I watch more than my fair share of movies on my laptop. I just got this new Toshiba with what I'm told is one of the best graphics processors (don't ask me what, but my sister's techy boyfriend says so). What I'm wondering is how much it matters what program I use to play the movies themselves (Divx, Windows Media, Windows Cinema, etc). They're usually downloaded (~800 megs). Does it make much of a difference?

EDIT: Since I couldn't work any lulz into the above statement, I make the following offering for entertainment value as an incentive.

Last edited by WittyHandle on Jan-30-2010 at 04:41

VLC > *

quote:

Originally posted by idoru VLC > *

Download the BD Rips, watch with VLC and forget about the rest

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Originally posted by bas we're just rolling in that sweet sweet Beatport chedda SON. I PUT DIAMONDS IN MY SALT SHAKER SO I CAN HAVE CRUSHED DIAMONDS ON MY FOOD...it makes my dookie twinkle!!!

I use WMP lolol

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I'm not smart enough to use torrents, so I usually just get them from ninjavideo or movieplex, which don't carry BD rips, but maybe they do, because I don't know what that means.

I've used VLC before, but are you all recommending it on the basis of picture quality, or some other criteria?

the programs have nothing to do with quality. We all love VLC because its simple and has the codecs to play anything that you throw at it.

and there is absolutely nothing hard about using torrents.

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quote:

Originally posted by bas we're just rolling in that sweet sweet Beatport chedda SON. I PUT DIAMONDS IN MY SALT SHAKER SO I CAN HAVE CRUSHED DIAMONDS ON MY FOOD...it makes my dookie twinkle!!!

quote:

Originally posted by WittyHandle I'm not smart enough to use torrents, so I usually just get them from ninjavideo or movieplex, which don't carry BD rips, but maybe they do, because I don't know what that means. I've used VLC before, but are you all recommending it on the basis of picture quality, or some other criteria?

If you aren't smart enough to handle bit torrents then I probably wouldn't recommend VLC.

But seriously, torrents are easy?
1. Download torrent client (uTorrent, Azureus, etc)
2. Install
3. Find torrent site and download shit you want
4. ...
5. Profit?

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I guess I was most interested in knowing if a particular program delivered picture & sound quality better than the others, but just hadn't thought to articulate that til just now. Oops.

What is that, a trumpet?

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Most video player programs on Windows are going to use the standard windows codecs installed, which most of the time is some variation of the ffmpeg library (decodes almosy all FourCC video types, DIVX, XVID, H264 and MPEG video).

Basically WMP, Windows Media Player Classic, and almost all the others are just a front end to this library. Some might offer more tools to adjust the output of the video (contrast, color balance, etc) but the video quality and audio quality (handled also by ffmpeg) are going to be roughly the same.

VLC on the other hand has custom written libraries for all the data formats it supports. I find that its deblocking and other quality controls are a little bit easier/nicer to deal with than ffmpegs (either through a front end in a player, or through the ffmpeg control panel).

I use VLC just because I don't want to hassle with all the codec packs (but if you do I recommend the Combined Community Codec Pack, just google CCCP codec and it should be the first link).

Ayep, VLC has all you need - even a built-in menu for handling subtitles.

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When a wise man gives thee better counsel, give me mine again: I would have none but knaves follow it, since a fool gives it.