Today's activities of a modern computer user or mobile device are difficult to imagine without listening to music and watching videos. It is not surprising, because computer players fully replaced household devices in the form of players or tape recorders and in a very high degree exceeded them not only in terms of available capabilities, but also in sound quality. But which software player is the best? What program to choose to install on a computer device or mobile gadget? Let's try to figure it out. But first, a few words about which applications you can meet today.
Best Windows Players : Classification
First of all, it is worth noting that modern programs can be divided into three conditional categories:
- clean audio players;
- players that play both audio and video;
- software systems for organizing media libraries and watching online broadcasts in video or audio.
From a practical point of view, using clean audio players today is, to put it mildly, irrelevant, although some programs have very broad capabilities and sound quality is superior to applications that are a kind of harvester.
If anyone remembers, at one time the notorious WinAMP was considered the best player, in the image and likeness of which many other applications were later developed. In particular, this applies to the AIMP player, which even resembles a legendary player with its interface. By the way, just the other day a news flashed in the news that the American programmer Jordan Eldridge revived WinAMP, however, as an add-on to browsers. In other words, the player in its original form is displayed exclusively in a web browser. But we were distracted. Let's look at each category separately.
Audio players
So, we have classic players that are designed exclusively for playing music or any other sound material. Among all the programs of which there are a great many, the most popular are the following:
- WinAMP;
- AIMP;
- Jet Audio
- foobar2000;
- Stoffi Music Player;
- Vinyl et al.
As for the quality of playback and instrumentation, in the list below the best player with full confidence can be called Jet Audio, since this program is superior to all others and is an application of almost professional level.
Musical Harvesters
The second class of players - players that allow you to play both audio and video. Such programs today represent an absolute majority. Indeed, why keep two applications on the computer separately for audio and video, if you can use one program that can play all known formats? Among all applications of this type, the list of the most popular players among users can include such as:
- VLC Media Player;
- Media Player Classic (Windows);
- KMPlayer
- GOM Media Player
- Light Alloy
- BS.Player;
- AVS Media Player, etc.
It seems that the best player here is VLC, because it is a universal player that allows you to play almost all known multimedia formats. The classic Windows player is lagging behind because it does not have the number of settings that are presented in the first program. KMPlayer in appearance and functionality is very good, but its main disadvantage is that it is capable of causing quite serious conflicts in the operating system, which often leads to crash. Other programs can also be used, especially since some of them contain their own codecs and decoders, which saves the user from installing additional packages like K-Lite.
Programs for listening and watching online broadcasts
Here is another group of players designed to work online with access to a huge number of Internet resources and databases containing video and audio, as well as for watching television directly on a computer.
The following applications can be called the most interesting developments in this category:
- Kodi;
- SoundByte
- Freemake Music Box;
- TV Player Classic et al.
The first and last programs are mainly designed for television, and the second and third allow you to play multimedia from the Internet, however, the SoundByte player is designed only for Fanburst and SoundCloud services, while the Freemake Music Box allows you to combine music and video from completely different resources into playlists.
The best player for Android
As for the Android operating systems, it’s worth mentioning right away that almost all of the above players have mobile versions that are available in the Play Market (Google Play) storage. But if you look at the practical use, it is best to install Jet Audio as a purely music player, and the best combination player is undoubtedly VLC. As for online broadcasts, most users prefer the Kodi combine, even though you have to tinker with its settings, especially if you want to project the contents of the screen of a mobile device onto a TV panel.
So what is better?
Unambiguously answer this question, alas, is impossible. Everyone chooses the most suitable type of program. Some like a wide range of tools, others like minimalism and ease of management. However, based on the scope of the player, you can always find the best solution for yourself.