I’ve been wavering back and forth for months on whether I should pony up the forty bucks for the “enhanced” version of RealPlayer. If it’s just a one-time expenditure, that’s no problem at all (I didn’t hesitate for a moment before getting AllPlayer Pro). Here are the basics:
I use AllPlayer for nearly all my video-playing needs. It’s highly reliable, works with virtually every video format in existence, and enjoys robust support. If RealPlayer is going to get any use from me as a video player, it needs to bring something big to the table.
I’m mainly concerned with RealDownloader. The ads are a bit obtrusive but don’t harm the functionality, and I don’t have a problem with the download speed. What is a big deal is the video quality. I’m noticing more and more that for sharp, clear, fast-moving videos, in particular video games, the quality under basic RealPlayer suffers. I’d like something which can capture something like this TAS in its original resolution.
The Premium is supposed to have some kind of video-editing feature. Has anyone used this? Can it read DVD files? This is the main failing of the last Windows Movie Maker.
Is one purchase truly enough? I won’t have to pay for any more updates, will I?
There’s no need to pay for a video player today, or to put up with ads, when there are so many excellent free alternatives.
Potplayer is designed to handle all kinds of large, high-res, 3D, 360-degree, and resource-intensive videos.
PotPlayer provides the maximum performance with the minumum resource using DXVA, CUDA, QuickSync so you can get the best out of what you have. It supports various types of 3D glasses so you can get the 3D experience anytime you want using your 3DTV or PC with various output format (Side by Side, Top and Bottom, Page Flipping) supported. Text subtitles(SMI & SRT), DVD(Vobsub) and Blu-ray subtitles, ASS/SSA animation and SMI Ruby tags, etc. are supported. Supports OpenCodec (see plugin) so users can easily add whatever codecs they want. Smooth, seamless video play. Choose which one when you have 2 sound cards. Preview the scene with snapshots. You can bookmark your favorite scene or chapter. We support Direct3D9 Ex Flip Mode and Overlay. Supports various devices such as DVD,TV,HDTV.
I use SMPlayer for most of my audio and video needs. I don’t use it to download YouTube videos, but SMPlayer has a plugin for it.
There are several free downloaders that by and large do a good job. But for a really high resolution download, I’m pretty sure that you’re going to have to spring for a paid version of something.
Is that a serious question? Yes, given the wide variety of hardware and software products, I doubt anyone keeps up with all of “technology.”
That said, there are completely free alternatives, like Media Player Classic or VLC media player. There are accompanying codec packs that will allow you to play just about anything. So why pay when there are good, free, open-source alternatives?
I’ve had luck with ClipGrab as a video downloader. But it’s been a while since I’ve used it. For YouTube downloads, I just tend to Google for an online YouTube downloader.
Also, I oye that VLC will often just let you type the URL for a video site and will just play the video. I know it works for YouTube and Vimeo, at least. And I seem to remember it working for Dailymotion.
All right, guess I was right the first time. Honestly, I wouldn’t want to shell out unless I got a physical disk, and these are becoming more and more a thing of the past. I’ll see what I can do with VLC.
I am keeping RealPlayer because I do want a permanent file download option, especially given how YouTube videos can disappear at a moment’s notice for a multitude of reasons. You have no idea how many times I breathed a sigh of relief when a Vocaloid video got pulled a few weeks after I saved it. If you know of anything better, I’d be glad to give it a shot.