free DVD player programs?

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Mon Oct 05, 2009 1:10 am

Anyone know of one? I tend to watch DVDs more on my computer than, say, my Playstation, so I need a DVD program that is free and won't start playing audio and video unsynced after a while.

are there any?

PhoneLobster · Post by **PhoneLobster** » Mon Oct 05, 2009 1:37 am

VLC is pretty good

Heath Robinson · Post by **Heath Robinson** » Mon Oct 05, 2009 2:46 am

PhoneLobster wrote:VLC is pretty good

No, it really isn't.

I'd suggest CCCP. MPC HC using CCCP, in fact. It's got pretty much the best playback GUI I can think of, and CCCP has the easiest install and setup I can think of.

PhoneLobster · Post by **PhoneLobster** » Mon Oct 05, 2009 3:22 am

That youtube link has its head up its ass in so many ways it isn't funny.

In fact, even if I assume a damn thing it said is true (and as a user of VLC, which is not "ancient" and is fiarly frequently updated I am rather confident about the only valid criticism was that subtitles default to off).

Even IF I assume the git who put that together knows anything about video formats it was painful to watch that piece of shit youtube video.

I mean fuck, if the youtube poster there cares so much about subtitle quality how come the quality of his own fucking subtitles suck?

And why does his video suck in every other respect?

Fuck that.

Prak wants VLC and thats final.

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Mon Oct 05, 2009 3:33 am

Heath Robinson wrote:
PhoneLobster wrote:VLC is pretty good
No, it really isn't.

Right, that was a completely pointless 3 minutes that reminded me why I do go to 4chan... thanks for that reminder. Other than that, it was meaningless.

I like judicious use of swearing as much as the next person, but that was fucking idiotic. What are the problems with VLC? and please, don't reply with more 4chan bullshit, a well reasoned critique as I'm sure you're capable of providing will suffice.

I'd suggest CCCP. MPC HC using CCCP, in fact. It's got pretty much the best playback GUI I can think of, and CCCP has the easiest install and setup I can think of.

So you're supporting CCCP because you like the user interface. That's nice. As far as I'm concerned, so long as I can play, pause, stop, scan and control the volume, I'm set. I'm not sure how easy install and set up can get, I've yet to see one particularly difficult (other than installs that just weren't working).

On a quick look at VLC, it seems to work fine, though, yes, it has a pretty damn ugly GUI.

Phonelobster articulated a nice arguement against the youtube video (it was painful).

However, no one's actually given pros and cons...

Utterfail · Post by **Utterfail** » Mon Oct 05, 2009 3:41 am

Another vote for VLC from me. The default interface is pretty fugly, but its simple to put it in skin mode. Also, you can watch videos in colored ASCII text. It's a completely pointless feature, but how cool is that?

PhoneLobster · Post by **PhoneLobster** » Mon Oct 05, 2009 3:55 am

Prak_Anima wrote:However, no one's actually given pros and cons...

VLC.

It's quick.

It's easy.

It works.

It is reliable.

It will run basically anything.

And it will run basically anything more reliably than basically any alternative program.

I used to use quite a range of video clients. And maybe there are some fancy new ones that are cool. But since I found VLC I stopped looking.

Looking for an alternative was no longer necessary, and thats about all the "pros" you need in a minor god damn utility.

CatharzGodfoot · Post by **CatharzGodfoot** » Mon Oct 05, 2009 4:08 am

I've always used MPC and have no complaints. It's a very generic interface, but that doesn't matter if it's full screen. I haven't tried VLC, so I can't say anything about it. The two programs sound fairly equivalent, except MPC is Windows only.

Heath Robinson · Post by **Heath Robinson** » Mon Oct 05, 2009 4:14 am

Wow, I take a look at (the latest version of) VLC for the first time in... about a year. They've made progress.

Their standard install uses nearest-neighbour for resizing video, which pixellates the output, and I can't find any options to switch it to bicubic interpolation (which is basically the only option worth using).

CCCP sets everything up, and basically just requires you push the next button several times. That should be as easy as the VLC install. It installs and sets up FFDShow, which is the standard Codec infrastructure, sharing Codecs between every program that you can persaude to use it (VLC has that option, though I haven't tried it out yet - using it'd defeat the point of testing VLC out).

