Good Alternative to VLC Player?

[CoffeeFiend]

As far as I know, MPC-HC is in terrible code state. It's an old code from MPC with some features added on top of it.

Yet, nothing comes even close to it for movies. VLC is handy for a few other things (streaming/transcoding/capturing stuff, playing obscure formats & broken files, etc) but as a general purpose media player it's pretty awful IMO (sucks at playing H.264 files big time, hw acceleration isn't quite there yet, no EVR renderer support, really poor interface which usually happens with multi-platform programs, poor keyboard shortcuts, even mouse control sucks, tons of bugs like rebuilding the font cache for what seems like eternity all too often, etc). Mostly everything just works in MPC-HC, and ditto for ffdshow (knowing how to configure them sure helps a lot though). For audio files VLC's still horrible but I wouldn't use MPC HC for that either.

[xmf]

I never got MPC-HC to work, but I'm trying again. The program is installed but I can't figure out where to enable the EQ.

[xmf]

FFDshow downloaded but I can't find the exe

[CoffeeFiend]

I never got MPC-HC to work, but I'm trying again. The program is installed but I can't figure out where to enable the EQ.

It's not a music player, so there isn't one.

FFDshow downloaded but I can't find the exe

That a codec (decoder), not a player.

[xmf]

I'm confused. I requested recommendations for a music/movie player and MPC was highly recommended. Also, post 9 shows an EQ for the player.

So MPC won't play FLAC, MP3, etc? What about the eq mentioned as being part of the FFDshow package?

After downloading FFDshow, I was referring to the "Install" document that states:

"Binary distribution:

Run ffdshow.exe and follow instructions."

I guess I don't have the binary distr then. The second set of install instructions (shown below) are totally confusing to me. I'll try to search elsewhere for easier instructions I guess.

"From sources:

1. Install cygwin with gcc, binutils, make and mingw runtime (maybe others)

Cygwin can be downloaded from http://www.cygwin.com

2. Install nasm

3. Go to ffmpeg directory

4. Edit config.mak and config.h

5. Go to libavcodec directory

6. Type make

7. Copy libavcodec.dll to windows system directory (or somewhere to PATH)

8. Go to mplayer directory

9. Edit config.mak and maybe config.h

10. Type make

11. Copy libpostproc.dll to windows system directory (or somewhere to PATH)

12. Go to dshow directory

13. Open dshow.sln (for VS.NET) or dshow.dsw (for VS 6) and build it

(xvid.ax should be registered after build)

14. Try to play some XVID AVI with Windows Media Player 6.4

(may work also with other players)"

[CoffeeFiend]

I'm confused. I requested recommendations for a music/movie player and MPC was highly recommended.

I personally never recommended MPC or MPC HC as a music player. Don't blame me I only use it for movies myself. I stick to plain old Windows Media Player for music, and I'm quite happy with it. It has an equalizer but I've never used it, nor am I planning on that...

Also, post 9 shows an EQ for the player.

No, that's the ffdshow audio decoder, which has that particular feature (haven't used it either) which you'd access from a (fairly annoying) tray icon, or from your player if it exposes its functionality. It's still not a player (it's used by a player rather)

So MPC won't play FLAC, MP3, etc?

I've never tried. But I wouldn't want to use it for that either.

[allen2]

This page explain how to use external filter in mpc-hc and with ffdshow you'll get a realtime equalizer.

[xmf]

So MPC won't play FLAC, MP3, etc?

I've never tried. But I wouldn't want to use it for that either.

I'm curious why. [for those who care, the bare MPC-HC install will play flac and mp3]

This page explain how to use external filter in mpc-hc and with ffdshow you'll get a realtime equalizer.

Thanks, looks like a great resource but it's also quite extensive and I couldn't find instructions on how to install ffdshow initially.

Edited September 6, 2011 by xmf

[allen2]

Here is one of the ffdshow builds repository.

[CoffeeFiend]

I'm curious why

Because the interface is clearly meant for playing videos and I think it would really suck quite badly for playing music. I'd much rather keep using WMP for music, where things are neatly organized by albums/groups/whatever and rated, where I can sync my mp3 player, where the same songs can be streamed to other computers and devices or even used in media center and so on.

[xmf]

I'm curious why

Because the interface is clearly meant for playing videos and I think it would really suck quite badly for playing music. I'd much rather keep using WMP for music, where things are neatly organized by albums/groups/whatever and rated, where I can sync my mp3 player, where the same songs can be streamed to other computers and devices or even used in media center and so on.

Gotcha, nice.

[xmf]

Here is one of the ffdshow builds repository.

Awesome, that resource had the (seemingly elusive) exe file. I probably installed a bunch of FFD options I don't need (I checked all of them), but oh well. Tomorrow I'll hopefully get MPC set up to use FFD as a filter.

After I customize the eq in FFD, will it be enabled automatically every time I use MPC?

Edited September 6, 2011 by xmf

[xmf]

Up and running. FFD EQ starts up automatically with MPC and retains EQ settings from previous sessions. Big thanks to allen2 and the other contributors for helping out.

[allen2]

I am glad i could help and not everyone is thankful in this world.

[mitraark]

KMPlayer maybe ? It has nice keyboard shortcuts for many functions , inbuilt equiliser , audio and video tweaks and subtitle edit functions are great .