Open source video players sometimes come out to be one of the best video players. Today the list of video players is quite big. So many people always get confused on selecting the best video player. If you want a hassle free video player then you should look for an open source video player. First of all these players are completely free and get development support for a long time.

This extended development support makes them advanced overtime. And if you’re a developer then you can also contribute your code to that open source video player project. In this article we will be talking about top 10 open source video players but first let’s start with a complete media player.

 

Part 1: The Most Powerful Video Player

DVDFab Player 5 is the world’s first media player which supports almost every video format with HDR10 compatibility. It can be used as a basic video player but it is specially designed for ultra-high definition entertainment. With DVDFab player 5 you can play 4K UHD Blu-rays, Blu-rays, DVDs, 4K, and H.265content. It works in two modes ‘PC’ and ‘TV’. We recommend having a Full HD, 4K, or a UHD monitor or a TV, because the true performance of DVDFab player 5 can only be experienced on these types of screen. It is a shareware software which freely plays common video formats like MP4 etc.

 

The UI of DVDFab Player 5 is easy to use. The player provides various shortcuts like ‘R’ for rewind. ‘F’ for fast forward, ‘Space bar’ for play/pause etc. The thumbnail view lets you select any part of the movie. The player’s auto-resume function lets you play a movie/video from where it was last stopped. With its support for latest audio technologies like 7.1 surround sound, dolby atmost, DTS:X etc. It can turn your room in a personal home theater.

Part 2: Top 10 Open Source Video Players

Now in this part 2 we will be discussing the top 10 open source video players.

1. VLC

VLC media player has been maintaining its reputation as the best open source video player. VLC plays almost every video format. It can also stream online videos. VLC is the only open source video player that is available for multi-platform devices like Windows, Mac, Android, Linux etc. You don’t need to install any codec or plugins to play the video formats. It can also play CDs and DVD disks. With a special plugin, VLC can also play Blu-ray discs with a satisfactory performance. VLC is a trusted video player and being a free and open source video player it doesn’t contain any adware and is totally free from any malware or spyware.

 

2. MPV

MPV is based on Mplayer and Mplayer2. It is an open source video player which is available for Windows, BSd, Linux, and Mac. MPV includes a custom video output drive based on Vulkan API and OpenGL which provides options to control playback quality. MPV has a simple UI which can be controlled by a computer mouse. It is currently under active development.

 

3. Miro

Miro is designed for those people who like to purchase online video content. Miro has Amazon integration which lets you buy or rent movies. It is recommended for Android tablets and smartphones. Its UI is very good and it can be used to play most of the known video formats. Miro can also convert any media format to MP4 or H264 with it built-in file converter.

 

4. Banshee

Banshee is a free and versatile open source video player. It can sync music from your iOS, or Android device. Banshee also lets you discover new podcasts and internet radio. Just like Miro, Banshee also supports Amazon MP3 integration where you can buy music easily. Banshee can also be used as a DAAP server which lets iTunes to share media on your local network. It also supports background video play, equalizer, and automatically updates audio/video metadata.

 

5. MPlayer

MPlayer is nearly twenty years old and initially it started as a command line media player. MPlayer is available to download for major operating systems including Windows, Mac, Linux etc. MPlayer was initially developed for Linux when its developer didn’t find a nice video player for Linux. Later it was developed for other platforms. MPlayer is good for playing several older video formats like SVCD, DVD, RoQ, PVA, FLI, VIVO formats.

 

6. Ffplayer

Ffplayer is a free and open source video player for Windows and Android. It is completely based on Ffmpeg. Ffplayer is known to make a light CPU and memory usage.  With Ffplayer you can aslo stream online content. It has a very simple UI so it won’t be difficult to use it. Ffplayer can play most of the video formats without stressing the CPU.

 

7. Apprentice

Apprentice video is a free and open source video player developed by Pavel Koshevoy and first appeared in 2010. It is identical to players like media player classic and VLC. It provides several options that are missing in VLC. Apprentice uses Ffmpeg libraries for powerful performance.

 

8. Kodi

XBMC foundation owns Kodi and it was originally developed as a media center for the Xbox by Microsoft. Kodi can also be used as a media server software through which you can create your own media server. Kodi has an excellent support for all the major known video formats. It is completely free to use and supports multiple software platforms. Kodi also lets its users to use addons for added functionalities.

 

9. SMPlayer

SMPlayer is based upon on Mplayer. It supports almost every known video format. You can’t play 4K movies in SMPlayer but it can be used as a basic video player. SMPlayer features a nice and simple UI and most options are accessible quickly. SMPlayer also lets you search for YouTube videos from within the UI. In this video player you also get options like equalizer, video filters, and subtitle sync. The UI and skin of SMPlayer is user customizable.

 

10. Media Player Classic

Media Player Classic resembles the old classic look of Windows media player. It is a simple and open source video player and plays most common video formats without any special codecs or plugins. It provides a basic player UI design. It plays DVDs with title menus but doesn’t support Blu-rays. The settings can be accessed even during the playback by right clicking on the player’s screen. It has an excellent support for subtitles, and dual audio languages.

 

Conclusion

So that was a list of top 10 best open source video players. Which one do you choose? We have listed some open source video players which are extremely useful like VLC, MPV, Miro, and SMPlayer. So you can test all of the above to find a suitable one. These open source video players aren’t good for UHD entertainment. There’s only one option and which is DVDFab player 5. If you have Blu-ray or UHD content, HDTV or 4K TV, powerful computer rig then forget these open source video players and start with DVDFab player 5 only. You’ll be amazed by its crystal clear on-screen visual performance with HDR10 support, this is because you are using a complete media player.

Above introductions about open source video players may help you find the best video players. Then except playing video, would you like to edit the video? The post of Top 10 Best Adobe Premiere Alternatives will show you the best video editing software.