Questions about PotPlayer and Audio Player Recommendations

You can try SMPlayer, it supports YouTube playback as well.

bamajon1974 said:

I remember that codec packs were not recommended in the past. Is that still the case now?

That is sort of a lie. They all use built-in codes bundled in setup like ffdshow or madvr.
Keeping codecs updated will make sure, that those "no-codecs" players will perform better.

bamajon1974 said:

PotPlayer seems to be highly recommended but unfortunately the installers are bundled with adware

They offer the software for free, so skipping it in the setup, is the least you can do to support them.
Besides, it uses an online installer, so when blocked in the firewall, it will not even offer anything.
MPC-HC was previously abandoned, because devs could not afford its development anymore.

v1.7.13 is released and farewell . MPC-HC

bamajon1974 said:

PotPlayer seems to be highly recommended but unfortunately the installers are bundled with adware.
Anyway, are there privacy issues with PotPlayer? What about the various MPC players? There seem to be several in distribution, some updated, some not. Any recommendations there? I remember that codec packs were not recommended in the past. Is that still the case now?

I'm long time PotPlayer user. The following download link is adware free and there are no bundled offers on install.

Download Potplayer 64-bit 1.7.18958 for Windows - Filehippo.com

Download Potplayer 32-bit 1.7.19315.0 for Windows - Filehippo.com

It will offer to download and install additional codecs but they are needed for PotPlayer to work with all types of video.

Check Posts #2 & #3 here:

strange icon for Pot player

You can block PotPlayer via firewall but there will be no update checks and you will not be able to open streaming videos.

Hey. PotPlayer works okay with audio and has playlists and eq.

But it's primarily a video player. I use it for video.

For audio I use AIMP along with FlexAsio.

AIMP

GitHub - dechamps/FlexASIO: A flexible universal ASIO driver that uses the PortAudio sound I/O library. Supports WASAPI (shared and exclusive), KS, DirectSound and MME.

In addition - no matter which player you use you can also improve sound by using EqualizerAPO with Peace add on (system wide eq)

Configure instant mode as per image here:

Any Windows 10 Equalizer audio programs

Once you've done that exit the program and install Peace then run it as per this post:

Any Windows 10 Equalizer audio programs

Also check out Foobar2000 audio player:

foobar2000

It's not my personal choice but it should work okay for most users.

Audio players sorted by popularity (number of downloads) but bear in mind that older players have been around for a while so will have been downloaded a lot more than some newer players.

Multimedia - Audio - Audio Players Downloads

@bamajon1974

I won't be around until tomorrow.

Anyway I always get the 32bit version and get it from here:

Download Potplayer 32-bit 1.7.21212 for Windows - Filehippo.com

64bit is here

Download Potplayer 2.0.0317 for Windows - Filehippo.com

RE: Adware. Don't believe everything you read on the internet.

Maybe read pages 3,4 and 5 here:

A problem with "Open" menu context - affects one particular program

If you want MPC-BE (updated) and LAV Filters with MadVr check this post in your other thread.

Installing and Configuring MadVR and LavFilters on media players

I've got that too along with several other video players.

As for audio - it's better to use a dedicated audio player but the one built into PotPlayer isn't too bad.

Personally I use two. WinAmp (can play video too) and AIMP.