Inquiring minds hesitate to know

ViPlay is the best, most versatile, and easy to use video player i have yet found.

but i am always looking for better, what player do you use???

Either Windows Media Player or good 'ol WinAMP.

Yes, pretty s**tty but meh. shrugs shoulders

Winamp 2 for music, media player 6.4 with ffdshow for movies. Don't see any advantage to a newer player for either :smile:

WMP is good enough for me.

i get the sneaky suspicion, you 3 don't watch/download near the movies i do

none of those, watch avi's or mpg's very well. sure they work, but they're so bulky :/

I really only watch it for 24, thanks to you Americans being about 8 episodes ahead of us brits. :smile: I also watch the occasional movie (more specifically Pulp Fiction and The Big Lebowski over and over :biggrin: ).

I use Xine. It's the best video player out there, and you can skip the ads in DVDs with it!!1 It supports every format ever - even WMV - but it's better geared to Linux than Windows, though.

PowerDVD for DVDs, DivX for most .avi files and Media Player 9 for all those that don't seem to work with other movie players.

i may look into that des.. it appears to be quite good, but it will have to be something to sway me from ViPlay..

course though, the reasons i like mine and the reasons you like yours, might not even be interchangeable :biggrin:

i will let you know :smile:

Gorbachev said:
PowerDVD for DVDs, DivX for most .avi files and Media Player 9 for all those that don't seem to work with other movie players.

its all in the codecs gorby.. not the players

in fact, i just found a new one.. here

it is worth getting, but i sure wish they would find more universal codecs..

it is amazing though.. files of 70 megs, play just as clear as 200 meg files did, just last year :smile:

file compressions are getting amazing

If you're completely sick of having to watch the copyright notices or 'special features' or stupidly long menu intro sequences then you'll like it.

DesPlesda said:
If you're completely sick of having to watch the copyright notices or 'special features' or stupidly long menu intro sequences then you'll like it.

huh?!?!

i don't understand.. there are no notices and features with ViPlay.. you must be talking about media player and winamp

I meant on DVDs. You know how they show you the copyright violation warning for about 10 seconds at the start of the disc? And how Disney has taken to including advertisements that you can't skip? And how a lot of DVDs include a 10-15 second intro to the main menu? And how... :biggrin:

DesPlesda said:
I meant on DVDs. You know how they show you the copyright violation warning for about 10 seconds at the start of the disc? And how Disney has taken to including advertisements that you can't skip? And how a lot of DVDs include a 10-15 second intro to the main menu? And how... :biggrin:

actually? no.

yeah, my PC has a DVD player, but any movie i wanna watch thats DVD, i play on my TV set...

my goal, is to find an easy conversion method for changing avi files (the most common down-loadable movie format) to either mpg, or vcd.

if i were so inclined to watch dvd's on my comp, i suppose i would use power DVD..

sorry i got confused, my questions were aimed at people who download and play..

I know it's about the codecs, but some files just don't play properly in some players for whatever reason. The movies I have are from such a variety of locations. And some players either don't support certain formats, or they don't seem to understand the codecs correctly.

You have to be careful on how you word that Orph. Since there's AVI (Uncompressed Microsoft Foramat Video crap) and there's AVI (DivX).

The latter is what most all movies are encoded with ... most use 4.0 or 3.1 or somthing.

There are a crap load of converters. However, I don't suggest using them, they turn the files into gigantic bohemuths.

I had one a while ago, but it was such crap I deleted it. And the program its self wasn't crappy it was just that it was suppose to rip DVDs to DixV (Got some programs that can do that right now) then it runs another program to convert that divx file to an mpg THEN it runs another program to resize that to 320 x 240 so it is vcd compatable. big pain in the ass and when it was all said and done, the damn thing was like 1.5 gigs.

The reason why is that DivX has a VERY nice compression algorithm. Mpegs and normal AVIs don't, and with AVIs there is no compression. Mpegs do a crappy job on reconfiguring the video and about the only thing they do well is audio *cough*mp3 is just the sound part of an mpg format*cough*

Anyway, Xine is good, but they don't have a Win32 version out yet, they're working on it. So until then I'm using zoom. It's pretty nice, but you have to install all the codecs and such manually, it's not too difficult though since it has all the links in the player and you just open them and they're ready to go.

Zoom is pretty much the nicest player I've come accross, short of Xine :smile:

I never got why they did that... especially for audio files... .WAV .WMA .MP3 .OGG etc. I can understand a little the difference with WAV and MP3 but still. In the end its the same damn music...

video the same. .MPEG .MPG .AVI .MOV I mean.. comeon

Whhaaaa?

Are you nuts? they're not even close to the same thing, even though the programs send signals to vibrate your speakers or send a RGB number to your monitor for the color of the pixels formats aren't the same. its all in how they're saved and retrieved.

wav is completly uncompressed audio

WMA is a Windows only format (which other platforms are giving the ability to play now)

MP3 is very highly compressed, yet high quality audio. This was originally used in mpg video format. They hit gold with the audio, not with the video.

MPEG and MPG are the same thing.

AVI is uncompressed video and audio

MOV is the macintosh format for video.