It may just be my experience, but I've seen VLC crash on people a lot more than I've seen MPC + FFDShow do. I happen to use MPC a hell of a lot more, and for the majority of my experience it is stable and reliable.

I also think I linked to the low quality version, which was uploaded when YouTube mandated the eyerape quality video that gave streaming the reputation it has. Complaints about the quality of the subs in that video, therefore, are moot unless you're complaining about the choices the guy actually got to make. White text + coloured outline is standard for a reason - maximal visibility on all backgrounds, colouration can represent current speaker.

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Mon Oct 05, 2009 4:43 am

Okay, well, I'll kep CCCP in mind if VLC pisses me off. Thanks for the help guys.
Finding a skin I liked was actually pretty easy. Though I am honestly puzzled at the number of PSP Go based skin designs...

As to subtitles in the youtube video, yes, the quality was horrible, but it was also what was actually being said. It read like the stereotypical /b/ullshit.

Josh_Kablack · Post by **Josh_Kablack** » Mon Oct 05, 2009 4:44 am

Wikipedia article with extensive feature charts

VLC gets my vote - it's better than Windows Media Player, Quicktime, gXine, any version of WinAmp and even (shudder to think of it) RealPlayer for things I use a media player for. It has never once crashed on me when attempting to play a file that was actually legit.

In the interest of fairness, I've never used MPC, my experience is limited to those I just mentioned. Some of the others may very well may be better than VLC.

And in the interest of calling a denizen out on bullshit:

fact that the MPC HC UI looks better

1. Aesthetics are matters of opinion, not fact.
2. Both programs are skinnable. Deciding between them based solely on aesthetics is not a way to get people to respect your opinion.

Username17 · Post by **Username17** » Mon Oct 05, 2009 7:17 am

Who the hell cares about downscaling? When I watch a video, I want it in original pixel width or in full screen mode. VLC does both fine. Yes, VLC gets blocky during downsclaing, but I honestly don't give a fuck and can't even understand why anyone would.

-Username17

Draco_Argentum · Post by **Draco_Argentum** » Mon Oct 05, 2009 8:08 am

The last version of VLC I had was really hard to scan through a file with the slider deal. It also artifacted all over the place if I skipped forward a few minutes in a file. This was obviously shit for skipping the credits in TV shows so I went with CCCP. VLC did support one codec CCCP didn't have but that was ages ago, they both probably have heaps of extra codecs since then.

Heath Robinson · Post by **Heath Robinson** » Mon Oct 05, 2009 6:20 pm

FrankTrollman wrote:Who the hell cares about downscaling? When I watch a video, I want it in original pixel width or in full screen mode. VLC does both fine. Yes, VLC gets blocky during downsclaing, but I honestly don't give a fuck and can't even understand why anyone would.

Downscaling and upscaling are the same thing with different parameters (the scale parameter, in fact), but any problems are often far more visible when you downscale. VLC pixellates when you scale because it uses nearest-neighbour. Bicubic interpolation is the superior algorithm, though after checking I was wrong when I previously asserted that MPC HC uses it by default - it uses Bilinear, which is still significantly preferable to nearest neighbour.

I also see inappropriate colouration with VLC, though. Black pixels are black in MPC, at least for me. In VLC I see them as impure black, and I also see artifacts.

I am having trouble getting images up to demonstrate the difference between MPC and VLC. Even if you were to see them, you'd probably call them minor in most circumstances. That's probably true. I watch anime way more often than LA stuff, so the pixellation is significantly more noticable for me.

Crissa · Post by **Crissa** » Mon Oct 05, 2009 10:53 pm

Downscaling is useful if you have small display devices or windowing. Downloading one file is faster than downloading multiple versions.

Forwarding around in videos is largely dependent upon the video itself - more key frames means more points that the video can be inserted at, but larger file footprint. To forward or backtrack in a video without many key frames means that the player has to queue a process and run the file through the processor to get to the point you want... Which may not be possible based upon how much processing power you have available.

-Crissa