Top 5 Best FREE Video Players for Windows (2024)

To play the videos stored on your computer, you’ll need a reliable media player. If you run the Windows operating system, there are tons of software available that can play most of the popular video and audio formats. Other than being able to play your files, it’s important to have a media player that is lightweight and won’t slow down your computer. In this video, I will countdown the top 5 media players for Windows 10 and Windows 11 to play videos on your computer for free.
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Share This Video ▶ • Top 5 Best FREE Video ...
Free Software Playlist
• Free Software Playlist
0:00 Intro
0:30 Cutting Edge Video Player
1:45 Media player with remote feature.
2:39 Media Player with Editing Features
3:25 This Player has Many Cool Features
4:21 Open-Source Cross Platform Media Player
DivX Player
www.divx.com/
GOM Player
www.gomlab.com/en/gomplayer-m...
Movies & TV App (Built-In)
apps.microsoft.com/detail/9wz...
PotPlayer
potplayer.daum.net/
VLC Media Player
www.videolan.org/vlc/
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Brett In Tech is a leading source for the technology that we use each day. Whether it’s discussing computer operating system tricks, the latest tips for your mobile phone, finding out about the newest gadgets, or letting you know about the most useful software and websites, Brett In Tech has boundless topics on technology for the astute KZbin viewer.

[@BrettInTech]

What media player do you use to play the video files on your computer?

[@JDGillis]

I have used VLC for many years and have never had a reason to try anything else, and like you, I have never found a video format that it could not play.

[@silversolver7809]

PotPlayer, took over from VLC for the extra features-which i don't use anymore :) Kept VLC as backup.

[@highpriestofseti]

VLC, for ages. also love the option to search for sub titles.

[@Plaseebo]

potplayer i like it a lot highly customisable thanks for including

[@varunpro1]

@Bretti can you please make a video for top 5 players for Android TV too ? ( Which can play HDR and Dolby Vision too ) 😅

[@kenneth4753]

Media Player Classic Home Cinema with the K-Lite Codec Pack is still the best media player for Windows, IMO.

[@victoriabrister1116]

Great information.

[@masudin1023]

I've tried almost all open source media player, I can say the mpc hc still the most powerfull for play high codec video, number 2 is pot player

[@Deha1299]

Vlc, my old friend. Always the best.

[@Exclusive-Studio]

Media Player Classic Black is the best for Windows.

[@AmazingPhilippines1]

VLC works the best for me. I have tried several here in the PHILIPPINES.

[@masaharu10k]

long time VLC user until started to be clunky dont know why, then switched to Gom nd then Pot, been using Pot for more than 7 years flawless...

[@DannyMatrix]

when i have video playing and OBS running in the background my video player will lag or stutter. is DivX the best option here?

[@lirato2]

VLC simply the best no extra icons on my desktop only VLC

[@HetfieldLobo]

I used to use VLC player but, with a couple files the program shows me a warning claiming those where corrupted or even broken...then I installed K-Lite Codecs pack with Media Player classic, the one I were always using in the past and... my files where just fine

[@LucienSabre]

That’s odd. I’ve been using VLC on both Wind0ws (7, 10 and 11) and macOS (OS X Yosemite onwards) for almost a decade now and have never had issues with any file or format. 🤔 But I get it….I still use Wind0ws M3dia Play3r to watch videos - and use VLC to play DVDs. 😅

[@HetfieldLobo]

@@LucienSabre Yeah, it is odd, IDK what happened,, I'm using wind0ws 11 pro. Anyway, thanks for the comment

[@fredchacha3355]

Potplayer is very good…since I started using it as my default from your recommendations

[@goooglechrome5458]

I had a hard time to get sound from WIN 11 they seem to limit mkv files very bad...look again

[@manojkvarma_films]

MPC HC 321 MEDIA PLAYER IS THE BEST IVE TRIED MEDIA PLAYER CLASSIC BLACK IT CANNOT PLAY SOME FORMATS

[@computerjantje]

MPC Media Player Classic + codecs package is the winner for me for over 20 years :) small, plays everything, does not need much resources, non-dominant user interface, free and addfree.

[@mj1s735]

I like that VLC can do something that Power DVD can't do and that is play movies that have been created using the AV1 codec.

[@Lardnapkin]

Pot Player thanks to you!. Hey Brett can you please consider creating video's of the following topics: PowerToys for windows, Best Bookmark Managers, Chrome Extension Managers (I now have 37 extensions thanks to you and have a hard time figuring out What extension each icon is). Best KZbin video creater software. Best Travel App websites (Flight tracker, Ontime performances, pricing alerts, Seat map with reviews etc. LOVE your stuff!

[@Plaseebo]

potplayer i like it a lot highly customisable thanks for including

[@StarLabs3D]

Good information 🇦🇶

[@soulaesthete8563]

Thanks so much Brett! PotPlayer has been my default player for years. It's a very good player that works seamlessly and is easy to navigate. VLC Media Player's settings are too numerous and too complex for me. However, colors are more vivid in the VLC Media Player, which is why I still use it for playing movies.

[@lazymonkey2586]

GOM has a unique feature: can show surtitles for 3d videos... it was useful at my old TV.

[@bustergundo516]

Good. It seems like VLC media player doesn't work on my Dell inspiron 5558 laptop. Any idea why?

[@PastPresentFutureEndofTime]

Video Codec files I don't remember exactly but a friend helped me find the correct driver's to run it on a older PC I no longer have anymore you can check online see if they have a list of drivers for the program with the codex's.

[@SweWolf74]

I used to use VLC but I switched to PotPlayer. Also, you could mention Kodi, but perhaps you consider that to be more of a media center than a video player.

[@2ToneWalt]

Wow, Divx is still about.

