Installation

The installation process is standard – download the installer, launch it, select or deselect a few options, and finish the installation wizard; keep in mind that by default the installation is bundled with a toolbar and is also changing your default browser search options: you might want to un-check that option before clicking the Finish button. When you run the player for a first time a set-up wizard will help you configure the application: you can opt to leave the default or current settings, as well as make some changes.

Ease of use

Despite the lack of any tutorials or help files, most users won’t have a problem finding their way around. To open a file right click and click the top option, if you want to add a folder click on the add folder button, managing your playlists is done via a playlists editor, which you can bring up by pressing Alt+E, and so on. KMPlayer plays almost all known media files from the most common ones to formats that are rarely used, the video and audio quality are great and the program uses minimal system resources. It also handles wide range of subtitle formats, can play damaged avi files, allows you to slow down playback, and offers various skins and color schemes.

KMPlayer is a freeware and works on Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7

[ Download KMPlayer now ]

Installation

The installation file is 28 090KB and the installation is done in just a few easy steps: fist you have to select the default language, then either choose easy or custom install, with the latter allowing you to choose the files that Miro will handle, and the last step is agreeing to the terms and conditions and leaving the “make Ask.com the default search” option selected and agreeing to install the Ask.com toolbar. After you have installed Miro, you will have to set it up: choose if you want Miro to run every time you boot-up and if you want Miro to find all media files on your hard drive; after that you can start using the application.

Ease of use

The application is easy to use and navigate; on your left you will find all the buttons and access all the functions of the Miro guide – you can search for media files and legal torrents, add or remove video and music files to your library, subscribe to podcasts, etc. Although the creators of the application intended to make watching online videos as easy as turning on your TV, we found out that this is not exactly the case – the search is very slow at times and there is no progress bar that indicates that the applications is actually performing any operation, the videos cannot be streamed, but have to actually be downloaded before you can watch them, and the online Miro audio guide requires registration, which is also quite frustrating.

You can easily configure and customize Miro – click File from the menu, then Options and after that open any of the six available tabs if you want to change the default settings.

Miro is a freeware and runs on works on Windows 98, Windows 2000, Windows 2003, Windows NT, Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, OSX and Ubuntu

[ Download Miro now ]

Installation

The installation file is 13 396KB and the installation process is easy and straightforward; you can inspect the application’s features and decide which ones of them you need and which ones you wish to omit. The latest bundled version comes with Wnamp toolbar, Winamp Search as default search, and free 50 Mp3 and one audiobook downloads (registration required).

When you run Winamp for a first time a Setup wizard will ask you to choose a skin, the media files that you want to be associated with Winamp, select some or all of the featured services and will give you the option to provide feedback (you can skip the last step entirely). Once you are done, you can start adding your MP3 or other media files to your new player and familiarize yourself with the application.

Ease of use

Once you have Winamp up and running, you might get intimidated by all its features, buttons, panels, and menus. However, it shouldn’t take you more than a minute to figure out how to add and play your favorite mp3 songs or how to use the online services such as Shoutcast radio and TV, AOL radio, Winamp charts or MP3 of the day.

Winamp is highly configurable and allows you to either run it in “shadow mode,” pin it to the taskbar or the systray, change its skins, install different plug-ins, enable or disable notification and different effects, and configure multitude of other options.

Winamp offers three different free packages and a Pro version, which comes with unrestricted CD burning, MP3 encoding and High Quality AACPlus Encoding.

Winamp runs on Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7

[ Download Winamp now ]

Installation

Vuze is easy to install, but the latest release comes with a few add-ons such as toolbar, Outlook plug-in, and a default browser search option, which you might wish to omit from your installation. Depending on your firewall settings, you might get a prompt right after the installation letting you know that some of the program’s features have been blocked – make your selection from the two options (private or public computer) and click the Allow access button in order to enable them.

Ease of use

Vuze comes with a built-in browser, which lets you search for, download, and play media files; the interface is easy to use and navigate and a simple three-step guide will show you how to use software right away. The Vuze’s own HD network can be accessed from within the program with a single mouse click and will give you access to comedy and music videos, TV shows, games and other torrents. All features that you might be familiar with in other bittorent clients such as queuing, assigning priorities, starting and pausing the torrents downloads and IP filters can be found here as well. The advanced users and independent content producers, who wish to share their media files, can take advantage of proxy use, different seeding and downloading management rules, trackers, torrent creation wizards and other options.

All the torrents that are currently being downloaded or seeded are neatly organized in a Media Library, giving you quick access to any of them – right clicking on the torrent will show any additional information that you might need such as elapsed time, estimated downloading time, download speed, number of seeds, etc. The Vuze community forum and blog can be accessed from the main menu and so can the help files, the configuration wizard and tools such as My Tracker, Consoles, Statistics and Transfer Bar.

Vuze is a freeware, cross-platform application and runs on Windows 2000, Windows 2003, Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7

[ Download Vuze now ]

Installation and Setup

Foobar typically uses around 5-15MB of ram, about half that of most modern media players and a quarter of that used by bigger players like iTunes and Windows Media Player. The program uses up about 7 MB of hard drive space. Setup can get quite complicated although the program can play most popular forms of music straight away simply by dragging in files and folders.

Ease of Use

Foobar has been gaining in popularity for a while now, especially amongst audio enthusiasts and hardcore music lovers. It’s ability to effortlessly manage a playlist of just about any size without stressing out your system resources is very welcome in a world where most music playing software has so many features tagged on they completely forget the original point – playing high quality music and organising collections.

Foobar might look like it has a boring and ugly interface, especially when you first start up and are met with a blank white screen and bland interface. Don’t let that fool you though, the program can look however you want, but it’s waiting for you to customise it (or at the very least, import someone else’s customisation).

This is a bit of a theme for Foobar – it’ll give you just about any feature you want and you can do anything you need, but you will have to work for it. Unlike most modern software there’s no hand holding at all – if you want to mess around with the programs more advanced features, you’ll need to do your homework first.

The research pays off tenfold though. Once you get over the fact Foobar isn’t the world’s most user friendly application, you’ll quickly find out just how in-depth and useful it can be. If you’ve got a large music collection and want something truly unique and well designed to play it on, Foobar is a great option.

[ Download Foobar 2000 Today! ]

Installation and Setup

VLC on its standard settings installs to around 60MB, but it depends on exactly the installation options you take. Installation is entirely configurable. When running, VLC uses a fair amount of system resources when watching videos – it’s a fairly intensive task. However, VLC is much faster when watching DVDs and HD material than other players, and it’s far better for the battery life of your system, as well.

Ease of Use

Normally we would do a list of all the various supported formats of a media player but really it seems pointless when it comes to VLC – the program will support just about any format you throw at it. There are some minor exceptions but when it comes to things you might try to download from the net – anything from the common XVID and DIVX files to the more niche matroska dual audio format, VLC will run it without any of the messing around with codecs you have to do on other players.

VLC is also happy to run your DVDs will full menu and 5.1 support without any configuration, doing as a good or better than the software that may have come with your DVD drive or computer. It also has a range of options to control the video and sound itself and works great with subtitles.

VLC is an amazing player that allows you to use your computer to watch all of your favourite movies without any hassle at all. For music you might want to choose something with a few more options but for films and video, VLC is unmatched.

Download VLC Today! or the Portable Version