5 Free Video Players That You Must Try

A good video player is a must-have on any PC, and the best ones don’t have to cost you a thing. Here are 5 free video players that you must try – each one packed with features that put even some paid players to shame.

1. UMPlayer

UMPlayer (Universal Media Player) is a free cross-platform multimedia player with incredible support for all modern video and audio codecs. UMPlayer will without a doubt fulfill all your multimedia needs with the ability to play over 270 audio/video codecs that come preinstalled with the program itself. This means that you will not need to find codec packs and install them on your Windows PC, potentially introducing software that would destabilize your multimedia viewing habits. UMPlayer supports formats such as AVI, DIVX, FLV, H.263, Matroska, MOV, MP3, MP4, MPEG, OGG, WAV, WMA, WMV, AAC, AC3, ASF, QT, RealMedia, VOB, Vorbis, and also audio CDs, DVDs, YouTube videos, SHOUTcast Internet Radio and many, many more.

Even though its codec support is really extraordinary, the same cannot be said for its interface. It is nice looking and intuitive to use even by complete novices, but there is no big innovation present here. The main player screen offers a standard set of options, with the only interesting thing being a “Top 500 Stations Today” tool that will very easily find you the perfect radio station to brighten your day. The rest of the app customization covers the basic set of features, with full ability to tweak audio, video and subtitle reproduction on your screen.

Some of its most notable features include built-in Internet subtitle search, the ability to view YouTube videos, a skinnable interface, audio/subtitle sync, customizable hotkeys and an ability to play damaged or incomplete media files.

2. SMPlayer

SMPlayer is a free, lightweight and fast media player for Windows that comes with a pre-installed suite of codecs that can play virtually any multimedia content you can come across. From old audio codecs and MP3s to popular and obscure video formats, SMPlayer can play them all, and at the same time let you control their reproduction with a large amount of customization.

It automatically remembers where you stopped watching a movie, auto-resumes, and gives you the option of setting up subtitles, audio tracks and more. The player itself can be visually customized with many user-created skins, it has an integrated YouTube search engine, can be used in more than 30 languages, and has dozens of other advanced features that seasoned PC users will appreciate.

3. Daum PotPlayer

Daum PotPlayer is an advanced audio & video player that is brimming with features for detailed control of your media reproduction. From detailed customization of the player itself with countless skins, this multimedia app enables everyone to enter into the world of movies and music. It comes with a built-in suite of all the most popular codecs, so you don’t even have to install cumbersome 3rd party codec packs. Additionally, Daum PotPlayer can work with a wide variety of video devices (cameras, DVD players, digital recorders, analogue and digital TV), and offers an incredible amount of customization of its tools and features (video color, subtitle, playback settings, audio, and much more).

4. BS.Player

BS.Player is one of the most widely used video and audio media players, which has been downloaded by more than 70 million people worldwide and has been translated into more than 90 languages. It is capable of playing back almost any media file format like AVI, MPEG, ASF, WMA, MP3, WAV, and more, but it is very important to note that this player does not come with pre-built support for video codecs. All those codecs need to be installed separately, most popularly via premade multimedia codec packs that cover all modern video and audio formats. Also, it has very low CPU and RAM requirements, which has made this player very popular with people who own older and slower computers.

The free version of BS.Player is incredibly feature-full, able not only to satisfy complete beginners who just want easy access to audio/video reproduction and subtitle support, but also hiding below its simple dashboard an incredibly large array of advanced options that can be used to customize all aspects of its work. This includes video and audio filters, full playback control, playlist management, support for skins, and much more.

Anyone who uses BS.Player will have an easy time managing their video and audio collection, but to cater to really demanding users, the Slovenian developers from Webteh have also created a Pro version (29.9€) of the app that offers some truly advanced features such as playback of AVCHD video, integrated YouTube streaming and saving of HD files, support for TV Tuner and capture devices, a subtitle editor, support for Flash playback, and much more.

BS.Player New Features:

Playlists support

The playlist support is great. Playlists may be imported from BST and M3U (Winamp) records, saved, edited and added new files from any folder, as well as URLs.

Display subtitles

Beside the basic functions such as font type and size selection, the program supports many others: shadows, outlines, subtitle location on the screen, etc. Bad subtitle timings can be fixed within the program itself with simple keyboard shortcuts.

BS.MediaLibrary

All multimedia files on your computer’s hard drive will now be listed in the BS.MediaLibrary™. From now on they will always be within your reach.

Multilingual

BS.Player™ is an international product, targeted at all and any user worldwide.

Resolution changing

Use the resolution changing feature and avoid the oversized picture if you wish to watch your movie on your TV screen, projector or plasma screen. The feature will adjust the TV resolution and optimize the quality of movie reproduction.

Fully skinnable

Though BS.Player™ proudly bears a modern look that sets new standards in this field, the developers have included an easy skin selection option and the option of adding your own custom skins. You may create your own dream look or choose from the many pre-prepared ones found in the SKIN section.

5. ALLPlayer

ALLPlayer is a very powerful and famous media player for playing video material with subtitles. Not only does it support a wide variety of the best known video and audio codecs, but it also has the innovative LiveUpdate feature that can connect to the internet and find the latest codec packages that are needed for playing some local video files. Even more impressive is its automatic web search of subtitles. All these features are geared to enable novices and people who are inexperienced in working with video media on PC to have a streamlined experience, with no situations in which they will be left unable to reproduce videos of their choice.

However, even with all that attention being placed on novices, ALLPlayer also has full configurability and a wealth of features that will be very much interesting to advanced users who want to control every aspect of their video reproduction process. For them, ALLPlayer has support for multi-monitor playback, a remote control app for Android, a built-in multimedia file server, an equalizer, a free converter, support for all advanced audio formats and even the ability to read media that is compressed inside RAR archives.

For maximizing playback performance, ALLPlayer is using the power of DirectX rendering to provide the best possible decoding of every movie you own. Users with eyesight disabilities can also use the built-in speech synthesizer application that can dub all subtitles on your movies. With all these features implemented, ALLPlayer is still a completely free app that can be used without any restrictions.

ALLPlayer Features:

• Free easy-to-use multimedia player
• Free simple video editor
• Matching subtitles downloader built-in
• Free video menu creator
• Free converter built-in
• Subtitles audio reader
• Plays any video and audio format
• Supports Dolby Surround, 3D Audio and SPDIF
• Video covers and movie information download
• Best MKV and DivX Plus encoder
• Displays video on two monitors
• Playlist and equalizer
• Free DivX subtitles muxer
• RAR Player

So these were our picks of 5 free video players that you must try. Which one is your favorite? Do leave your comments below!