Pros and cons of Windows media player?

[16610LV]

...and what alternatives are there?

Thanks!

[Plotloss]

Depends on what you are playing.

[grumbledoak]

It does the job and is free with the OS.
It does most formats.

You need a decent reason to look for another, IMO.
What are you considering doing ?

[16610LV]

Plotloss said:

Depends on what you are playing.

...DVD's, avi files and all the episodes of 'Heroes' that a friend has downloaded from somewhere on the internet!

[lilford christie]

I find the REAL player handy, as it is simpler and easier to load/less hassle/less to go wrong

[Plotloss]

WMP isnt bad all things considered, its a bit fat but then so is most software these days.

The Divx Player is good, seems slightly more forgiving than WMP and its a bit more lightweight.

[tigger1]

Good: It's free - comes pre-installed with Windoze, it updates on it's own.

Bad: It's not as good as VLC and Gomplayer, which are also free.

[sadako]

WMP is fine until you want to play something it doesnt want to install the codec for such as m2v files. I use a combination of Video Lan Client and K-lite Codec pack (includes Media Player Classic) for all my windows video needs. The latter is good because it plays quicktime and REAL player formats without having to install manky proprietary software that buries itself deep inside your computer and slows it down. I also tend to use WinAmp for audio as the visualisation plugins in WMP suck and WMP cannot handle tracker style music formats such as .S3M, .XM and .IT.

[16610LV]

Thanks for all the advice/ suggestions guys!

I've now installed VLC which happily plays the 'Heroes' episodes that WMP was only playing the sound for!

[Plotloss]

BTW ep21 is BRILLIANT!