You Can Still Use VLC to Play DVDs in Windows 8 for Free

[The_Observer]

Who still buys DVDs, and why would you watch them on your computer!

[Slammers]

So many people buy dvd's, so many people use pc's as media centers, do you really have to ask?

[JOHNIELb]

I'm quite sure many OEM's will include the necessary codecs for you anyway. Anyone who doesn't buy an OEM-PC will be smart enough to install a proper video player themselves.

I know that Toshiba does. My Toshiba laptop has their DVD laptop

[WaveZero]

SK[' timestamp=1336245621' post='594847075]

Or install VLC and have an awesome player that will never fail you!

If it works for you, then by all means use it. I was just trying to state the facts, but didn't have enough time to explain why. But VLC is open source and I respect that =)

VLC plays everything, but VLC plays a lot of things badly. It screws up the luma range quite often, which makes blacks look gray. It does a crappy job at upscaling or downscaling content. Doesn't matter very much on DVD-like content, but when watching 720p or BluRay content the difference isn't hard to see.

Media Player Classic Home Cinema with MadVR is the best quality you can possibly get for playback. If your PC can't handle MadVR (it requires some power) then you'd be best off with Haali renderer. Very efficient and still good quality, better than you'll ever get with VLC.

Seriously, just Google "VLC vs MPC" and you'll see tons of examples that show how VLC messes up files all the time.

This one for example: https://forums.playf...8607c5800bfe1e3

You can see how blacks turn gray in VLC, and how whites (look at the clouds) get less bright. This results in a loss of contrast, and VLC does it on a lot of videos.

Then we have this one: http://i90.photobuck...tdizzle/2-2.png

It's not hard to see that about every single line in the image lost a lot of sharpness, and that's because VLC is utter crap at upscaling or downscaling video. In MPC-HC it depends on what renderer you use, but even with the default settings it'll look a lot better than it ever does in VLC.

VLC fails me all the time. It's slow and it's quality sucks. MPC-HC plays about everything and is a lot more stable. The only thing MPC-HC doesn't do as well as VLC is streaming. But I can't imagine many people using that a lot.

Exactly, also has trouble decoding 10bit video files, plus doesn't work very well when using it with mini H.264 videos from what I notice. VLC scaling isn't all that great, I did do a comparison a few months ago, but didn't do VLC but I bet the quality wouldn't be up to scratch as these other decoders.

Comparison:

From what I noticed CCCP (FFDShow), CoreAVC and MadVR are almost same in terms of quality, if you are outputting the file at its native video file resolution. As seen here:

Hi10P 720p Heaven's Lost Property - CCCP vs MadVR:

http://screenshotcom...mparison/101595

Hi10P 720p Heaven's Lost Property - CCCP vs CoreAVC:

http://screenshotcom...mparison/101598

Hi10P 720p Heaven's Lost Property - CoreAVC vs MadVR:

http://screenshotcom...mparison/101601

For the 480p to 720p upscale you can notice a slight difference with MadVR (more sharper) and while CCCP and CoreAVC looks the same.

480p Durarara!! - CCCP vs MadVR:

http://screenshotcom...mparison/101602

480p Durarara!! - CCCP vs CoreAVC:

http://screenshotcom...mparison/101603

480p Durarara!! - CoreAVC vs MadVR:

http://screenshotcom...mparison/101604

Keep in mind that these are default settings, straight from installation. If you tinker with the settings in CCCP and MadVR I'm sure you could get better quality. Not sure about CoreAVC.

Media Player Classic is the way to go.

EDIT: VLC might be a good idea for Linux, but for Windows... no, thats like arguing that Open Office is better then MS Office 2010.

CCCP does the same thing as LAV, just LAV gets updated more often; installing both is dumb practice.

MadVR is fully irrelevant to any normal person. EVR:CP is the way to go.

MavVR requires more CPU and GPU power and is just a bad idea on W8 tablets.

It also makes no sense to advise "LAV filters, or MadVR" considering that one is a performance destroying renderer (MadVR) while the other is a collection of AV codecs and a splitter (LAV).