Basically the difference between all these is the way that they store and retrieve information. Some of them are more efficient (MP3, DivX AVI), some of them have very inefficient storing methods (WAV, AVI).

Don't say they're the same ... believe it or not the same thing happens with Image encoding.

JPG, GIF, PNG, they're all stored differently. Some more efficient then others.

Saying they're the same is rather ignorant on your part, no offense.

Belive me, if you work for some software company and you write an algorithm that can keep audio quality and reduce file size by ten times, you'll be getting some very nice rewards (unless you work for Microsoft, in which case they probably bought you a house to get you to work there ... right after they made you find your way out of a 3 mile maze of mirrors )

<!-- ZoneLabs Popup Blocking Insertion -->Div-x for avi's and other wise WM/RO meh

I don't think you do Orph. And I said media player 6.4 - this isn't bulky at all, and I would never use the horrible disaster of a program that is the most recent WMP. Using ffdshow as the video renderer makes it as good as any other player tbh. As for Realplayer, that is even worse, and quick time is awful to. Don't they try and use these hopeless programs before releasing them? Luckily QuickTimeAlt and RealAlt let you use media player 6.4 for quick time and real media, and they work perfectly with mozilla for streaming media to :smile:

I think the confusion around the difference between AVI and MPEG comes from the fact that divx is a MPEG compression scheme, but the writers of it reverse engineered AVI playback codecs to get it to work, or something like that. Most of the avi files out there are actually mpeg files.

i seem to have touched off a small forrest fire..

jeff.. try ViPlay and see how tiny it is, compared to your favored player.. when i say bulky, i don't mean its a big pile of doodoo, i mean, ViPlay is like the MP3 of movie players.. it has basic design, one touch hot-keys, mouse support for many of those, and if you wanna stretch the movie to fit your screen (sometimes the wide-screen version is poorly done) you can do so, without adjusting your monitor.. in essence ViPlay is nearly perfect.. it almost reminds me of comparing hammer editor, to UnrealEd, if that makes any sence.

crono.. i apologize for causally throwing the term avi out there, i had not realized there were 2 kinds, makes a poor design to have the same acronym for movie files.. besides even had i knew, i doubt damned few others would either.. the DivX version was the one i meant, but i have found that on occasion an Xvid files is superior.. and NO I DON'T CARE WHY :biggrin:

anyways, look guys, i wasn't posting to insult your player of choice, i am genuinely interested, but am only interested in players for downloaded movies.. and it has to be simpler, and more compact than ViPlay to be better.

ViPlay, beat zoom hands down..

look guys, before you get annoyed at me, try my player, then tell me its substandard, at least in this case, i have tried all but xine so far..

By bulky I meant it doesn'ttake up loads of screen area with pointless options and graphics like the newer media player versions do. And ffdshow allows you to do that stuff :smile:

Orph I can guarantee my flatmate watches more videos and files on his PC than you do, and he uses WMP9. Download all the codecs and stuff from different sites and your sorted.

The new DivX ones are very good, they improve the quality of the film by playing it 5 seconds later than its read (it spends those 5 doing up the pixels and stuff). Makes it very smooth and very good looking.

scary_jeff said:
By bulky I meant it doesn'ttake up loads of screen area with pointless options and graphics like the newer media player versions do. And ffdshow allows you to do that stuff :smile:

makes a note

jeff still doesn't listen very well :biggrin:

O.K. jeff.. cool.

Myrk- said:
Orph I can guarantee my flatmate watches more videos and files on his PC than you do, and he uses WMP9. Download all the codecs and stuff from different sites and your sorted.

then point him to the link to ViPlay as its definately better than WMP9 :/

I just tried ViPlay... I've used this style of player before.. I just don't like ones with a very graphicy interface.

I can guarantee my flatmate watches more videos and files on his PC than you do, and he uses WMP9.

LOL well that's the end of it then obviously! WMP9 isn't bad because of it's capabilities, it's bad because it's slow and crap and ridiculously overly graphical. You can use whatever filters and codec you want on pretty much any player, so saying WMP9 can have better filters is a meaningless statement :smile: Orph's ViPlay is definately better than WMP9. Even quick time player borders on being better than WMP9! hahaha

0n1Y 4 U|2 14m3 PC!

thanx at least for trying it jeff :smile:

most wouldn't have bothered.. a few are just either to lazy, or resist change period.

for the record, i have tried both of your choices as well, but ... well i still favor mine.

i think the basic point here is, very damned few of us, dedicate as much time/bandwidth to movies as i do.. it kinda leave me out of the loop..

thanx again guys.

Oh you stream your videos? We just watch f**k loads on our PCs from "legal" discs we "obtained" via "people"...

Oh please guys, arguing over who watches/downloads the most divx and who is the most illegal? So very sad...

Orph, how did you try media player 6 and media player 9? I didn't think you could have two versions of media player on the same PC? Or did you use a different PC...

