A basic media player?

[fracturedmind]

Hey, I currently use Windows Media Player 9, or PowerDVD to watch DivX, XviD, DVD, etc...

My grief with them is, I'm always at my computer, and while sometimes I watch movies fullscreen, it is rare. When they are windowed, the skins are bulky and pointless... I don't need ANY border, I don't need ANY top menu, etc.

I *do* use WMP in Skin Mode, it's still to big, I *do* use custom skins to make it smaller...

What I'm looking for is a simple (or complex) player, that can handle DivX and XviD codecs, but one that has no bulky skins, *or* an insanely simply skin for WMP or PowerDVD.

My best example of what I want is ChrisTV, which I use with my TV Card...



(Sorry, I made it uber low quality, hosting it on crappy upload speed)

Top: windows media player, best skin I've found, still a huge, annoying, pointless border, and a stupid SECOND window item, that I've put hovering on the second level of my taskbar (with forward, back volume... wtf, thats stupid, I don't want 17 windows open for one movie).

Bottom: ChrisTV, ownage, no border, no anything. It's like a gift from Jesus.

See, it's basic, I see the fucking VIDEO, and nothing else... amazing. Who would have thought?

I need to be able to make it "Always on Top", it needs to play DivX, XviD, (not DVDs, I don't care)... hopefully also able to use AC3 Audio decoder, etc... all the goodies for good ripped movies.

Anyone have any ideas? Favorite programs? WMP skins?

[Lasereth]

This is gonna sound a bit funny, but the actual DivX player is what you need. You can make the borders almost as small as the ChrisTV one, and it has the option to "always stay on top." It plays DivX movies (ha ha!), XVID movies, and it has support for the AC3 audio codec. Give it a shot!

-Lasereth

[fracturedmind]

Very nice, I like it... only problem so far is you can't seem to resize the windows to anything smaller than the "original".

So if my movie is by default high quality, I can't shrink it down and squeeze it into the corner so I can still fit all my necessary shtuff.

[kel]

Try videolan client
www.videolan.org

It seperates the video from controls so you can leave only the video on top.

[charliex]

I knocked this up in a few minutes for you

http://www.finitemonkeys.com/tfp/minplay.zip

Its an exercise in minimalism

double click the window to open a media type, use the [..] to browse right menu to control.

it doesn't play DVDs yet, but most other formats yes

[edit] forgot to add the Always on top option, so i did, its on the file open dialog

quick manual,

download , run, double click to open a file and set on top mode, either type in a URL, filename or press the [..] and browse
player should then player

left click drag on the window will move it around, sizeing bars will resize it, esc will close it.

its ok to put htpp://www.w.com/something.avi etc or file://c/file.avi or just c:\file.avi

right click brings up the menu

unless i restort to unorthodox methods for resizing the control, you have to have at least a 1 pixel border otherwise you can have no border whatsover

[Pragma]

What I use (and highly recommend) is BSPlayer - it's got all of the features you're looking for - and dozens more.

And the interface is very minimalistic and customizable (if you don't even want borders and instead just want a floating video, you can do it, etc.)

[Sion]

what you want is Windows Media Player Classic (otherwise known as 6.4). Minimal skin (in compact mode) and simply functionality. just what you (and I) want.

I am STILL using wmp 6.4 (part of win98se which I run) and I can watch ANYTHING on it, except for dvds, quicktime and real media. I can even get it to play OGG Vorbis encoded files (.ogm).

It really is just a matter of downloading and installing the necessary codecs.

I have lots of other vid players (and am always on the lookout for more) but I have yet to find one as versatile and satisfying as wmp 6.4. BEST thing MS ever put out.

[-Anders]

You might want to use the actual program 'Media Payer Classic'
( Get it here http://www.doom9.org/Soft21/Players/mpc2kxp6473.zip )
It has the ability to remove everything but the actual window showing the movie.

[RelaX]

Originally posted by Pragma
What I use (and highly recommend) is BSPlayer - it's got all of the features you're looking for - and dozens more.

And the interface is very minimalistic and customizable (if you don't even want borders and instead just want a floating video, you can do it, etc.)

I second BSPlayer however, if you watch a lot of short clips, I wouldn't recommend it, seeing as it has a pretty high start up time.
It plays like a dream though and whatever it does when it starts up, it doesn't reflect at all in the playing of files.