Its small size, low memory footprint, and numerous features make this the media player of choice, but you must add the proper codecs to perfect this freeware.

Media Player Classic’s interface reflects its title–retro, old school, basic. This single player easily replaces the four or five video players installed on most systems. The only caveat is that you must download a complete set of codecs to play your favorite video formats. Media Player Classic also easily loads and plays DVDs. We liked how you can easily increase or decrease playback speed.

This program also plays most audio formats. We were surprised this tiny player includes sound filters and playlists. Hot keys are easily changed, but some users complain the process to set a key isn’t apparent. The help file isn’t included, but is easily downloaded.

The promised video subtitle search and download function is Media Player Classic’s only disappointment. The default subtitle databases are both offline. (By the time you download this player there may be a new database available.) The address is easily changed under Options. It doesn’t matter if you’re a novice or system administrator. If you watch video or listen to audio, this freeware player is a must-have program.

VLC Media Player is a long-time open-source favorite, and the latest version is also the first to be out of beta development. It’s not the only option for free video playback, but it’s one of the best, and the feature updates in version 1 make it well worth the upgrade.

Users can now get frame-by-frame advancement, granular speed controls allowing for on-the-fly slower or faster playback, and live recording of streaming video. The toolbars are fully customizable, so you can have only the buttons you need in the interface, there’s AirTunes streaming, and there’s better integration in Gtk environments. Along with the improvements, VLC continues to offer robust support for a wide range of video and audio formats, including OGG, MP2, MP3, MP4, DivX, HD codecs like AES3, Raw Dirac, and even support for playing back zipped files.

The default interface is still a stripped down player that belies VLC’s functionality and features. Skinning can fix that quickly, but behavior can still be a bit unpredictable depending on the quality of the skin. VLC’s open-source foundation and community ensures that it evolves quickly and often, with new features and fixes released frequently. Overall, VLC Media Player is a must-have application for its ability to open just about any type of video file you throw at it.