Best Free Media Players For Windows

• VLC Media Player

We thought we would — and we should — start this list with a free, open-source software for watching movies, other kinds of videos etc, on your Windows PCs that may vary in terms of system configuration. It’s not actually one basic player alternative, but much more, especially when we take into consideration its streaming features and other ways of media input. VLC Media Player supports almost every video and audio format you come across and it is offering a wide range of subtitle format support as well — if you are passionate about subtitles too.

VLC Media Player has a truly simplified User Interface that does not include any ads, spyware or anything else that intrudes into user privacy. And, once you have installed VLC, there is no burden of installing extra codec files — popular ones come with it! Also, if its basic skin is boring, you can install extra skins, by downloading them right away from official site of VLC Player & the collection is being updated every day.

Download: VLC Media Player (Free)

• PotPlayer

Potplayer is yet another free video player for your Windows PC, and it has support for devices that are running XP or later and ranges up to Windows 8.1, which is a good thing we hope. It does not matter if you’ve a set of hardware that is low enough; Potplayer will utilize the Hardware Acceleration feature to make sure that you’re able to get an best media experience from your desktop. There are more features when it comes to playback as well.

For instance, unlike the aforementioned video player software, Potplayer supports different kinds of 3D Glasses and 3D-oriented features of Potplayer are just awesome from the user’s point of view. Also, there is an option to get 3D output as per what your requirement is. In addition, Potplayer offers support for almost every codec you would need in the whole journey of movie watching and it supports different kinds of subtitle files as well. Screen snapshot feature, the ability to choose between sound cards, scene bookmarking etc are worth noting too.

Download: Daum PotPlayer (Free)

• Media Player Classic

MPC-HC, actually the acronym of Media Player Classic — Home Cinema, is yet another free software, when you prefer a lightweight desktop software to play different kinds of video files. With no sorts of intrusive toolbars or advertising stuff involved, MPC-HC offers a clean playback experience. It has to be noted that, regardless the lightweight nature, MPC-HC can play almost every heavy file that you will have in your Windows PC.

Additional features of Media Player Classic include key commands and lots more. While integrated codec support lets you play video files regardless how uncommon their video formats are, availability of the 64-bit version will be helpful when you need stabilized and powerful version. Talking about customization, MPC-HC can let you install toolbars and skins according to your tastes and preferences! In addition, MPC-HC has a portable version that extends its productivity to a new level. If we are to consider all these, MPC-HC is a great video player for Windows.

Download: Media Player Classic (Free)

• ACG Player

It’s called ACG Player and it’s tragically underrated and underestimated. If you thought Media Player Classic was lightweight, this will blow you away.

The first thing you’ll notice is the simplified interface and touch-based controls. Tap the top half for Play/Pause, tap the bottom half to toggle the controls. Swipe left-right to rewind and fast-forward, swipe up-down for volume. As you can see, this app was designed for Windows 10 tablets, but keyboard shortcut alternatives do exist too.

Advanced features include gesture customizations, multiple window mode, playlist management, online stream playback, and the ability to tweak subtitle appearances and animations. You can also opt for Ax-Lite Video Player, which is a faster version with some of the features cut out.

In short, ACG Player is the only UWP in the Windows Store worth using. With a close-to-five-star rating across 6,500 reviews, it’s clear that many users are very happy with it. It may be barebones, but it’s more than enough.

Download: ACG Player (Free)

• Bomi Player

Bomi comes with a number of built-in quality-of-life features that seem inconsequential at first, but really prove their worth at times. For example, as you resize the player, Bomi shows you the current video playback size up in the corner. Another big one is the ability to seek by searching for subtitle text!

Other features include support for advanced subtitle formats, displaying multiple subtitles at the same time, online video streaming by URL, hardware acceleration with GPU, unlimited playback history (so if you quit and replay later, it restarts at the same spot), playlist saving across sessions, and more. See the full list of features.

Bomi is free and open source, so while the latest release as of this writing is from 2015, you can see that updates have been made well into 2016.

Download: Bomi Player (Free)

• SMPlayer

We come to the last member in the list of top video players for Windows — wait, it’s not a least-used one, by the way — and SMPlayer is worth the position. It is so because of the availability of features and simplicity of UI that has been kept throughout the interface. Along with standard features such as built-in codecs, SMPlayer offers a lot such as the YouTube support that lets you play videos right away from YouTube, collections of skins to choose from, integration to get the most appropriate subtitle etc.

