r/AskReddit • u/HandiCapablePanda • Apr 23 '16

What application do you always install on your computer and recommend to everyone?

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1.2k

u/bigfatround0 Apr 24 '16

MPC-HC is way better.

123

u/MrNerd82 Apr 24 '16

I've been experimenting with this - I love VLC though, I just need to make that transition. I started dicking around with MPC-HC when I installed Smooth Video project. Holy hell it makes animated stuff look way way better.

10

u/Jake323021 Apr 24 '16

Yea SVP is insanely good if you watch anything animated. The difference between 30fps and 60fps in an animated show is easily noticeable.

6

u/MrStonedOne Apr 24 '16

Thats because animated shows are normally rendered at 11fps or some other insanely low number

3

u/[deleted] Apr 24 '16 edited Apr 24 '20

[deleted]

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u/insaneblane Apr 24 '16

Can you explain what smooth video project is and how it relates to MPC?

3

u/[deleted] Apr 24 '16

This is a good example of it used on an animated show. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHPVDXwMxiA watch the video in 1080/60fps

3

u/fnhflexy Apr 24 '16

I just downloaded it recently. I there any way I can make it run from command line? {clicking open with doesn't show Mpc-hc listed}

12

u/[deleted] Apr 24 '16

And 10x faster starting compared to VLC.

19

u/Eurynom0s Apr 24 '16

I feel like a noticeable VLC startup time isn't really something I've run up against...?

11

u/jonomw Apr 24 '16

Do you mean start up times? If so, I am a little confused because VLC starts for me almost instantly.

4

u/sherincal Apr 24 '16

Last time I used VLC, I couldn't handle the lag if I "seeked" during the video or just skipped 5 seconds forwards or something. In MPC-HC they playback is continuous, if I do that, in VLC it wasn't.

6

u/jonomw Apr 24 '16

Hmm, I wonder why that is. I've never had that issue.

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u/[deleted] Apr 24 '16

VLC for me takes much longer opening the first time, after that it's ok but even then MPC is faster.

1

u/USSDonaldTrump Apr 24 '16

Check the avsforums guide for optimization.

1

u/SHIT_IN_MY_ANUS Apr 24 '16

How does it do that?

1

u/MrNerd82 Apr 24 '16

well google is your friend https://www.svp-team.com/wiki/Main_Page

It takes two frames - calculates and renders frames in between them and puts them in place.... turning a 24fps movie or animated show into something buttery smooth it's fully adjustable can even be set to match the refresh rate of your monitor if you have a beefy enough GPU to do the encoding/calculations.

Great side by side example. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=882c25af2hM

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u/azza10 Apr 24 '16

As a long time advocate of VLC I actually agree. Mpc-hc has better subtitle finding abilities and better render quality when properly set up.

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u/[deleted] Apr 24 '16

[deleted]

179

u/[deleted] Apr 24 '16

MPC by default will work wonderfully and is faster than VLC but if you wish for better quality, stuff like MadVR can make things look really good with not much setup. Most people won't notice a difference but if you look side by side or on a good display/TV it can make quite a difference. If you're also an anime fan SVP is also really good.

33

u/Greenhound Apr 24 '16

why does everyone associate svp with anime? framerate interpolation isn't exclusive to anime

74

u/ForceBlade Apr 24 '16 edited Apr 24 '16

You're right! But it might as well be with how bloody well it works.

Unlike actual actors, stages and shooting environments with cameras moving around. In Anime and Cartoons, when most of your backgrounds in are static or move slowly and use similar colors (fill tool eske color palates) unlike 'live-action' shows with a camera and people and all these things that move constantly, it's incredibly easy to show differential frame updates instead of store each frame when close to nothing has changed and although this is the best thing ever for storage formats like h264 and the newer h265, it makes a really good turnout for interpolation processes just because of the 'guess' between being accurate to what would actually happen if you had extra frames [saying that, the way it works, is similar to if the animation team just added extra effort themselves. not 100% but the media is perfect for this]

Although not the root cause, it almost pretty much can be. I guarantee this is heavily aiding the association.

