IS there a difference in video quality among different video players?

To date, I've always just used VLC but recently I've been wondering if other players might offer a higher quality of video playback.

Do they all just play video the same or do different players have different technology which might enable them to play higher quality video?

celeste

England45 Posts

January 02 2010 23:58 GMT

Obviously some players use less resources/are optimised so the playback is smoother but I'm pretty sure there's not any that can increase the quality of the playback

CaucasianAsian

Korea (South)11603 Posts

January 03 2010 00:12 GMT

just download the higher quality video, i'm sure that might be the best way to get a better quality showing on your screen.

T.O.P.

Hong Kong4685 Posts

January 03 2010 01:09 GMT

In VLC, use the "directx" option in video output. One thing I don't like about VLC is that you can't set it to de-interlace automatically.

The best Media Player imo is Daum Potplayer. It has auto de-interlacing, The size of the player stays the same no matter what resolution the video is. You could change gamma settings on the fly to make the video darker/brighter. It has hotkeys setup throughout the keyboard.

BUT, it's in korean.

MasterReY

Germany2708 Posts

January 03 2010 01:37 GMT

Quality does not depend on the video player. It has no influence on it^^

I have a question too, might be a bit offtopic but w/e.
is it possible with ANY player (preferably VLC) to have the video playing in original resolution but with a black border around it which fills out the screen?

so that u have just the video in the middle in original resolution and around it its dark and there is nothing else.

kind of like the "lights off" youtube mode, but without the browser and so on obv.^^

Kouda

United States2205 Posts

January 03 2010 01:47 GMT

Media Player Classic. Install all the Codecs, then when you play a video, right click --> original size. Then put it on Full Screen, works wonders with 700mb movies.

Judicator

United States7270 Posts

January 03 2010 02:27 GMT

I am using KMPlayer, it's really the best codec-independent player I have used, haven't touched a codec pack since. It runs smoother than VLC and has a lot of features with both video and audio and handles subtitles well.

Nao

Poland166 Posts

January 03 2010 02:59 GMT

On January 03 2010 10:37 MasterReY wrote:
Quality does not depend on the video player. It has no influence on it^^

I have a question too, might be a bit offtopic but w/e.
is it possible with ANY player (preferably VLC) to have the video playing in original resolution but with a black border around it which fills out the screen?

so that u have just the video in the middle in original resolution and around it its dark and there is nothing else.

kind of like the "lights off" youtube mode, but without the browser and so on obv.^^

Actually quality can change depending on codec used and it's settings, but it's not noticable usually.
Some codecs may have ie.: deblocking effect, smoothing or de-interlancing (GOM player has it build in) Also some codecs ie.: VLC's internal codecs sometimes have problems showing and scrolling some obscure types of media ie.: badly saved WMV or FLV's (but i think was an issue on elier VLC builds)

There are only 2 players I know wich are capable of full screen 100% pixel to pixel size video
1) VPlayer (player from 2001 - it's simple and awesome if you have good codecs)
2) Media Player Classic, wich is a very good player with no internal codec's wich comes with CCCP codec pack (Best codec pack currently avilable IMHO)
This option is on right click menu -> Video Frame -> Normal Size
It is avilable here: http://www.cccp-project.net/ This codecs also have most advanced settings i found, especially good for solving video problems, and getting the best quality from some HD Videos (but really unless it's something like Anime with Very sharp color changes and static images it's hard to tell the difference)

skronch

United States2717 Posts

January 03 2010 03:59 GMT

i like using media player classic. not to mention it's the only way i can get 1080p movies to run stutter free on my desktop (using coreavc)

ruXxar

Norway5669 Posts

January 03 2010 05:35 GMT

#10

+1 To media player classic.

The CCCP codec pack is a must as mentioned above.

I also use VLC for the times when MPC fails to read the video files(which is not often).

If you're not good with a computer, be careful when touching the advanced options(FFDShow and FFDAudio). I didn't understand half of them and default is usually good enough anyway.

MasterReY

Germany2708 Posts

January 03 2010 10:51 GMT

#11

On January 03 2010 11:59 Nao wrote:

Show nested quote +

yo thanks for your post.
i just noticed it works with VLC too lol

just go fullscreen and rightclick --> video --> scaling (disable this)
and its done :D