I'm about to do some extensive traveling, and would like to view
movies etc. aboard aircraft and in the hotels. For this laptop
(Home Premium, Core Duo, 2GB RAM, etc.) what are the best tools
for .avi and other common formats?

Windows Media Player is installed with the OS, but I remember
from 98/XP days that there are better choices. I'd like to know
what "works" with Vista.

Thanks!

"Henry" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:fbhns9$tkq$(E-Mail Removed)...
> I'm about to do some extensive traveling, and would like to view movies
> etc. aboard aircraft and in the hotels. For this laptop (Home Premium,
> Core Duo, 2GB RAM, etc.) what are the best tools for .avi and other common
> formats?
>
> Windows Media Player is installed with the OS, but I remember from 98/XP
> days that there are better choices. I'd like to know what "works" with
> Vista.


Some people prefer the bloat free and standalone (no installing needed)
Media Player Classic. It is quite like Windows Media Player v6 from the
early Win2000 days.

http://sourceforge.net/projects/guliverkli/

There is also VLC, which plays almost anything, and uses its own codecs,
which are entirely separate from the installed ones in the operating system.

http://www.videolan.org/

ss.

On Mon, 03 Sep 2007 12:38:45 -0700, Henry <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>I'm about to do some extensive traveling, and would like to view
>movies etc. aboard aircraft and in the hotels. For this laptop
>(Home Premium, Core Duo, 2GB RAM, etc.) what are the best tools
>for .avi and other common formats?
>
>Windows Media Player is installed with the OS, but I remember
>from 98/XP days that there are better choices. I'd like to know
>what "works" with Vista.
>
>Thanks!

GOM Player is my current favorite. It has a small footprint, loaded
with customization features, rarely crashes, works fine with Vista, it
like the following is free and all work fine with Vista.

Another good choice is Xnview. This one also does circles around
Windows Explorer as a thumbnail viewer and also doubles as a good
video player plus other things it does.

A third one is VLC Media Player.

Finally don't overlook Real Player. While it took a lot of lumps for
including spyware years ago then at first denying it, over the years
it has improved a lot and also is a good player.

WoW!

As soon as I pressed the SEND key, I realized that my post would
probably trigger yet another wave of antiVista comments. In
fact, I'm very satisfied with this OS.

....and pleased with the on-point and useful responses!

I've installed GOM and one of the Classic editions. Both work
better than the original WMP that came preloaded.

THANKS!