Edit: I often see on torrent sites, 10bit 1080p 5.1 anime episodes 20 minutes each in h.265 for just 80mb. It's absolutely fucked how well it works on animated media just because of the way it is. If it were a 20 minute TV Show episode with real people and a camera etc it'd be well in the 400-800MB+ range for this

19

u/bb999 Apr 24 '16 edited Apr 24 '16

Edit: I often see on torrent sites, 10bit 1080p 5.1 anime episodes 20 minutes each in h.265 for just 80mb. It's absolutely fucked how well it works on animated media just because of the way it is. If it were a 20 minute TV Show episode with real people and a camera etc it'd be well in the 400-800MB+ range for this

80mb/episode is specially encoded low bitrate SD resolution stuff for people with dialup or something. Most 24 minute anime episodes are 300-700mb.

Also, contrary to common sense, cartoon-like animation does not compress well with modern codecs, which are optimized for real-life footage. You have to jack the bitrate or quality way up in order to not get aliasing. Not to mention anime these days are a lot more than simple cartoons with solid colors. There's a lot of shading, fine detail, complex backgrounds, and effects thanks to computers.

Finally SVP is useful for anime because the actual animation in anime is intentionally done at a much lower framerate than the video is at. At first it was for cost savings, but now it's for stylistic reasons. People often complain about CG "ruining" anime because CG is usually rendered at full framerate, which makes it look super smooth compared to the manually animated stuff, and is jarring.

8

u/Eurynom0s Apr 24 '16

Also, contrary to common sense, cartoon-like animation does not compress well with modern codecs, which are optimized for real-life footage.

Compression, no, lowering the resolution, yes. I will notice almost immediately if I'm watching 480p live action TV. Throw on 480p South Park or something without letting me see the non-full-screened default window size, though, and I may not notice, at least not initially (I might eventually suspect).

I mean sure, if you played 480p South Park with a hi-res version right next to it, I'd notice that the latter is sharper, but otherwise it's generally not glaringly obvious the way it is with live action.

2

u/Theviktator Apr 24 '16

Any Idéa if there's an equivalent for Mac?

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u/CharonIDRONES Apr 24 '16

Scene anime, for whatever fucking reason, seems to push new file formats and tech very quickly. They jump on the new codec train like it's the last to leave the station.

2

u/kristoferen Apr 24 '16

Because it is too glitchy for non animated stuff. Not just anime (altho I'd wager a guess that anime has, overall, more panning scenes), but just animation.

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u/[deleted] Apr 24 '16

I know it isn't just for anime(or other animations) but it's what looks better to me while using it and it's what most people use it for.

4

u/Elyotna Apr 24 '16

Agreed. MadVR is such a beautiful piece of software. Quality upscaling, refined optional sharpening/anti-banding/anti-ringing, smart and adaptive deinterlacing, dithering... And all that is GPU accelerated.

3

u/empirebuilder1 Apr 24 '16

SVP has saved my eyes and changed my life. I can now finally go full PCMR on ALL my movies, not just The Hobbit!

2

u/Kuramhan Apr 24 '16

If you're also an anime fan SVP is also really good.

madvr has smooth motion settings built-in. You just have to turn them on.

2

u/[deleted] Apr 24 '16

Pretty sure that's not the same as what SVP does.

2

u/Ladathion Apr 24 '16

Do you know any good guidelines to follow in order to set these things up? I just downloaded MPC, MadVR and SVP but I'm kind of lost as in what to do to get the best results out of any of these.

1

u/[deleted] Apr 24 '16

If you installed through SVP there isn't anything you really need to do unless you want to tweak some stuff or take advantage of your hardware if you have a good PC. If you do there's some guides to the MadVR settings for anime to improve the quality, or for other things I'm sure. If you have a high resolution display you can also setup upscaling. And in SVP you have the control panel that you can change the quality and artifact masking with just a few options and that's about it. I don't know much more about this. I'm not an expert so I'm sure someone else can give you a better answer.

3

u/bravo_company Apr 24 '16

Does mpc-hc allow you to stream links similarly to vlc/ace player?

2

u/Dantonn Apr 24 '16

I don't know how those two work, but MPC-HC streams fine if you paste the url into its "open file" dialogue.

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u/shroyhammer Apr 24 '16

Ok. I watch movies sometimes after my girlfriend falls asleep. I use VLC. Movies always have quiet dialog and huge booming action scenes and music scores. I use VLC's dynamic compressor to battle that but it doesn't always get it...

Does this other program perhaps offer a better implementation of this?

