The truth is the Windows Media Player (WM Player) is a mediocre piece of junk software.

It can play DVDs, videos and music but really doesn't support most formats. Open source formats are rendered unreadable. Forget about playing any media found on Wikipedia. We video download junkies will also be disappointed by WM Player's rigidity as it cannot play most video formats without a third party plug-in. Even with a plug-in some video files won't play. As for DVDs it only gives fair quality.

Unfortunately even the popular Realplayer has the same problems. Quicktime for Windows is even worse, be ready for that software to wreck your day as it can play almost nothing.

With so much disappointment in store I wonder why those three media players are so popular. Are people just ignorant? Now we know about the major disadvantages of the big three Windows media software, what should we do? Enter the free and excellent GOM Player.


While browsing through Lifehacker I found this gem of a media player called GOM Player. Being able to play almost any media format thrown at it what more do you want. Enough of frustratingly searching for a way to play your files. No more downloading multiple codec packs for your needs. Without codec packs, computer resources will be conserved, giving you more opportunity to multi-task programmes.

GOM player even has a very sleek interface with tonnes of controls to tweak your media experience. Ever thought of buying a pro version of Realplayer for all the controls? Ignore that wish! Why choose Realplayer Pro when I can't play every format out there? Get GOM Player and never regret it.

Something else I noticed is that GOM Player has all the aesthetics and yet makes a small footprint on computer resources. Added to that choppy video performance caused by computer overuse resource will be compensated by GOM.

Previously I was using VLC Player to play "uncommon" media formats. It was decent as it played every format out there. But, being still in beta it had many minor usability issues. Furthermore it didn't have a sleek appearance. VLC player looked like a nerds invention where the person shows no creativity at all. Imagine the fastest car in the world that looked like a bishop's nose. GOM player repaired all of VLC Player's flaws while taking all its advantages.

Get GOM Player by clicking here. To find out more about GOM click here.


With GOM player now I found the holy grail of media players. An ultra-versatile player that looks simply gorgeous. What more will you need? Anyway I don't like to use media players to play my music so I use Winamp for my songs but that's a different subject.....

~multum in parvo~