Lists abound on the Internet for opinions on the best free media player or best paid media player software. Looking for a media player that does it all? Use RealPlayer to play audio and video files, create playlists, transfer videos and music to a phone, and convert videos into different formats. There are many other factors that go into choosing a media player.

Extra cost add-on features and codec packs could extend the format and reach of the respective players though. Some of this discrepancy is due to different tiers of free and paid products within a lineup. One of the other difficulties in picking a player is that every manufacturer would like you to believe their products are able to play all the formats, when in fact that isn’t true. You’ve seen these format lists before: AVI, FLV, MP4, WMV, MKV, MPEG (in various flavors), MOV, OGM, 3GP, RealMedia, QuickTime, VOB and so on.įor the typical user, it’s can be like a rat’s nest of complex techno-babble, when all you simply want to do is play your favorite videos on your Windows PC. Because technologies are always progressing, new ways of packaging and delivering digital video make it a constantly moving target for media player developers to keep their products current, and able to handle the latest file formats being developed as standalones or designed to be embedded through Internet streaming. That’s part of the problem of selecting a player. EVEN FREE MEDIA PLAYERS SUPPORT MANY FORMATS If you aren’t sure what your needs are yet, you might want to learn more about what to look for when comparing video player software. Among the group of the best media players for Windows may be the best free media player for you, or perhaps an enhanced version at extra cost that offers more advanced features. We’ll list many of those choices in this post, but we’re not going to crown a champion. There are simply too many excellent alternatives available offering enhancements, versatility and reliably beyond that of the Windows Media Player built into the operating system for one to stand out completely from the crowd.

Guess what? There is no absolute “best” media player for Windows.

Realplayer vlc comparison