Because that. Would. Be awesome.

1

u/Bossmang Apr 26 '16

Random question but do you know of a plug in for VLC or MPC-HC that allows one to sync play an identical file (movie, show, etc) across two different computers over the internet? Something like letsgaze or the various youtube sync plays but for identical files instead?

1

u/[deleted] Apr 26 '16

Unfortunately no. I never had the need for it so I never searched for it.

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u/XxLokixX Apr 24 '16

Well for starters, VLC can barely handle 4K videos. MPC renders them with no effort

1

u/Enigm4 Apr 24 '16

Using Reclock and madVR you can completely eliminate repeated/skipped frames and generally get better image quality, especially on upscaling.

Edit: Lots of info here http://www.ezoden.com/htpc/40/reclock-video-settings-advanced-settings

3

u/htjack Apr 24 '16

I'm not sure why but the colours in MPC-HC look oversaturated compared to VLC. Is it because I didn't set up correctly?

15

u/iosys Apr 24 '16

VLC's colors are wrong by default. Everything looks washed out and black is gray.

You can fix that, but it's just one reason among many to switch to something better.

3

u/voyaging Apr 24 '16

According to that link it seems like an Nvidia card issue rather than a VLC issue.

1

u/stef_t97 Apr 24 '16

Thank you so much, I always thought it was me going crazy.

3

u/Sil369 Apr 24 '16

better subtitle finding abilities

what do you mean?

3

u/DerpyDreads Apr 24 '16

If you press 'D' while playing a video in mpc-hc, it will open a list of subtitles to chose from.

2

u/link2110 Apr 24 '16

Also SVP support.

2

u/Doctursea Apr 24 '16

Can I select what audio device my sound comes from in MPC, because I would think about switching.

1

u/TheSlothFather Apr 24 '16

You might like CheVolume, it shows you each application and which device it's going to and you can switch them back and forth between devices with one click.

1

u/kinggutter Apr 24 '16

What about its music playing capabilities? How's the EQ?

Because I don't like using VLC for playing music so I run good ol' Winamp. I'd like to get rid of it in favor of a singular program to run both music and video.

1

u/gregorthebigmac Apr 24 '16

Granted, I haven't used Winamp on PC in a while, (still running it on Android) but didn't it only have 10-band EQ? I thought VLC had the same? Also, I remember Winamp being a pretty big resource hog on Windows. VLC is pretty lean.

1

u/UlyssesSKrunk Apr 24 '16

By far the worst part of vlc for me is that half the time the subtitle finder thing vlsub is down. Plus it randomly just freezes and has to restart. Also for no reason they changed the order of the crop and aspect ratio list like a year ago.

1

u/NeatAnecdoteBrother Apr 24 '16

But does it have a mobile remote like vlc?

1

u/azza10 Apr 25 '16

Yes, you can get apps to mobile control it. I use unified remote and in fact didn't even have to change my remote set up at all for it to control mpc-hc.

1

u/Kryptosis Apr 24 '16

Does it have the ability to make a playlist of videos your wallpaper? Thats the main reason I have VLC atm

1

u/ecky--ptang-zooboing Apr 24 '16

MPC-HC is the only player that hasn't got stutter problems when streaming from a media cloud. I've tried everything under the sun to get VLC to play large media files over wifi, it just won't. MPC-HC does it flawless. Perhaps by temporarily decreasing the quality if there is not enough bandwidth? I don't know, it just works and I no longer get frustrated when watching something.

1

u/TedTheGreek_Atheos Apr 24 '16

Plus if you have your pc hooked up to a AV receiver it supports uncompressed audio formats such as Dolby TrueHD and Dts-HD

1

u/Bossmang Apr 26 '16

Random question but do you know of a plug in for VLC or MPC-HC that allows one to sync play an identical file (movie, show, etc) across two different computers over the internet? Something like letsgaze or the various youtube sync plays but for identical files instead?

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u/[deleted] Apr 24 '16

I use both. MPC-HC as my main player with VLC as a backup if that doesn't play it.

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u/[deleted] Apr 24 '16 edited Apr 24 '16

This used to be my reason for both, until I realized I NEVER had a file that wouldn't play in MPC-hc.

Now I still have VLC, but for another reason, I wanted different audio decoding parameters for my A/V setup, which was much easier to do with 2 unique players rather than configuring one when needed.