[@maboulofob]

Haha I inow right

[@jeremiahlyleseditor437]

It seems as though VLC has been #1 for almost a decade. Few are close Thanks Brett

[@mloicano]

Remember Quicktime and Real Player!? So bad 😂.

[@Michael_Knight823]

I used to like RealPlayer. So sad that that player stagnated.

[@oneil2311]

Really Brett ! No love for windows media player classic. I've been using it over 10 plus years and no complains yet

[@VaibhavGaikwad-mf2vw]

MPC Video Player >>>>> VLC

[@0bserv9r]

MPV is the best video player and super lightweight. Installing it might confuse some but it's not that hard. VLC was best for me til I found MPV.

[@ghostnote1678]

I use VLC, but I'm not perfectly satisfied with it. I'd like to be able to pause by just clicking on the the video instead of navigating to the button or reaching for the keyboard. Also it's terrible for .ts file playback. There's an average 5-second delay when seeking on most .ts files I've got. I usually have to run them through AVIDemux and save them as mp4 files to remedy that problem. Any suggestions for a free player that handles .ts no problem? I haven't really looked yet, but I always mean to.

[@fydofire]

Should mention Media Player Classic Home Cinema and Black Edition. Also KMPlayer and Kodi.

[@chingcc7]

KMPlayer is shit, the pin feature always got bugged

[@kamikaze7573]

sm player is pretty good. it automatically plays the next video in the folder which vlc doesn't do.

[@carlingtonme]

MPC-HC all the way

[@niksal1]

why not MPC-BE ?

[@carlingtonme]

@@niksal1 Doesn't work well,or as well

[@niksal1]

@@carlingtonme Any particular instances of this...or in general, coz I have been using it for past few weeks after switching over from pot player and didn't run into major issues

[@dyabolicman1]

PotPlayer is much better then VLC i try all kinds of video files and is user friendly interface :D

[@MLife1972]

Great video - I've been using Pot Player for years. All I need is a free player with no ads that doesn't try to take over my system.

[@franciscohorna5542]

i use vlc and media player classic and media player classic be edition

[@_UAV_PILOT]

Mpc-be

[@jasonschubert6828]

VLC always seems to come out on top of these lists, but I have always found it buggy and have several videos that won't play, or won't play well on it. If you ever use frame advance, expect a crash that requires it to be killed in task manager!

[@Ultimate-Technology-Solutions]

Top 1, VLC. The end.

[@Nginchheang]

VLC Player is shitty when it comes to TS video files. I can't find a way to fix this issue. TS file videos are stuttering and laggy. Potplayer has become my default player and go-to. If it weren't for the TS file problem, I would make VLC my default and absolute best player.

[@PastPresentFutureEndofTime]

👍

[@oldgeek5946]

VLC. Every day.

[@davidb6659]

Recently, VLC has started banding videos and then freezing them. Need to go into task manager to stop the process before it will work again. Windows 11. No changes made on system except for MS updates. PotPlayer works OK.

[@saggitarius6155]

VLC is the best.

[@vladimir0523]

The interesting thing is that none of the reviewers has ever taken into consideration more seriously the support and settings for subtitles. Well, for heaven's sake, not all of us speak English natively. That's the main problem that I have with the VLC player, because of which it wouldn't ever be No. 1 on my list. In my humble opinion, Pot Player is absolutely the most complete player at the moment. It's not all about open source code and wider support on all platforms, but primarily about the options and possibilities that certain software offers you. The only problem I have with Pot Player is its somewhat convoluted menu. I would gladly remove from there the vast majority of the various options that I don't use, so that I can easily find and pick out what I really need. So, in short, it would be nice if we could customize those options there.

[@amazingbollweevil]

Problem with VLC's subtitles? How so? I frequently watch non-English videos. All you do is right click > Subtitle > Add Subtitle File. Usually, it starts playing with the default subtitle already loaded.

[@vladimir0523]

@@amazingbollweevil Well, the things you mentioned are basic options, without which literally any player would be incomplete. You should check the available options for subtitles in Pot Player. In short, Pot Player has better font support. You can choose how and where subtitles will be rendered, position and margins-inside the movie box or outside on black stripes. It also has better font effects where you can choose any color that you want, outline and drop shadow effects that can also be further tweaked, the ability to load two different subtitles simultaneously, and you can use a few available and most popular subtitle servers directly from the player to find and download subtitles for the movie if you don't have one. Where is VLC in this?

[@amazingbollweevil]

@@vladimir0523 The VLC Tools > Preferences allow you to select your codecs, font, font size, default color, outline thickness, outline color, shadow, background, opacity, and position. Having two subtitles is pretty handy for some folks, that's for sure, but if Pot can automatically find and load subtitles, that's pretty sweet.

[@vladimir0523]

​@@amazingbollweevil Yeah, but those options in comparison with Pot Player are pretty much limited. And yes, you can pull sidebar browser in Pot Player and choose subtitles from the list which will be automatically downloaded from the server, but you can also open subtitle downloader window and do that manually if from some reason browser doesn't find subtitle automatically. As I said, you should check all options carefully in Pot Player and you'll see that difference. And I didn't even mention other stuff, like per example, various options for HDR support, color profiles and tweaks for it, also pixel shader settings which you can use to further improve image quality. VLC is unquestionably a very good video player, however Pot Player is, in my opinion, more flexibly structured and richer in options. Ultimately, each person will use video player that likes more. 😉

[@Fawzay]

FTW PotPlayer

[@MolotovVyacheslav]

Divx can't even play mp4?

[@DaveLennonCopeland]

VLC, no need to mention anything else.

[@prideme1139]

VLC sucks

[@whoreshoe]

pot player is number 1 by FAR