explorer. I haven't chosen to set any file associations to Universal Viewer, but it still stands "ready" to deal with whatever file type I encounter.

With or without the navigation panel, Universal Viewer seems to be a very useful app to have available.

mrainey · « **Reply #92 on:** December 27, 2009, 08:58 PM »

I just gave KM Player a try, and on my system it opens and starts actually playing videos much faster than Light Alloy does. It plays the flv's that Light Alloy choked on. It has far more features and overall polish. It's a much better program by any standard I can think of.

superboyac · « **Reply #93 on:** December 27, 2009, 10:16 PM »

I just gave KM Player a try, and on my system it opens and starts actually playing videos much faster than Light Alloy does. It plays the flv's that Light Alloy choked on. It has far more features and overall polish. It's a much better program by any standard I can think of.
-mrainey (December 27, 2009, 08:58 PM)

There's no question KMPlayer is a better overall program with loads more features. I find it hard to believe it starts fast than LA, but you never know. I wouldn't be surprised if LA didn't handle flv files well. flv files don't seem to be well supported by a lot of players. But, still, from my experiences, for normal like avi/mpg/etc, LA is significantly faster to load than KMP. But KMP is just, well, better overall.

superboyac · « **Reply #94 on:** December 27, 2009, 10:17 PM »

Not sure how fast but if you need to handle large .mkv and .mp4 files on Windows you might try Splash

I use the free Lite version. It can handle large files without crashing, the seek slider seems to work very smoothly whereas VLC will sometimes crash as soon as you advance the slider. Also it claims, even in the Lite version, hardware acceleration for supported video cards. On my quad core I have the acceleration enabled. It doesn't seem to cut down on resource usage, but I haven't noticed any pauses when playing the video as I'll sometimes get with VLC or MPCHT.
-MilesAhead (December 26, 2009, 07:00 PM)

Splash looks really cool! Very nice looking player, and it 'feels' fast for now. I haven't played with it extensively yet, but it looks promising, even if it is shareware for the pro version. Hopefully, they will soon make it full featured. It's pretty minimalist right now.

MilesAhead · « **Reply #95 on:** December 28, 2009, 11:26 AM »

One thing about it that contrasts with players like VLC and MPCHT is it doesn't take up the whole screen or show oversized with scrollbars on HD content when run in Windowed mode. When sampling video it's good to keep this in mind since the output tends to look glassier and smoother with the lower resolution. But checking for graininess while maximized fixes that. It's just easy to forget it.

The main thing with me is I haven't seen it crash yet from advancing the slider. That's very frustrating when using VLC. Seems like half the .mkv files crash as soon as you touch it. There's supposed to be a new Lite version out soon with some bug fixes and perhaps a few new features.

superboyac · « **Reply #96 on:** December 28, 2009, 05:03 PM »

One thing about it that contrasts with players like VLC and MPCHT is it doesn't take up the whole screen or show oversized with scrollbars on HD content when run in Windowed mode. When sampling video it's good to keep this in mind since the output tends to look glassier and smoother with the lower resolution. But checking for graininess while maximized fixes that. It's just easy to forget it.

The main thing with me is I haven't seen it crash yet from advancing the slider. That's very frustrating when using VLC. Seems like half the .mkv files crash as soon as you touch it. There's supposed to be a new Lite version out soon with some bug fixes and perhaps a few new features.

-MilesAhead (December 28, 2009, 11:26 AM)

That's cool. I also found that using the slider was pretty smooth with HD mkv files. Most of my other players really struggled with the large mkv files.

superboyac · « **Reply #97 on:** December 29, 2009, 11:19 AM »

Splash is really quite fast. I've been very impressed by it over the last couple of days. For anyone who cares to try, take one of your very large HD files and play them in Splash like MilesAhead said. Then click around the seekbar to jump to different positions. I haven't seen many if any players handle it that quickly and smoothly.

If Splash adds some more options I'll consider replacing Light Alloy for sure.

shobazi · « **Reply #98 on:** January 03, 2010, 05:59 PM »

Thanks Java Jones for introducing this splayer..really interesting one I need to try out..I am using VLC from very long back..according to me it is right now i will try out splayer..

sajman99 · « **Reply #99 on:** January 06, 2010, 12:41 PM »

For those interested in a truly minimalist solution, KoolPlaya is actually a capable video player provided you have the codec support.

It obviously won't be replacing the fully-featured KMplayer or GOM Player on my system, but still I can't resist this little 452 kb executable.