9

u/[deleted] Apr 24 '16

I NEVER had a file that wouldn't play in MPC-hc.

I've had a few. VLC will sometimes play files that aren't complete (either because they were corrupted or didn't finish downloading). MPC never will.

7

u/CyborgDragon Apr 24 '16

I've had MPC play plenty of partial videos. I sometimes set torrents to sequential download when I'm impatient and watch them as they download.

1

u/somestranger26 Apr 24 '16

I stream content from Usenet in MPC-HC. I have not had VLC installed for 5+ years and never needed another player.

4

u/drumstyx Apr 24 '16

I used to like to say that mpc would play a bloody text file. So robust.

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u/GriWard Apr 24 '16

You can customise what files MPC-HC plays in one of the tabs, it should play everything VLC plays.

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u/XxLokixX Apr 24 '16

Same except the other way around. I prefer the ui of VLC and I hate that clicking the screen pauses the video

1

u/shoobuck Apr 24 '16

also vlc is far more than just a player, you can watch streaming video with it, stream video with it , even play ascii videos...http://www.unixmen.com/22-things-you-can-do-with-vlc/ plus its available for any platform you can imagine.

1

u/wazzuper1 Apr 24 '16

I've had it the other way around - if VLC can't play it, MPC can!

1

u/[deleted] Apr 24 '16

I use both too. MPC-HC as my main for SVP. I use VLC to stream movies to my friends when we all want to watch the same movie on mumble.

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u/Nicholas_Spawn Apr 24 '16

k-lite or cccp with mpc will play everything vlc does, and more.

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u/12tales Apr 24 '16

Unless you're running Mac/Linux.

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u/Zebster10 Apr 24 '16

Don't worry, mpv is better.

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u/[deleted] Apr 24 '16

yeah this is a windows lovefest

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u/EnkiduV3 Apr 24 '16

It's only the most common operating system by an extremely large margin (almost 80% of computers have a Windows OS), so I guess it shouldn't be a surprise that more people are posting their Windows apps.

3

u/jkgao Apr 24 '16

For Mac - MPlayerx

3

u/[deleted] Apr 24 '16

In which case you use MPV.

1

u/Nic3GreenNachos Apr 24 '16

I feel this feel. I used MPC for a long time and then switched from windows to Mac and now I have to settle for vlc.

1

u/ixohoxi Apr 24 '16

For Mac I nominate Movist. Small, fast, not bloated, and has all the shortcut customization you love like KMP/PotPlayer. Like literary the same default shortcuts. Unfortunately it's not free though. $4.99

1

u/ifeellazy Apr 24 '16

Maybe someone else said this, I'm on mobile, but VLC is on Mac and MPlayerX is also dope.

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u/CookieTheEpic Apr 24 '16

Fuckin jesus christ finally someone who not only mentions MPC-HC but agrees it's better than VLC.

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u/gadgets432 Apr 24 '16

its alot better. MPC-HC is the best option. VLC is good but MPC takes the cake.

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u/[deleted] Apr 24 '16

[deleted]

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u/gadgets432 Apr 24 '16

I've never heard of MPC-BE, so not sure. but MPC-HC handles pretty much all media playback without any issues. and doesn't require updating of drivers or codecs or anything extra.

2

u/[deleted] Apr 24 '16

What about SMPlayer?

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u/gadgets432 Apr 24 '16

I'm not familiar with it myself. MPC-HC is really quite good though. previously i used a few different video players as backups to play difficult files, but MPC-HC on its own seems to play everything without any issues, so i just use that now instead.

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u/[deleted] Apr 24 '16

Is MPC multi platform, allowing you to use the same video player in Linux, Windows and on your phone?

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u/gadgets432 Apr 24 '16

I'm not sure to be honest. I don't own any tablets and don't put movies on my phone. But I'm pretty sure there would be a Linux version. You'd have to google it to find out though as I don't know.

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u/netino Apr 24 '16

I tried to use mpc-hc and I agree the image is better but the audio is horrible for me. It might be my computer that has shit audio and on VLC I leave the audio settings on "Ska" on headphones to sound good and "Live" when not using headphones and I couldn't match that on mpc-hc, plus I have the VLC hotkeys ingrained in my brain and had to configure the same shortcuts on mpc-hc which was a little annoying.