Lol I never said anything about tablets, and I don't recall this thread being all about tablets (Was strictly speaking quality and performance wise). But I can definitely see your point, I prefer FFDShow filters over LAV but from what I heard LAV are apparently better. But nothing tops MadVR IMO, though I don't use it as my main decoder, I currently use CoreAVC (but that costs money) it uses less CPU usage while playing back 8bit video files, but playing back 10bit (or some people call it Hi10p) it actually uses more CPU usage compared to other decoders. Also VLC isn't that much of a good idea for linux, MPlayer2 is a lot better if you want the best quality.

So because I'm a quality freak and like to use MadVR I'm not a normal person :p ? MadVR runs just fine on my laptop, the only downside is it drains the battery in half an hour. Haali still beats EVR:CP in my opinion. But EVR:CP isn't too bad and is probably the way to go for most people.

Lol I don't see the point of running it while on battery, since quality gains from up-scaling DVDs would be quite minimal considering the battery life you get. Try using CoreAVC, very light on CPU (assuming you're not playing 10bit videos of course).

Anyways here is the irony, CCCP, MadVR and I think CoreAVC, they can't play DVD from my understanding ROFL!!

[+Nik Louch Subscriber²]

Who still buys DVDs, and why would you watch them on your computer!

Ridicu

Ridiculous comment is ridiculous. DVD sales while declining are still huge. Computer usage as a media centre while low is growing.

[Wakers]

Really not many people use Media Center as a well..Media Center.

Some people here seem to complain that the average user won't know what VLC is or how to use a third party program to play DVDs, and then go on to say that these people will be upset because they have to pay for Media Center? No, they won't even know it exists.

The only people who use Media Center are power users, and a lot of power users don't use Media Center because of it's inherent flaws.

[Growled Member]

VLC is utter crap, use MPC-HC with CCCP, LAV filters, or MadVR and you have yourself an awesome player that will never fail you!

Yeah, I would never use VLC. I also agree that Media Player Classic is the way to go.

[giantpotato]

No, you cannot play DVD video either in the Developer Preview or the Consumer Preview, even though Media Center is included.See the screenshot below.

DVD playback works fine for me in Win 8 CP.

[Wakers]

DVD playback also works for min the Consumer Preview - although Media Center crashes more often than not.

[tomasarson]

maybe i'm the only one but dvds played in VLC have always looked worse than installing a proper codec.

[SharpGreen]

So MS ships VLC with windows now? I didn't think so.

The point is not that third party apps exist to watch DVDs, the point is (at least for me) is that I shouldn't have to go dig up third party apps to do something other OSes do out of the box.

[ArialBlue]

So MS ships VLC with windows now? I didn't think so.

The point is not that third party apps exist to watch DVDs, the point is (at least for me) is that I shouldn't have to go dig up third party apps to do something other OSes do out of the box.

Ain't the point is that phasing out old technologies in favor of new ones is a good thing - DVD is a dead end.

[moloko]

This has become my default player for all DVD or movie watching.

[Brandon H Supervisor]

So MS ships VLC with windows now? I didn't think so.

The point is not that third party apps exist to watch DVDs, the point is (at least for me) is that I shouldn't have to go dig up third party apps to do something other OSes do out of the box.

the point is OEMs already include 3rd party DVD playback software that's usually better than WMP anyway

and no, most other OSs don't play DVDs out-of-the-box. OSX will be the last one after Windows 8 RTMs

so the point is, you're not holding up a very strong point for most people unless you/they are building a custom tower

[Wakers]

I honestly think people will be happier with a cheaper Windows than they will be with a more expensive Windows that comes with inbuilt DVD playback.

[Nazmus Shakib Khandaker]

Strange to see you guys are able to play DVDs on the consumer preview's Media Center. My Media center is reporting codec errors...

[Brandon H Supervisor]

Strange to see you guys are able to play DVDs on the consumer preview's Media Center. My Media center is reporting codec errors...

maybe they did an upgrade from windows 7 and not a clean install of the CP?

[Wakers]

No, I did a clean install.

I do have VLC player installed on there though - which I probably should have thought of earlier to be honest. MC is probably using the codec.

[SinghKing]

Yes, you can.

[trieste]

Some of you may be fine with Daum Potplayer 1.5.32007 .