Best Replacements for Windows Media Player

Now you all know that Windows Media Player is one the worst players available. So here I have some replacements for it. I would recommend all WMP users to switch to something better. And that also when all the other good applications are free to use.

Now, let’s start the list :)

VLC Player

Also known as Video Lan Player is a must-have for every computer-geek just like having Harry Potter’s seventh book for a Harry Potter fan. It plays every thing you can imagine. As far as I remember, I have never had any compatibility problems with this player. You can say “It plays almost anything you throw at him“. I would recommend you to download this and try it out. It supports file formats such as MPEG, MOV, AVI, ASF, WMx, OGG, WAV, 3GP (this is just the start) and more. And one more thing, it’s skinnable just like other good applications. Download the best skins from here. The default is just like giving you a heart-attack, so get the skins now!

KMPlayer

KMPlayer is a free movie and audio player that supports a wide range of codecs and file formats, it has full DVD playback functionality. Tons of built in features like video and audio filters, subtitle, zoom, pan & scan, open streaming media, play from TV card, camera etc. It seems to be a combination of VLC Player, BS Player and Windows Media Player.

GOM Player

A very nice player, except that it does not come bundled with all the codecs. They are a few included, but still you’ll need some like FLV4. Even their playlist displaying is not good. Instead of showing the track/artist name, it shows the actual location of the file in the PC. Some of the main features of GOM Player are given below.

Built-in codec finder
Plays broken AVI files
Supports subtitles
Supports a number of formats
Screen Capture

Winamp

Now if you are a music-lover and want a nice treat for playing them or managing your files, then get Winamp. This is a player that will fulfil your music playing needs. It has one of the best media library, and the sound quality is at the top! You can even more enhance it with DFX Audio Enhancer.

I wanted to include BS Player, but the recent versions come with adware in it. It was among the best players like KM Player, VLC Player but this adware is made it to go down :( .

I hope you have enjoyed reading this post :)

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Author: Haris Nadeem
He is the founder of Sizzled Core and a Pakistani blogger who loves gadgets and exploring out the web!

23 Comments

Nice from Thailand (SE7ENize.com)

The KMPlayer is my choice
and I will recommend it to my non-techie friends.

I love that it can play 3 subtitles
can VLC do that? (I haven’t tried it yet)

Jul 21st, 2007
Ze Mane

BSPlayer version 1.37.826 is the last without adware.
You can download it from http://filehippo.com/download_bsplayer

Aug 10th, 2007
Haris1

Thanks for updating. Will try it out. But I’m still worried about the ad-ware. I don’t want my PC to be messed up.

Aug 10th, 2007
mark

WMP11 Is one of the best players out there, winamp being one of the worst. I will agree upto media player 11, the others were crap.
Thanks for the list, I shall try a few :P

Aug 10th, 2007
simpukka

Media Player Classic : http://sourceforge.net/projects/guliverkli

Aug 12th, 2007
missone

you’re missing the “library”

yeah the “player” part maybe a good switch

but not the “library”

you should check that out too

Aug 12th, 2007
zoomplayer

this list fails for not listning zoomplayer as number 1, VLC is 2nd best but takes crappy screenshots even in bmp/png format they still look like crap compared to zoomplayer’s bmps, also VLC doesnt support many font types while zoomplayer supports em all

Aug 12th, 2007
HardwareGuy

I 2nd the above poster about ZoomPlayer. After I found it and loved its interface I haven’t looked back. Also you missed media player classic which sometimes is able to playback things for me that wmplayer can’t.

Aug 14th, 2007
Haris

Hmm.. Yeah, you are right. Media Player classic is also a good one. Actually, I never knew about ZoomPlayer, that’s why I didn’t include it.

Aug 14th, 2007
Daniel

I have to say, that I could not agree with you in 100% regarding Replacements for Windows Media Player, but it’s just my opinion, which could be wrong :)

Aug 16th, 2007
Jeff

Nice post but you forget RulesPlayer, the best MPlayer front-end to date.

http://xs311.xs.to/xs311/07053/rules_player.png
http://rulesplayer.altervista.org/

Aug 18th, 2007
rachus

Good article, I’m loving seeing all the ZP fans step up.

Zoom Player is the very best, at least 5 years running, Media Player Classic is OK, and VLC is fine (actually better than “fine”) too. SMPlayer on the Linux side is the best I’ve found so far in that world…(has many configurable settings like Zoom Player).

Aug 21st, 2007
TipsoSaurus

Hey Haris,

This comment from Daniel is actually spam. You’ll find this message coming everyday. Remove it. I get this message every single day for hundreds of posts.

Aug 21st, 2007
Haris

LOL, yeah you are right. I just noticed another one in my Spam Comments. LOL, thanks for letting me know. Otherwise I would have been de-spamming all such comments.

Aug 21st, 2007
what U running?

Check out Songbird: http://getsongbird.com/ it has come on a long way and will be out of beta soon. VLC rocks too.

http://www.whaturunning.com/Th.....ftware.htm

Nov 11th, 2008