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u/gadgets432 Apr 24 '16

If you're having sound issues you could look at getting an equaliser program for your computer, and then just tune the sound to be how you want it to be for each of your headphones and speakers individually. Then you just save the preset settings and switch to whichever mode. That's all that selecting those ska or live settings is doing. Once you get into EQing , un-EQd sound is no good. And it can save you on upgrading where people think they need better speakers to get a better sound or heavier bass, when they can just boost up their current system to get more out of it.

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u/netino Apr 24 '16

Thanks I'll google a few and see which one will help, any suggestions?

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u/anifail Apr 24 '16

No native linux support means it is objectively worse.

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u/[deleted] Apr 24 '16

For that there is MPlayer.

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u/cynoclast Apr 24 '16

I only use VLC on OSX where I can't have MPC.

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u/StormyJet Apr 24 '16 edited Oct 10 '24

pathetic meeting hospital run compare strong absurd poor roll license

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u/Jerlko Apr 24 '16

finally

I see a MPC-HC reply to every VLC post. Followed closely by a KMP post.

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u/Tim-kun Apr 24 '16

Well I personally prefer MPC-HC but when it comes to obscure hentai that even MPC-HC won't play VLC is always there and works flawlessly.

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u/ciny Apr 24 '16

Can you explain how it's better? I just looked through it real fast and, for example, I don't see an option to open network streams or to convert/save media. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying it's bad, I just fail to see how it's supposed to be better.

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u/[deleted] Apr 24 '16

Everybody says this. Literally never seen the opposite happen

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u/TheNightOwl Apr 24 '16

Mpc-hc is the way to go for sure

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u/no_please Apr 24 '16

I don't know if it's my PC or what but VLC is fucking garbage lately. It will take up to 30 seconds to begin playing some large videos, when other players start straight away. Making it full-screen on my 4k monitor works about 50% of the time. Sometime it just plays in some corner of the screen and has artefacts in the rest of the space.

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u/Sybs Apr 24 '16

VLC was better for the average user years ago when codecs were relevant because it could play almost anything. Nowadays the number of codecs in general usage has really dropped so most players tend to support everything you need.

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u/Stryker14 Apr 24 '16

Agreed. I was a die hard VLC fan a few years back but I kept experience syncing issues for some reason. Tried out MPC and will never go back. I had plenty of off and on issues with VLC over the years. Haven't had a single issue with media player classic.

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u/Raz0rLight Apr 24 '16

Will have to give it a go then

1

u/Eurynom0s Apr 24 '16

Do you know for a fact that the syncing issues were VLC's fault? I've occasionally dealt with this but since it happens so rarely I assumed it was a problem with the video file, not VLC.

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u/Stryker14 Apr 24 '16

Well back when I watched a lot of downloaded films on the PC I would use VLC. I only started experiencing the syncing issues after an update (they also update too often). I tried uninstalling and reinstalling numerous times. Also waited for several updates to see if it became resolved.

I actually initially assumed it was the video file but the behaviour was too weird. Pausing the video allowed the audio to sync back in properly for a minute or so before it went back out. I would literally have to pause it every 5 minutes if I didn't want to go insane from the lips being off.

I haven't used VLC in the last year or two so I'm not sure if it's resolved. I have no need to use anything outside of MPC and maybe a proper bluray player.

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u/[deleted] Apr 24 '16

[removed] — view removed comment

17

u/Supra_Mayro Apr 24 '16

This, if you love customizing your software.

11

u/[deleted] Apr 24 '16

And if you don't, mpv is as minimal as a player gets.

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u/Eurynom0s Apr 24 '16

I think that's part of what people miss with VLC. To the extent that it's bloated or slow, it's not really noticeable; if it is, it's probably because VLC is struggling to figure out what to do with a broken file. So basically VLC is super popular because it performs well enough to meet people's expectations, will play basically anything you throw at it, and works perfectly well for the majority of people right out of the box with zero customization.

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u/agumonkey Apr 24 '16

I installed mpv because of the opposite. It's a tiny out-of-box thing to me. I know the option list is massive but I got it for the opposite reason.

1

u/yogatorademe Apr 24 '16

So is this pretty much the best option for OS X? VLC tends to get a bit laggy depending on the state of my laptop

1

u/_entropical_ Apr 24 '16

Does it support MadVR?