Myrk- said:
Oh you stream your videos? We just watch f**k loads on our PCs from "legal" discs we "obtained" via "people"...

must i upload my list again myrk..??

stream?? thats a laugh

in the last year, i have bought, and burned perhaps 500 CDR's.. not all for movies, but definitely for avi's and such :smile:

BTW, you should have your brother explain the concept of, "obtained" ... "legal" and "other people"

Nah, We'd just double you list

BsPlayer for divX/Xvid

WMP for regular WMV's or small movies.

PowerDVD for DVD's.

OMG SHUT UP! nobody cares who has the most movies! I can't believe you are actually arguing about this!!

Orph, you know that CD-Rs don't work after 5-10 years? :smile:

BSPlayer is very similar to Orph's ViPlay.

scary_jeff said:
Orph, how did you try media player 6 and media player 9? I didn't think you could have two versions of media player on the same PC? Or did you use a different PC...

actually i have 4 hooked to the net, via a router ATM.. only 3 are dedicated to downloads though..

at this time, i have a media player on this PC, (my old 450 P3) it is my main movie comp.. but i am unsure which version of media is on it, as i do not use media at all anymore..

in fact i have several players.. (zoom,bsplayer,media,real,ViPlay,DivX play,and QT)

i just never uninstalled many of them..

If you click help > about media player, it tells you what version it is. But basically, if it's got loads of ugly blue graphics around it by default, it's newer than the version I like.

scary_jeff said:
OMG SHUT UP! nobody cares who has the most movies!

do i smell another poll here :biggrin:

/runs..

[edit] i have version 9.. the crappy blue bulky one :biggrin:

/runs faster

scary_jeff said:
OMG SHUT UP! nobody cares who has the most movies! I can't believe you are actually arguing about this!!

Orph, you know that CD-Rs don't work after 5-10 years? :smile:

BSPlayer is very similar to Orph's ViPlay.

That CD-R stuff is BS, I have CD-Rs much older than that and they work fine.

I don't think there is a real age you can put on it, except an approximation of course, but basically they don't last forever is the problem. I've not had one die on me yet, except CDRW that got used intensively.

i think/know jeff was jesting guys..

i think it was his way of saying, i waste way to much time/bandwidth/money on movie theft :biggrin:

So you have had CD-Rs for much longer than 10 years? Interesting.

scary_jeff said:
So you have had CD-Rs for much longer than 10 years? Interesting.

your time span was 5-10 jeff

actually, longer than 10 is a bit difficult for my brain to grasp, when everything i knew of was on 3.5" floppies :/ scruntches up brain real tight HELL everything was on 5.25 floppies then

10 years ago, i didn't even own a cd/rom.. hell, 10 years ago, i didn't even own a PC :eek:

Orph, are you doing a running commentary here or what

Leperous said:
Orph, are you doing a running commentary here or what

uhh, would it help if i admitted i don't understand your question?

however that may be, i was indeed arguing with myself over, just how short a time i have had a computer..

jeff made me realize.. things have come a very long way, in a very short time span :/

<!-- ZoneLabs Popup Blocking Insertion -->[quote]

10 years ago, i didn't even own a cd/rom.. hell, 10 years ago, i didn't even own a PC :eek:
[/quote]

hell 10 years ago I hadnt even heard of a pc! I was 5 years old! :eek:

3.5" were pretty standard 10 years ago, I was talking about CD-Rs from within that 5-10 range. To get one from beyond that would be very rare, but possible. CDs and their writers (not exactly our present day PC writer though) have been around since the 80s I believe if not longer.

I use Zoom Player

I never said CDs didn't exist then, but you said "I have CD-Rs much older than that" - this isn't true, even if you took 5 years, much older than 5 years has got to be at least 8 years, and you didn't have a CD writer then either :smile:

scary_jeff said:
I never said CDs didn't exist then, but you said "I have CD-Rs much older than that" - this isn't true, even if you took 5 years, much older than 5 years has got to be at least 7 years, and you didn't have a CD writer then either :smile:

uhh jeff, i hate to point this out but, what good would blank cd/r's be if you could not own a writer?

you leave the impression that his having one was not possible.. so why would one have blanks with no way to record upon them?

and, i did see music writers long before data ones..

i am confused.. and not for the first time when swapping replies with you i might add :wink:

Hrm, there doesn't seem to be much on the horizon for the next 5 or so years storage wise, barring blue (?) laser DVDs which can hold ~20gb or so. Maybe a bit of MRAM banter too if we're lucky. So your writeable CD/DVDs seem to be a good bet for the time being, until we get some crystal/quantum storage stuff going :smile:

Orph, he said CDs existed. and CD-Rs were basically non-existant.

Its due to the fact that a 'cheap' cd-r writer could not make readable cds to other readers. (thus the idea of multiread cd roms which is compliant with almost every laser in every cd-type machine now).

They actually had writable cds ten years ago, they were just insanly expensive and your final product was a normal cd, just as if it were made in a factory of some sort. And yes, they were mostly used for music. But they existed for data too (CD-Roms in general existed didn't they? You could buy the burner, which was a stand alone item, but it would cost a lot)

Orpheus said:
uhh jeff, i hate to point this out but, what good would blank cd/r's be if you could not own a writer?

They were selling CD-R's here before they started selling burners..