Best Media/Music Player for Windows 7 x64?

[MariosX]

Hello!

I'm currently using Media Player Classic Home Cinema (without any codecs) for any video playback and Winamp v5.61 for music playback.

But I got bored of Winamp, I believe I need a better Music player that can have a better quality playback and as well 5.1 music support for any music file

For the time being I'm good with Media player classic home cinema but I would like to know if there is any better Video player or any codecs you would recommend to increase it's playback quality as well as colors, sharpness and etc.

Please recommend me any players that consider better than Winamp & Media Player Classic Home Cinema including payed and free ones.

[Boz]

LOL at people saying iTunes.. that garbage should be BANNED from Windows. That and just awful Quicktime. It's killing machines left and right.

[s1k3sT]

VLC and foobar2000 work best for me.

[cleverclogs]

I love MPlayercHC, use it for all my video, with no extra codecs required - set audio output for ac3 / dts to 2+3 speakers (I use SRS AudioSandbox to give surround via headphones) - and turn off any image processing by graphics card or mplayerc.

And WMP covers all my music library, I don't see how it can be improved.

I have VLC standalone, that seems rather bloated, and while I know ways around the "font cache" thing, I don't see why I should have to faff around. I use it as a last resort, but that is all.

[iuerg87yerg879e0rg9erugjer]

i admit i love apple, but itunes and windows are not ment to be together, i am using vlc and zune at the moment and i feel i am covered.

[Paul Ferson Veteran]

LOL at people saying iTunes.. that garbage should be BANNED from Windows. That and just awful Quicktime. It's killing machines left and right.

I honestly don't understand quite why people dislike iTunes so much. The only issue I've had with it is that it occasionally forgets where my iTunes Library is but that's a two minute fix maximum. If you can find another media player that's free and has as good an Album Grid view, I'll happily try it out.

[lalalalalalalala]

well i think for Video players... i so love and i think is the best PotPlayer. there is a site where you could get it in english... but its amazing, since you dont need codecs, and it has alot of options, it was the The Kmplayer developer before pandora bought it. so now this potplayer is being updated regulary with amazing stuff and fixes.

it has nice music interface but obviously it doesn't have a music organizer or something like that.

maybe cowon media center - jetaudio. which is an amazing software, from converting videos/music to even broadcast your music with jetcast. and it plays videos nicely, i think it requires codecs though.

[WolvesHunt]

CCC Pack + Windows Media Player Classic

Itunes

yes I have a Ipod 160GIG and Itunes is like the best way to go. I use to use winamp and I still have it to test my music before I sort them in Itunes.

Also with iTunes I do not have to manual add/delete/clean songs and playlists, and it automatically updates my Music list and Ipod

[Athlonite]

for Video I don't go past WMPC-HC x64 no codecs

and for Audio WMP12 (although living in New Zealand sometimes track names/numbers can get a little F'd up) a good example is Slash's album SLASH track names/numbers are different here than the release in the states

[Anibal P]

WMP and iTunes are crap, all they do is thrash your hard drive instead of just playing music. Trying out MusicBee, so far it's pretty good, just need to figure out how to make it show my folders like they are on the drive.

For video I'll use VLC/DIVX player, whichever one the file opens, I also have PowerDVD 10, but I rarely play any DVD's

[Boz]

I honestly don't understand quite why people dislike iTunes so much.

Because it's a dog sh*t slow, it uses insane amount of memory, it crashes and installs 10 services to run some of which are automatically installing Apple sh*t and Quicktime hasn't been updated for Windows in ages. It's damaging the stability on Windows machines for many users and gives Apple more false ammo to spit on Windows and Quicktime just doesn't work right and isn't even written for 64bit and is not compatible with Windows 7.

As I said, Apple software should be banned and blocked from installing on Windows.

Try running without installing anything Apple (don't install iTunes and don't install Quicktime) on your Windows and see you machine FLY! and get 200% stable.

They are complaining about Flash player? Seriously?!?! Their software is worse than the worst spyware on Windows not to mention it looks like crap.

[remixedcat]

yep I have tested itunes briefly and it did thrash my disk so much I had to stop using it.

[Udedenkz]

Music: WMP - at least on Windows 7.

Movies: MPC:HC (Without ANYTHING else)

Anime: MPC:HC with Haali Media Splitter

As a fair warning,

MPC:HC comes with all the needed codecs built-in. No other Codec Pack is necessary.

VLC is NOT better in performance compared to MPC:HC.

VLC is, by MPC:HC standards, popular bloatware.

[sialivi]

Music: MediaMonkey + Spotify

Video: MPC-HC

[ViperAFK]

My current favorite player is clementine:

http://www.clementine-player.org/

MPC-HC for video.