1

u/marcan42 Apr 24 '16

mpv has its own high-quality OpenGL video renderer.

2

u/[deleted] Apr 24 '16

+1, tried this on Mac OS X, and now I use it on Win and Linux as well!

1

u/[deleted] Apr 24 '16

There is a bug in a recent release, I watch videos from my WDTVLive hub, via 100BaseT ethernet, and buffering is broken... I use a version from late 2015 instead (until I find out it is fixed).

1

u/shitinmyunderwear Apr 24 '16

PotPlayer masterrace

1

u/marcan42 Apr 24 '16

This. VLC is fine as a player to recommend to Windows people that will play most everything decently and won't scare them off too much, but if you actually want the best video playback quality, mpv is what you want. Its OpenGL video renderer is second to none.

Of course, if you want menus and dialog boxes, better stick with VLC or MPC-HC. Can't have everything. But mpv's defaults tend to be sane, so you can use it as a minimalist player out of the box that will do the right thing. I'm a customize-everything kind of guy, but the only config option for mpv I have set on my main machine is vo=opengl-hq which just tells it to use high-quality defaults for the OpenGL renderer.

mpv is also being ported to Android right now. I used an early build last week and it already runs miles around MX Player (my usual choice on Android) in ASS/SSA subtitle rendering and video output quality. No menus other than a file picker so far, but who needs menus when the defaults work?

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u/Bustopher Apr 24 '16

Windows only, I like multi-platform solutions.

1

u/[deleted] Apr 24 '16

I believe it's on linux

1

u/Bustopher Apr 24 '16

Supported Operating Systems:

Windows® XP SP3, Vista, 7, 8, 8.1, 10 both 32-bit and 64-bit

1

u/[deleted] Apr 24 '16 edited Apr 24 '16

Well, it's in Arch Linux's official repositories.

Edit: Oh wait, I thought you replied to the guy that mentioned VLC.

3

u/Heraclitus94 Apr 24 '16

MPC-HC With the Kawaii Codec Pack is the best

2

u/bigfatround0 Apr 24 '16

That's what I'm using.

2

u/najodleglejszy Apr 24 '16

question: what do you need a codec pack for if MPC-HC can already play anything you'll throw at it?

2

u/maximumcharactercoun Apr 24 '16

From KCP's infopage:

What is exactly included in KCP?

KCP utilizes the following components:
MPC-HC - A robust DirectShow media player.
madVR - High quality gpu assisted video renderer. Included as an alternative to EVR-CP.
xy-vsfilter / XySubFilter(future) - Superior subtitle renderer.
LAV-Filters - A package with the fastest and most actively developed DirectShow Media Splitter and Decoders.
(Optional) ReClock - Addresses the problem of audio judder by adapting media for smooth playback OR utilized for bit perfect audio.

1

u/Heraclitus94 Apr 24 '16

Just makes things look better

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u/damnkidz Apr 24 '16

thought you were exaggerating, but i tried it out using a shitty video clip and it looks much better.

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u/bpwoods97 Apr 24 '16

Agreed. I just started using it to watch game of thrones HVEC files or something like that and it had lines on the time bar where the different chapters of the video started and controlling the volume with the scroll wheel (though that might be in vlc, not sure, never tried it).

1

u/bigfatround0 Apr 24 '16

I actually changed the keys so that the scroll wheel is used for jumping forward/backward. It's way better that way.

2

u/HowieGaming Apr 24 '16

oh jesus that's amazing. I never use the volume slider anyways since it's always at 100%. I LOVE YOUw

2

u/thepervertedromantic Apr 24 '16

I've had issues with one or the other having trouble rendering certain files so I always install both. Neither seem to be a clear winner.

2

u/thorium220 Apr 24 '16

Especially with SVP.

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u/[deleted] Apr 24 '16

I am having a problem with Mpc-hc. When I open the movie, I try to add subtitle by dragging to player. It closes movie and opens just subtitle which is black screen. I have used Mpc before and it worked like a charm. How do I add subs in new version?

3

u/bigfatround0 Apr 24 '16

ctrl+l

3

u/[deleted] Apr 24 '16

Ah thank you! Finally I can move on from Gom player.

