Shortlink of this post – http://wp.me/PrgSo-gQ (use this URL when linking to this page in your Facebook/forums/twitter/IRC/BBS messages)
Alternative reading: same configuration with this page using MPC-HC – click here.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Five Best Desktop Video Players. 1/19/14 11:00am. Daum PotPlayer is our current pick for the best video player for Windows, and it's clear from the nominations round that a good.
CHANGELOG
21 September 2014 – Modified slightly the CUVID decoding method below to include the HEVC hybrid decoding method.
Also included: A detailed QuickSync headless mode setup. You do not need this if you use Windows 8 and has installed the latest drivers.
From 12 May 2014, the installer will always reset the PotPlayer settings. Existing users that want to retain their custom settings should make a back-up of their default preset by opening the ‘Preferences’ window (F5) and clicking the ‘Export Presets (S)’ button as shown below.
Introduction
When I first wrote the KMPlayer guide available in archive mode here, it was meant to be an alternative to MPC-HC to watch fansubbed anime episodes, with soft subtitles and with GPU acceleration (general DXVA, Intel-specific and CUDA method). But after KMPlayer being sold to pandora.tv, the development has slowed down considerably. The original developer of KMPlayer then moved on, and created a new media player called PotPlayer, which will be used in this guide. Compared to KMPlayer, PotPlayer has a more rapid development cycle, with more new features being added now and then. PotPlayer used to be unusuable for watching fansubbed anime with soft-subtitles, but as of today PotPlayer is more than capable to replace MPC-HC for watching such videos.
What you can expect in this page:-
- Use madVR in all playback scenarios. No more being shackled to certain renderers like VMR9 renderless or EVR custom presenter for DXVA. No more compromise with image quality.
- Be able to use DXVA renderless method even with madVR. You cannot do that with MPC-HC. Intel, ATI and nVidia GPUs are supported. CUDA decoding method are also supported in this page of course.
- Not only that you can use DXVA with madVR, post-processing methods like deband also works here, with ffdshow raw video filter. Deinterlacing is now done on decoder level.
- If hardware-accelerated video playback isn’t your thing, I will also show you how to configure PotPlayer for high-performance software decoding (for both H.264 and DivX/XviD videos) with LAV Video Decoder, which is reasonably fast and has better support for 9-bit and 10-bit H.264 videos too than ffdshow video decoder.
The main drawback for this guide is that the renderless DXVA method is usable only in Windows Vista and 7. Windows XP users are out of luck, unless you go with CUDA playback method or software decoding playback method. Another drawback of switching from MPC-HC to PotPlayer is that you have to re-learn everything. Keyboard shortcuts for common functions between these two players are completely different. In MPC-HC, the keyboard shortcut for full-screen playback is ‘Alt-Enter’ combo buttons, while for PotPlayer, it is simply the ‘Enter’ button. In MPC-HC, switching chapters can be done with the ‘PgUp’ and ‘PgDn’ buttons, while in PotPlayer, the same thing can be done with ‘Shift-PgUp’ or ‘Shift-PgDn’ combo buttons.
Supported hardware
Updated January 2018 - With the advent of 4K UHD HDR displays, UHD discs now rippable, madVR removing NNEDI3 from image upscaling section and SPECTRE + MELTDOWN fiasco, there is only one hardware combination that you should get, which is AMD Ryzen systems with nVidia GPUs.
Recommended baseline CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 1600X Processor (YD160XBCAEWOF).
Recommended Motherboard: ASRock X370 TAICHI Socket AM4/AMD X370/DDR4/Quad CrossFireX & SLI/SATA3&USB3.1/M.2/Wi-Fi/A&GbE/ATX Motherboard.
It is really hard for you to go wrong with these two, especially when playing 4K HEVC 10-bit videos in software mode using LAV Video Decoder 64-bit. No Intel until maybe three to five years from now.
As for GPUs, it depends whether you have a 4K display or not. Now assuming that you want a 4K display right now that is capable of HDR for watching videos, I suggest that you do not bother with 4K HDR computer monitors, and go straight to a big 4K UHD TV.
Example 4K UHD TV: LG Electronics OLED55E7P 55-Inch 4K Ultra HD Smart OLED TV (2017 Model).
The TV above is 55', 4K resolution and has HDR too. The size means you do not have to change Windows scaling to have a usable desktop.
GPU recommendation (high-end - 4K HDR display or not): ZOTAC GeForce GTX 1080 Ti AMP Edition 11GB GDDR5X 352-bit PCIe 3.0 Gaming Graphics Card VR Ready(ZT-P10810D-10P).
Regardless whether you have a 4K display or not, the best nVidia GPU recommended is a GTX 1080Ti like the one above. It supports HEVC 10-bit and VP9 hardware video decoding, and does HDR passthrough really well. Can really handle NGU in madVR to as long as you don't go overboard.
GPU recommendation (low-end - 4K HDR display): ZOTAC GeForce GTX 1050 Ti OC Edition 4GB GDDR5 Super Compact Gaming Graphics Card (ZT-P10510B-10L).
GPU recommendation (low-end - non-4K display or 4K non-HDR display ): ZOTAC GeForce GTX 1060 Mini, ZT-P10600A-10L, 6GB GDDR5 Super Compact VR Ready Gaming Graphics Card.
The GPU for displays not capable of HDR (GTX 1060) is more powerful than GPU for 4K HDR displays (GTX 1050Ti) because converting HDR to SDR via pixel shader operations is a quite costly operation in term of GPUI resources. These two can handle all relevant video codecs, but if you have a 4K display, you should choose the bottom-most madVR preset in the installer.
Lastly, try and get Windows 8.1 instead of Windows 10 or Windows 7.