[+Spark99 Subscriber²]

For me it's... K-Lite Codec Pack +

Music:

• AIMP 3
  
• Audials One 8
  
• Media Monkey 4

Video:

• Cyberlink PowerDVD 11 Ultra
  
• Zoom Player Home Max 8

[HardSide]

suprised nobody mentioned winamp yet, between being customizable to whatever you need - been using it since the 90's

[Sir Topham Hatt]

I hate VLC

Why? What is wrong with it?

I use Winamp for playlists / music when I am working.

If I want to listen to a little bit of a track or test something out, then VLC as it;s quick.

However I still have all tracks opening defaulty in WMP, so if I accidently double click on a track, I don't have to go through the faff of opening up the playlist in Winamp again (which I may not have saved anyway).

[Paul Ferson Veteran]

Because it's a dog sh*t slow, it uses insane amount of memory, it crashes and installs 10 services to run some of which are automatically installing Apple sh*t and Quicktime hasn't been updated for Windows in ages. It's damaging the stability on Windows machines for many users and gives Apple more false ammo to spit on Windows and Quicktime just doesn't work right and isn't even written for 64bit and is not compatible with Windows 7.

As I said, Apple software should be banned and blocked from installing on Windows. Try running without installing anything Apple (don't install iTunes and don't install Quicktime) on your Windows and see you machine FLY! and get 200% stable. They are complaining about Flash player? Seriously?!?! Their software is worse than the worst spyware on Windows not to mention it looks like crap.

I'm actually seeing your points and beginning to understand. I previously imagined the disk thrashing around the startup was just Windows loading itself fully or something but I suppose that it relates to me opening iTunes. I avoid using QuickTime as a whole because the software feels ancient. In order to test your idea of running with no Apple software on my OS would it mean a reinstall, or would a run of Revo Uninstaller be sufficient, assuming I removed everything related to it? If you can find and recommend a media player that has Last.FM support and the Album Grid thing - or something similar - then I would be extremely interested in trying it.

[Lee G. Veteran]

I use and recommend foobar2000 for music and MPC-HC for video.

[Aergan]

Music: Zune x64 or AIMP

Video: Media Player Classic Home Cinema Edition x64 + AC3 Filter

[neo158]

I'm actually seeing your points and beginning to understand. I previously imagined the disk thrashing around the startup was just Windows loading itself fully or something but I suppose that it relates to me opening iTunes. I avoid using QuickTime as a whole because the software feels ancient. In order to test your idea of running with no Apple software on my OS would it mean a reinstall, or would a run of Revo Uninstaller be sufficient, assuming I removed everything related to it? If you can find and recommend a media player that has Last.FM support and the Album Grid thing - or something similar - then I would be extremely interested in trying it.

The Zune software doesn't have Last.FM support but the default album view is a grid view showing all the albums in your collection:

I would also add that the Zune Software monitors folders for content and does a better job of finding album artwork than that POS called iTunes. I mean iTunes doesn't even monitor folders for content (monitoring one folder that has to be populated manually doesn't count), something most other media players have as standard!!!

[Lamp0]

Because it's a dog sh*t slow, it uses insane amount of memory, it crashes and installs 10 services to run some of which are automatically installing Apple sh*t and Quicktime hasn't been updated for Windows in ages. It's damaging the stability on Windows machines for many users and gives Apple more false ammo to spit on Windows and Quicktime just doesn't work right and isn't even written for 64bit and is not compatible with Windows 7.

As I said, Apple software should be banned and blocked from installing on Windows.

Try running without installing anything Apple (don't install iTunes and don't install Quicktime) on your Windows and see you machine FLY! and get 200% stable.

They are complaining about Flash player? Seriously?!?! Their software is worse than the worst spyware on Windows not to mention it looks like crap.

You must be overreacting.

I've used iTunes for years and I can't remember the last time I had a even a minor issue with it, and I very much doubt it installs 10 services. At the moment the only slow thing about it is the iTunes store.

I have Windows 7 64bit and it is 100% working with my near 60gb library.

[remixedcat]

I know when I did try itunes out it slowed my other stuff with my down and my codecs acted funny.

[Yogurth]

AIMP for audio (www.aimp.ru)

KmPlayer for video (www.kmplayer.com)

Both have every codec You can imagine integrated, so they are all You'll ever need.

[amStart isignz]

I use foobar2000 with Silent Night V6 skin and CD Art Display for music. For movies I use PotPlayer (from the (ex?) KMPlayer developer). In the evening I use XBMC which is streaming from my Synology. Love the Android remote app :-)