In addition, SMPlayer uses MPlayer as the media playback engine and MPlayer is efficient enough to get the best out of your media hardware and thus to enhance the movie-watching experience. And, yes, it’s free and open source!

Download SMPlayer

• Plex

Plex is another new-generation way of watching movies from not only your desktop but a wide range of devices. It offers online space to store your favorite video files for later access. Even when Plex will act as a typical video player in your Windows PC, it has a number of awesome features hidden, which you may use according to what you want to do.

So, if you need a media player that CAN be extended to a media server, given that you are ready to pay, you may go with Plex. We think the software makes enough sense, from the user’s point of view. So, it’s a good choice, we bet and you can go with it, undoubtedly.

Download Plex

• UMPlayer

UMPlayer short form for Universal Media Player is a worth-checking software if you’d like to watch movies. It’s a free and open source solution, and it will remain so for ever; plus, you can trust the power of open source when you want a seamless movie-watching experience on your Windows PC. To make the stuff easier, UMPlayer has in-built codec support and that lets you play files including MP4, XVID, VOB, Matroska etc.

Plus, there are options to select media source from a wide variety of choices, including YouTube and other streaming services. When we consider all these, UMPlayer is a must-have software for the passionate movie freak in you, especially if you prefer a free media player with efficient features that make sense in the long run. And there are skins too — in case if you’d like to try new looks.

Download UMPlayer

• DivX Player

When you do not want to compromise High-Quality movie-watching experience, including Ultra HD Videos and HEVC Playback, it is a good choice to go with DivX Player! DivX Player is actually meant for HQ Video playback and cross-device streaming of your media files. Don’t get confused about the name, DivX Player support popular video formats such as AVI, MKV & MP4 along with DIVX. The in-built Media Server feature in the bundle of DivX Player lets you stream media to various devices if they have DLNA support.

If we consider the case of playback, DivX Player has a lot of features such as FF/RW that helps you access chapters in each video, better organization through playlists, advanced audio playback, an in-built Recently Watched playlist for making sure that you can start from where you left off. In general, DivX Player is a great deal, indeed.

Download DivX Player

• KMPlayer

Here comes KMPlayer, my personal choice when it comes to watching films! Even when other video players become dumbstruck if the output is of a non-common format, KMPlayer would be able to play that file, quite smoothly & there are impressive features too. Some of those features of KMPlayer include its support for 3D, 2K, 4K & UHD, presence of internal codec files that make playback easier than you except, provided the PC may have relatively lower configuration.

Rather than merely playing files, you have an option to set up libraries when it comes to videos and music; thus, you can get an awesome media experience. Similarly, there is an option to play DVDs well, with all the features you could expect in a typical DVD player. One of the other features that we praise KMPlayer for, is the ability to adjust the playback screen with respect to our screen, convenience of use and there’s an in-built subtitle editor too.

Download KMPlayer

• GOM Media Player

GOM Media Player comes from GOM Lab, and it is one of the best, free software you can have when you’d love to play almost every media file. It supports a wide range of video formats including MKV, FLV, etc along with standard media formats. Also, GOM Media Player has a number of advanced features when it comes to playback of files, such as the playback speed control, video effects, audio capture, A-B repeat screen etc. So, in short, GOM Media Player is an impressive software.

Talking of UI & Customization, GOM Media Player offers advanced-level customization that supports different skins! You can download skins from official GOM Player site and make GOM Player look like as you wish. Also, there is a codec finder that helps you find sufficient codecs online when there’s an uncommon file or if GOM Player lacks that codec. Despite all these, GOM Media Player will work fine with PC that runs Windows XP S2 or later.

Download GOM Media Player

• KODI

Kodi, formerly called XBMC, is a free and open source media player. It’s a highly customizable media player that you can use on your laptop or desktop to get a media center experience. Just in case you’re missing Windows Media Center on Windows 10, Kodi is a great alternative. This contender for the top media player for streaming content is even better if you’re using it with an external, larger display because of its 10-foot user interface.

Kodi plays almost all popular video and music formats, podcasts, and other digital media stored locally or on the internet. Initially, Kodi was independently developed and called Xbox Media Center for the 1st gen Xbox gaming console. This recommended media player also has plug-ins that can be used to expand its features and include functionalities like Netflix, YouTube, Hulu, Veoh, etc. Kodi’s source code is open source and developed by a global community of unpaid volunteers.

Download Kodi