Can't play a video on your Windows or get error messages? You may need a better video player. A qualified media player should support a wide range of media formats, play 4K or higher resolution videos smoothly, and provide other extra features users may need such as video organizer, streaming, convert, and more. This guide introduces the 8 best video players for Windows 11/10/8/7 based on real testing, and most are free to use.
In the first part, let's check our top 3 picks that you cannot miss.
Simple and robust player with convert feature.
Supported OS: Windows 11/10/8/7, Mac 10.10 or later
Supported formats: All video and audio formats including HEVC, AV1, AC3, OGG, etc.
Price: free, $19.99 for conversion function
With so many options available, Cisdem Video Player stands out with its ease of use and stable performance. It can play almost any video and audio file you throw at it for free, and support smooth Full HD playback up to 8K resolution. Additionally, you can upgrade to get the conversion feature, allowing you to convert files to MP4 and many other popular formats to improve media compatibility.
Best open-source player with DVD and streaming support.
Supported OS: Windows, Mac, Android and iOS
Supported formats: Common video formats, DVDs, online stream
Price: free
VLC Media Player is a well-known free and open-source video player available on multiple platforms. This free tool can play various video, audio, and image files as well as DVDs with menus, and stream online videos from links. But VLC is not quite good at processing HDR and full HD videos. Also, your files added to the VLC playlist often disappear when you launch it next time. Some people also use VLC to convert files, but issues like no audio, unable to open with other players, often occur.
Comprehensive media player and management hub.
Supported OS: Windows 11/10/8/8.1/7, Android and iOS
Supported formats: Common video files, Blu-rays and DVDs
Price: $69.99 for new users, $39.99 for standard users to upgrade
PowerDVD player is a feature-rich Windows media player designed for ultimate visual enjoyment. It produces a TuneTheater technology to make people feel watch movies at real theater with stunning picture and audio quality. If you want to watch Blu-ray and 8K videos on PC without shuttering, just try PowerDVD Ultra edition. Besides, it offers free cloud storage of 100GB for people to watch media library on other devices anytime, anywhere.
Suppoered OS: Windows
Supported formats: Various media formats
Price: free
PotPlayer is a superior free video player for Windows that is widely regarded as a powerful alternative to VLC Media Player. It supports subtitles customization, offers a clearer interface, works faster without installing third-party plugins. The biggest highlight of PotPlayer is that it supports OpenCodec, which can help you update and install extra codecs automatically.
This free video player for Windows can be also used as a a screen recorder and video editor. Due to various features it provides, it is designed with a bunch of setting icons on the interface, which may lead a tricky process for people.
Suppoered OS: Windows and Mac
Supported formats: Popular formats, DVD movies
Just as the names shows, 5K Player is proficient in playing 5K, 4K, 1080P videos, and it can play videos easily by only dragging and dropping. It also offers the features that most powerful 4k video player for Windows 11 provides, such as 360-degree video playback, adding subtitles, sharing files through wireless stream.
What’s more, it is able to download online videos from 300+ streaming websites, stream DVD and AirPlay. However, only the basic media player service is free.
Suppoered OS: Windows and Mac
Supported formats: DivX, MKV, MP4, AVI, MP3, AC3, etc. and unencrypted DVD/BD discs
Price: free, $13.99 for DivX pro
DivX Player is a decent 4K video player for Windows 11 to play popular video formats such as AVI, DIVX, MKV and MP4 with high quality up to 4K. It allows you to cast and watch the videos in big screen, which must be compatible with DLNA devices. Also, You can use it to convert various video formats to DivX, MP4, HEVC and MKV files. But if you want enjoy more privileges, you should move to the pro version, which permits you to view videos from the cloud, clear ad, enjoy higher audio quality in DTS-HD, etc.
Suppoered OS: Windows, Android and iOS
Supported formats: All types of audio/video files and CDs
Price: Free version, $39.95 for Gold version, $99.95 for Gold version and lifetime upgrades
MediaMonkey is a powerful media player for Windows that offers miscellaneous features. This excellent player can not only play different videos with high quality, but also allows you to convert files, and stream media files to big screen for a better enjoyment. Besides, it can be also used as a great media organizer, which helps you customize and archive videos, audios and playlists in your fully control.
Suppoered OS: Windows, Mac, and Linux
Supported formats: Common video formats including VCD, DVD, MPEG-1/2
Price: Free
SMPlayer is a free video player that available on multiple platforms, allowing you to play a variety of video formats without installing third-party tools. The highlight feature of this free video player is that it supports searching and saving the needed subtitles from opensubtitles.org, like VLC. Plus, it offers a couple of skins and 30+ languages for users to set a suitable outfit.
Yes, Windows 11 owns 3 media players by default, which are Media Player, Movies & TV app and Windows Media Player legacy.
Media Player is the default video player for Windows 11, it's capable of playing common audio and video formats smoothly, such as H.264 MP4, MOV, AVI, WMV, MKV, FLAC, OGG, AAC, WMA, etc.
Movies & TV app is another workable native player for Windows 10 and 11. It allows people to purchase media from Microsoft store and play local movie files. It supports playing a few file formats like M4V, MP4, MOV, ASF and AVI. But, it is inevitable to encounter some playback issues, including video-stuttered, black screen, and no sound.
Windows Media Player is the first media player and library on Windows that can play video, audio, and CDs. It removes functions to play DVDs and convert files in Windows 8 and later versions. Also, Windows 11 users need to download it manually.
If you fail to play video on Windows, there are several causes from multiple respects. For example: unexpected malware, incompatible system settings, old video graphics driver, unsupported file formats, outdated or incompatible video players, and corrupted media files. Here are mainly 3 solutions for you to eliminate all these issues.
Solution 1. Check for Windows Updates.
Solution 2. Install K-Lite Codec Pack for Windows Media Player to enable it play more formats without purchasing extra codecs.
Solution 3. Use another reliable player that supports more file formats. In this case, you can take the aforementioned media players into consideration.
This article has specifically introduced the pros and cons of these top 8 video players for Windows respectively. All of them allow you to enjoy videos and audio regardless of the format and resolution. Choose the one with the interface or extra capabilities that you prefer.
You might be interested: 10 Best Video Players for Mac | Best OGG Players
Jenny is a technology editor who has been blogging since she was a student. Since joining Cisdem, she focuses on writing articles about video software and how-to guides. She loves exploring new tools and techniques.
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