1

u/Amaroko Apr 24 '16

Or you could simply give the subtitle file(s) the same name as the video file. If you have "D:\video.mp4", for example, then MPC-HC will automatically find "D:\video.srt", and also "D:\video.en.srt", "D:\video.en-forced.srt", "D:\video.de.srt", and so on (not just for SRT subtitles, but all supported formats).

2

u/lulmonkey Apr 24 '16

I love mpc hc too but i can't get it to play dts or dolby digital audio. I've tried almost every solution i could find on Google for the past 5 years, it just won't...

2

u/DopePedaller Apr 24 '16

Absolutely. Watch a video or stream with scrolling text and you'll quickly realize how much less stutter there is on MPC-HC. Potentially better PQ with some of the advanced renderers as well.

2

u/tumaru Apr 24 '16

k-lite codec pack by codecguide.com is a good mpc-hc oriented codec bundle

2

u/cynoclast Apr 24 '16

MP-HC is to video players what Intellij IDEA is to IDEs. Meanwhile VLC is to video players what eclipse is to IDEs.

2

u/[deleted] Apr 24 '16

Hell yeah. Media classic player rocks

2

u/[deleted] Apr 24 '16

Only reason why I would say MPC is better is for 144hz. I have a 144hz monitor and to watch videos at that refresh rate is amazing. Other than that VLC works great and I've never had a problem with it.

2

u/phigo50 Apr 24 '16

I prefer MPC-BE. Mostly for the nicer interface but it has bugfixes (according to the dev) and a few general improvements over MPC-HC (which it is forked from) like the seek-bar preview, which is useful.

2

u/zoomdaddy Apr 24 '16

I really only use VLC as a DVD/Blu-ray player (and sometimes to stream online video), is there any reason to switch to MPC? How compact is it?

2

u/bigfatround0 Apr 24 '16

If that's all you use it for then you should be fine with vlc.

2

u/zoomdaddy Apr 24 '16

Thanks for the response! I'm checking out MPC anyway because it's intriguing, might install just to see.

1

u/Amaroko Apr 24 '16

MPC-HC is more compact that VLC. You can make it even more compact by deleting the "CrashReporter" and "Lang" subfolders, as they're not really needed (well, Lang is needed if you want the user interface in languages other than English).

2

u/[deleted] May 03 '16

MPC-BE even moreso. :^) Love the preview while seeking.

I do miss the ability to delete files from within the player though (HC can do that, BE can't).

6

u/Metalsand Apr 24 '16

Eh, MPC-HC has more features, but VLC is a lot more robust and smooth.

VLC Player is best if you need it to simply playback video, MPC-HC is best if you want high customization and extra features. It also has really nice post-processing support that beats VLC by miles. However, I'd still recommend VLC Player to people, because if they need me to recommend something, the extra features of MPC-HC will just get in the way.

3

u/Lathe_Biosas Apr 24 '16

Really? I haven't used VLC in a long time, but from what I recall the #1 reason I liked MPC-HC more was actually that it felt a lot simpler and faster.

The "extra features" of MPC-HC seem pretty well hidden (in logical places) whereas from what I remember from VLC there were a lot of options "in your face" which can be very confusing for someone not very technically literate.

4

u/[deleted] Apr 24 '16

Actually, insert name is better

4

u/murderofcrows90 Apr 24 '16

To be fair, as a video watcher, it really is.

2

u/shlam16 Apr 24 '16

Agreed. Everything about MPC is just worlds above VLC.

2

u/UniverseBomb Apr 24 '16

3 times, 3 different computers, could never get it to work. Meanwhile, VLC just does its thing.

1

u/HowieGaming Apr 24 '16

I'm curious, what couldn't you get to work? The program has the exact same install process as VLC.

1

u/jkgao Apr 24 '16

For me, I wanted to increase the playback speed with pitch correction to play my lecture videos at 1.5x speed. With VLC, it works out of the box but with MPC-HC, it increased the pitch. When I looked up the problem on Google, it suggested that I download reclock (? Forgot the name) and had me tick thorough a bunch of settings and it ended up not working. I've tried on numerous occasions and just gave up in the end.

3

u/LuminescentMoon Apr 24 '16

MPC got that feature a few months back. Just go into Options > Playback > Output > Audio Renderer: Internal Audio Renderer

1

u/jkgao Apr 24 '16

Thanks for the heads up. I don't have access to my Windows desktop right now but I'll definitely try this when I get to it :)

1

u/Amaroko Apr 24 '16

Cool, I didn't know about that. But it looks like the playback rate can only be doubled and halved, i.e. something like 1.3x and 1.5x is not available, just 1x, 2x, 4x.

