Summary: Video playback is a confusing mess. For most people the player to be used is defined not by personal preference, but by the type of file.
What is the best media player to download to view attachments with videos, Real? Quicktime? Windows media?
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How about all of the above?
The problem is that as the recipient you don't have a whole lot of choice. It's the sender that determines the format that they send you, and you'll just have to have a player that understands it.
And not all players understand all formats.
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Sadly, the world of video in particular is a confusing mess of formats and options. If all you're trying to do is view a video that someone else has provided, it's complex enough. Heaven help you if you want to try and produce a video.
For playback, to keep things the simplest:
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Like I said, that's the simple path. While it results in three different media players on your machine, it usually works.
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But recall that I said it's a complicated mess.
What's really happening for most media players is that they don't understand anything at all, in and of themselves. They rely on "codecs" (coder/decoders) that are installed on the system to actually understand the various media formats.
So naturally when you install the Real player, it also installs codecs that understand Real formatted files. Similarly when you install QuickTime, it installs codecs for QuickTime formatted files.
It's even possible that, after installing various media players you may find that some can actually play the formats of another.
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There are some alternatives.
One of the classic alternatives is Media Player Classic. Designed to look like an older version of Windows Media player, you can set it up to play all three. That, of course, is best done by installing the separate applications anyway, after which their codecs become available to Media Player Classic.
But at least you can use a simple and consistent user interface regardless of which format you're viewing.
For codecs there are both Real Alternative and QuickTime Alternative which provide codecs that can add Real media and QuickTime support to other players without having to download the "official" versions of those applications. This is a common way to add Real and Quicktime support to Media Player Classic, for example.
There are two issues with Real and Quicktime Alternatives: typically they're not quite as full featured as the originals and it's not clear whether they're actually legal.
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My recommendation for the average user is the simple one: install each player as you need it. (My personal preference is to then immediately disable the start-up programs that each of these programs adds. Those add no value, in my opinion.)
If you'd like a single user interface to handle all formats once the various official players are installed, then download Media Player Classic to act as a front-end.
Related:
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Wikipedia - Comparison of Media Players in some, often geeky, detail.
Article C3015 - May 6, 2007
I prefer the KM player...Though VLC is great, the user interface and the controls are not that easy to use and the fast forward really gives me a pain, with the video occasionally stopping or showing funny colours...and the Real player is horrible!!!! no proper controls and an even more stupid GUI.KM player has a really cool interface and absurdly simple keyboard controls and it can play almost all formats, except the real media files....I would suggest trying it out.....
Posted by: Anirudh DSP at November 20, 2009 1:33 PMActually its difficult to pick the best media player. As you are saying, codecs does the actual work. But Jet Audio is the best options at present. I am not saying its Da Best. But i am using it from last 5-6 yrs. I can play every format available, an FLV too. I must say you should try it once. Again i am not advertising this, but i found Jet Audio better over WMP, VLC, Sonic, Winamp etc. I have used each of them, just give a try with that.
Posted by: soumitra at November 25, 2009 4:40 AMI would just like to say,i am 58 and recently purchased my first computer.I just want to use the computer for basic usage,at the moment,i want to download movies into win media centre,i download and they just go missing.Ive tried the help on here,but,like all of them,im lost in the jargon.Have pity for people like me,im sure im not alone,especially among the older of us,who really only have the computer to keep in touch.im disabled,live alone,without the computer i would have gone stir crazy!!!Great site,great reading,i only wish i understood it!!!
Posted by: frank skeates at December 1, 2009 8:53 AMI also think Kmplayer is the best, though vlc is a good alternative ^^. There are some reasons why I prefer Kmplayer. The first one is that I hate to install codecs pack. they only slow down my computer and most of the time you only use some of the codecs that are available in the pack; kmplayer comes with interncl codecs and you just need to install real media and quicktime codecs(I suggest the alternative ones). The Second one is that we have more options in kmplayer than vlc to improve the appearance and also to customize it, such as hotkeys, transparency, etc. The third one is that I can use it as my default tv and camcorder player. it also has the option to record from your tv tuner, but I've never tried it. Well, I suppose the only thing that this player lacks of is the network options that vlc offers. By the way, kmplayer works really well in windows 7 (don't forget to install visualc++ 2005).
Posted by: Neto at January 6, 2010 6:28 AMSmplayer, intuitive GUI and easy keyboard navigation. VLC is a close second. XBOX Media Center [XBMC] is a high power version of (S)mplayer. Hands down the best media player available.
Posted by: steve at January 25, 2010 9:21 PM