Today’s software spotlight focuses on video playback.  Everyone likes watching movies and videos, so a good player is a must.  We will be going over the more known contenders for best player, and a few lesser known programs also worth consideration.             The Players: Quicktime Windows Media Player VideoLAN Client MPlayer OSX NicePlayer

Quicktime:
Every Mac user is familiar with Quicktime.  It has a nice, simple interface designed by the fantastic Apple useability engineers.  Because it comes on every Mac, Quicktime forms the standard by which all other players will be judged.  
Upsides:  Good interface, built in, good playback quality.
Downsides: lack of fullscreen support.

Conclusion: Quicktime is rather mediocre.  While fine from a technical standpoint, the inability to do full-screen playback is just ridiculous, especially with all the other good, free players out there. 


Windows Media Player:
This import from the windows world is the PC equivalent to Quicktime.  The Mac version, unlike the bloated Windows version, features an elegant chrome interface with a logical arrangement of buttons.  Why the PC version is not as nice is a mystery.  

Upsides: It will play some wmv files other things will not.
Downsides:  Does not natively play many popular formats (such as DivX)

Conclusion: A slight improvement on Quicktime, primarily due to the ability to go to full screen.


VideoLAN Client (VLC):
VLC is an open source, cross platform video player.  Like MPlayer, its claim to fame is the ability to play just about anything, including DVDs.  The VLC interface, unlike Quicktime and WMP, has two panels instead of one; a control center panel and the actual video display.  Which setup is better depends on personal preference.  In any case, the VLC interface, unlike many open source projects for the Mac, has a clean design that fits with the overall Mac feel.

Upsides: Fantastic format compatibility, fast.
Downsides: Slightly unstable, DVDs have very low volume output.

Conclusion: For general uses VLC is one of the best programs out there.  DVDs work, but have low volume, even turned up.  Use DVD player for those.


MPlayer OSX:
MPlayer, like VLC, is an open source project aimed at creating the ultimate video player.  MPlayer shares VLC’s fantastic format compatibility, but does NOT share VLC’s rendering speed.  The 2 piece interface is similar to VLC, but adds a playlist to the control panel.

Upsides: Format compatibility
Downsides: Irritating menus, developers known to be hard to deal with.

Conclusion: Use this if VLC gives you problems, or if you simply prefer the interface.


NicePlayer:
Niceplayer is a video player designed by people ‘who like to watch movies’.  Unlike the other players, it has excellent on screen controls, meaning that you can pause, fast forward, and so on without dropping out of fullscreen mode.  In addition, the controls are simple and carefully designed to not take up too much screen real-estate.  In fact, the only thing a person will initially see is the black video box.  When you mouse over, the controls fade into view on-screen.

Upsides: Odd, but excellent interface.  Solid features and video support.  Reasonably fast.  Some corevideo support.
Downsides: Not as compatible as VLC and MPlayer.  Has trouble playing badly encoded files on occasion.  Doesn’t give up control of the screen while running.

Conclusion:  Niceplayer is one of the best.  For watching movies, the onscreen controls are near perfect.  With a little work on file compatibility, Niceplayer would quickly reign supreme over the other Mac video players.



Overall Best:  VideoLAN Client.
Runner Up:  Niceplayer.