best kept freeware secret?

[Tim]

VLC Player.

Forget MPC. Forget WMP.

It's open source. It works on everything (well, all my multimedia files). It
plays movie clips, it plays mp3s, it plays all those obscure audio files that
you can't actually find on the net because they're so obscure, why, last night
it even fed the cat! It doesn't phone home (hoorah! how I hate WMP for doin'
that).

If you have to watch Real Audio & Video or Quick Time stuff, I guess you gotta
keep Real Alternative and QuickTime Alternative. It's a bit big when installed
(18MB) but it does everything...

Yeh, after all these years I'm pleased I finally found a multimedia player that
is the biz.

http://www.videolan.org/

Is it too good to be true? What have I missed? Anyone found a file type it
claims to play but it, well, actually, doesn't do it quite right?

See http://www.videolan.org/vlc/features.html for what it can & can't do...

 

[badgolferman]

VLC Player.

Yes, that is a nice piece of software.

However if this thread is about other obscure excellent software also I
would put forth anything from Robin Keir's website.
http://keir.net/software.html

 

[nycmetro]

My recent favorite is the one I recently discovered -

GreatNews - RSS Reader Aggregator - AFAIK, nothing negative can be said
about this freeware. http://www.curiostudio.com/

 

[Ted]

VLC Player.

http://www.videolan.org/

Is it too good to be true? What have I missed? Anyone found a file type it
claims to play but it, well, actually, doesn't do it quite right?

See http://www.videolan.org/vlc/features.html for what it can & can't
do...

Will it REALLY stream .ASF streams properly?

 

[BoB]

VLC Player.

Forget MPC. Forget WMP.

It's open source. It works on everything (well, all my multimedia files). It
plays movie clips, it plays mp3s, it plays all those obscure audio files that
you can't actually find on the net because they're so obscure, why, last night
it even fed the cat! It doesn't phone home (hoorah! how I hate WMP for doin'
that).

If you have to watch Real Audio & Video or Quick Time stuff, I guess you gotta
keep Real Alternative and QuickTime Alternative. It's a bit big when installed
(18MB) but it does everything...

Yeh, after all these years I'm pleased I finally found a multimedia player that
is the biz.

http://www.videolan.org/

Is it too good to be true? What have I missed? Anyone found a file type it
claims to play but it, well, actually, doesn't do it quite right?

See http://www.videolan.org/vlc/features.html for what it can & can't do...

vlc-0.8.4a-win32.zip (15.4MB)

For the size it ought to make coffee!

BoB

 

[gregfarr]

VLC Player.

Forget MPC. Forget WMP.

It's open source. It works on everything (well, all my multimedia files). It
plays movie clips, it plays mp3s, it plays all those obscure audio files that
you can't actually find on the net because they're so obscure, why, last night
it even fed the cat! It doesn't phone home (hoorah! how I hate WMP for doin'
that).

If you have to watch Real Audio & Video or Quick Time stuff, I guess you gotta
keep Real Alternative and QuickTime Alternative. It's a bit big when installed
(18MB) but it does everything...

Yeh, after all these years I'm pleased I finally found a multimedia player that
is the biz.

http://www.videolan.org/

Is it too good to be true? What have I missed? Anyone found a file type it
claims to play but it, well, actually, doesn't do it quite right?

See http://www.videolan.org/vlc/features.html for what it can & can't do...

I've used several vs of it and the best part is, it plays incomplete's
in Winmx, good one.

Greg
http://gregsplace.50megs.com
http://www.picturetrail.com/fugitive1

 

[Tony\(UK\)]

I use midi alot, and cannot see any references to it being able to play .mid
files. Please let me know otherwise, or perhaps suggest an alternative (not
VanBasco please).
I'd try WinAmp, but the association with AOL puts me off a little. Is
Quintessential OK to play midifiles?

Thanks,
Tony(UK)

 

[Anonymous]

Tony(UK) submitted this idea :

...or perhaps suggest an alternative (not
VanBasco please).

Hey Tony,
I was just reading another thread in this NG called "Dead Simple
Downloader by Blaiz Enterprises"

Blaize claims that their products are "no install," and they have a
freeware MIDI player called Synthesiser at
http://www.blaiz.net/HOME3.HTM
(Screenshot located at http://www.blaiz.net/SYNTH.JPG)

Maybe Synthesiser is an alternative for you to try?

 

[Tony\(UK\)]

Tony(UK) submitted this idea :

Hey Tony,
I was just reading another thread in this NG called "Dead Simple
Downloader by Blaiz Enterprises"

Blaize claims that their products are "no install," and they have a
freeware MIDI player called Synthesiser at
http://www.blaiz.net/HOME3.HTM
(Screenshot located at http://www.blaiz.net/SYNTH.JPG)

Maybe Synthesiser is an alternative for you to try?

Thank very much - I'll give it a try.

Tony(UK)

 

[someone]

Hi Tony, or email me for a good one at
jonbrookesATntlworldDOTcom.
--

 

[Mike S.]

I've used several vs of it and the best part is, it plays incomplete's
in Winmx, good one.

I've been using Media Player Classic for ages, but downloaded VLC Player
after reading this thread. I threw a bunch of short video clips at it and
watched the display.

Immediately upon launching the first file, it produced a second, cloned
video output windows to the left of, and above the main frame. The content
of the second windows was blocky and had a frame title something like
"hardware yuv decoded directx". If I attempted to close the superfluous
window, the player shut down. After several video cilps, multiple
instances had opened. Even after going through the help files on the web
site, and playing with the advanced video options in the preferences
(there were some things related to DirectX and buffering) I got nowhere.

Running DXDIAG on that machine produced no errors or problems, all tests
passed, incidentally.