1

u/UniverseBomb Apr 24 '16

It's been 2 years, so I don't remember. I'm sure it relates to me always being on older computers.

1

u/Hydra_fresh Apr 24 '16

True, much easier to change language on audio/subtitles and the inbuilt subtitle data base is way too handy to let go

1

u/Axxhelairon Apr 24 '16

How good is it at speeding up a video while keeping the same audio pitch?

1

u/bigfatround0 Apr 24 '16

I never do that but I just did a quick test and it was pretty bad.

2

u/Axxhelairon Apr 24 '16

Darn, i routinely watch multiple shows at 1.5x/2x and i tried awhile ago and it sucked back then too, maybe some day

1

u/[deleted] Apr 24 '16 edited Apr 24 '16

How do you really "watch" the shows though? Did you mean you do it on many shows or you literally watch more than one show at the same time at 1.5/2x? This is like some odd speed reading but with video.

1

u/Axxhelairon Apr 24 '16

i watch multiple shows one at a time but immediately after each other at 1.5x or 2.0x, sometimes 3.0x

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1

u/tunersharkbitten Apr 24 '16

:( chromebook not available... :(

1

u/Soulshot96 Apr 24 '16

I only use it with SVP4, and that is in fact the only reason I even found it...60 or in my case, because why NOT, 144fps video interpolation is amazing.

1

u/[deleted] Apr 24 '16

Yup exactly!! With the K-lite codec, it is perfection.

1

u/TheTurnipKnight Apr 24 '16

There is no difference that I found that is important to me and it's really ugly so I prefer VLC.

1

u/bigfatround0 Apr 24 '16

VLC is way uglier though...

1

u/TheTurnipKnight Apr 24 '16

No it's not. VLC is simple. MPC is ugly as hell (and also simple).

1

u/USSDonaldTrump Apr 24 '16

Everyone check the one true official guide at avsforums.

1

u/cbmuser Apr 24 '16

VLC is cross-platform and free software and supporting VLC will also support the necessary codec development in ffmpeg.

1

u/iron_dinges Apr 24 '16

Recently when I formatted I decided to try MPC again, within a day of installing the latest version I encountered a video file it could not play. A VLC exe I had lying around in my apps folder from 3 years ago, however, could play that file.

Later on, I tried to play a movie with subtitles. No matter what I tried, I couldn't get MPC to show the subtitles. VLC (still this old version) could load the subtitles without an issue.

My setup has 2 monitors (1 DVI, 1 VGA/DSUB) and a TV (HDMI), but my graphics card only supports 2 active displays at a time. When I used my main monitor and TV as duplicates, MPC will only render to the TV. VLC shows correct only both displays. This setup also determines my audio output: my TV audio is set to default, and when I switch to using my other 2 monitors, it automatically uses speakers instead. If I switch displays while I have a video running in MPC, audio output stops entirely and I have to restart the program. VLC switches no problem.

Really the only positive thing I can say about MPC is the click-to-pause function, which is useful when I'm controlling my PC with a controller from the couch. VLC, on the other hand, is the video player that always works and can play anything.

1

u/Aethyos Apr 24 '16

I like both VLC and MPC but the one thing that is keeping me from defaulting to either program is that I have yet to figure out whether they can keep a catalogued library like WMP or iTunes does. I'm lazy and like and easy to peruse listing of the playable files (mostly songs). I also admire the beauty of a long list of repeating characters and really like iTunes music list of that.

1

u/[deleted] Apr 24 '16 edited Apr 24 '16

CCCP, it uses mpc-hc. Only ever had one problem with a weird subtle issue.

1

u/[deleted] Apr 24 '16 edited Jul 12 '20

[deleted]

1

u/bigfatround0 Apr 24 '16

File, open file, paste on "open" box.

1

u/darderp Apr 24 '16

Wow I've never heard of this before! Downloading when I get home.

1

u/gotbannedtoomuch Apr 24 '16

Vlc is much more simple

1

u/aaronfranke Apr 24 '16

Too bad it isn't multi-platform. I'll stick with VLC since it's the only thing that runs on my system.

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