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GOM Player is a free video and media player that offers high-quality playback, easy optimization, and a sleek interface. It's easier to use than some of the popular open-source players but nearly as flexible and less confusing (better-looking, too). With extras like screen capture, GOM Player offers quality playback without the fiddly settings of the better-known alternatives. Naturally it has all the essentials, such as full-screen view, playlists, and hot keys.
GOM Player's look is quite attractive, with orange highlights on active buttons and a control panel resembling an audio component's aluminum faceplate; you can reskin the interface, too, and select many other options from the main context menu. When you first run GOM Player, a setup wizard helps you configure the program's playback settings for your individual needs. There are three choices: Normal mode, which GOM player recommends for most users; High-Quality mode, which optimizes playback for high-quality displays but uses more system resources and is not recommended for less powerful PCs; and TV Output mode, which is great for home theater systems. We've seen plenty of ordinary video players and were more interested in what GOM Player can do, so we selected High-Quality mode. We also specified VMR9 output, which requires DirectX 9 or higher. We could also configure subtitles and enable multiple instances of GOM Player. GOM Player can play back audio in three stereo modes (2, 4, and 5.1 channels) as well as S/PDIF output. You can associate the program with a wide range of file types and extensions, too, though if you plan to try GOM Player without giving up your current media player, you may want to retain your file associations; you can always change them to GOM Player later, if you prefer.
GOM Player's playback quality didn't disappoint, nor did its controls and features. While we've long relied on open-source project players that have every bell, whistle, and option you can think of (or think up and add yourself), we'd have no problem with GOM Player in the projectionist's booth, and no problem recommending it to anyone needing an easy-to-use, high-quality video player.
GOM Media Player:Publisher's Description
From Gretech:
GOM Player is a free multimedia player with popular video and audio codecs built-in. GOM Player supports file formats such as AVI, DAT, MPEG, DivX, XviD, WMV, ASF. Users don't have to install codecs separately. GOM Player is capable of playing incomplete or damaged AVI files by skipping the damaged frames. It can also play locked or partially downloaded files. Its other features include drag-and-drop support, HTTP streaming, editable skins, subtitling, overlay mixer, key remapping, enhanced filter rendering, real-time index rebuilding for AVI files and unicode support among others.
What's new in this version: Version 2.1.21.4846 fixes lots of bugs and errors in a specific situation and adds some functions and security patches.
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All versions:
4.1 starsout of 1,782 votes
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Current version:
4.2 starsout of 104 votes
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My rating:
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"Not very good, just ok, maybe?"
Version: GOM Media Player 2.1.21.4846
Pros
Simple design and format.
Cons
I wasn't impressed with much of anything this player had to have offer. the quality was definately not there as well and struggled with a variety of format.
Summary
Other than Windows Media Player, The KMPlayer is my preferred multi format multi-dimansional viewer.
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"Excellent product for Windows 98"
Version: GOM Media Player 2.1.21.4846
Pros
1. It supports Windows 98.
2. It plays all versions of FLV (Flash video) files, including FLV4 (a.k.a. GVC); not merely FLV1.
3. It plays all MPEG-4 video (.MP4) files.
4. It is easily resizeable to 50% size, to reduce the CPU load.Cons
I only have a minor quibble, that it only opens at full size (there is no way to get it to default to 50% size on starting), if you double-click the program's EXE file to run it. Thus on Win98 it opens at almost 800x600, filling the whole screen.
Summary
I like GOM Media Player because it's almost the only video player still in development that supports Windows 98SE or Windows ME, where all the others (such as Media Player Classic, VLC (a.k.a. VideoLan), Wimpy, Winamp, QuickTime, Real Player, Windows Media Player, etc) now only bring out updates for WinXP or Vista.
For anyone who might be interested, the Winamp 5 plug-in which I mentioned is called Enhancer v0.17 [the file is dsp_enh.dll], and is simply THE best ever DSP/Effect plug-in for Winamp. If you've got a low bitrate (or poor quality) music file, or speech file, this plug-in does the business, and outputs excellent quality audio. GOM enables you to use this plug-in for the audio track on video files that Winamp can't play. GOM automatically detects all the installed DSP plugins for Winamp, and gives you the option to use them in GOM too.
My experience using GOM has been 100% positive. I haven't yet come across a Flash video file or MPEG-4 video file that GOM can't play. Even the &fmt=34 (i.e. the default) type of YouTube FLV files play in GOM (which otherwise only my browser can play, as none of the usual media players will open them).
GOM has features which no other video player I've used has: such as the ability to alter the contrast, brightness and color saturation of the picture (on-the-fly even); and to normalize the audio; and to apply my Winamp enhancer plug-ins to the audio. Winamp 5 has a superb enhancer plug-in for audio (dsp_enh.dll), and GOM can access it even for video files that Winamp can't play.
GOM has a VERY impressive feature to resize the screen so that it is ALWAYS sized at 320 x 240 when playing a video. This feature is a real winner on Windows 9x, because it reduces the load on the CPU by reducing the picture size of huge files down to a manageable level.
GOM also resizes the player window to exactly fit the size of the video frame, even when the idiot who encoded the video file used a really stupid non-standard frame size - a real achievement, that NO other media player can manage!
GOM is VERY user-friendly if you happen to like watching TV (or camcorder) video at the real TV ratio of 4:3. I hate watching letterbox-size (or widescreen) TV if the original image was 4:3, and GOM can correct even for that. Media Player Classic allows manual correction, but GOM's "Screen Sixe" option provides automatic correction.
GOM also has a huge number of user-adjustable settings, making it more customizable than any other media player. This is a big bonus under Windows 9x because I can turn OFF features I don't need, to reduce the load on the CPU.
The only feature I would request is an option to have the GOM player remember its last size, so that if I've been playing a video file at 320x240 in 50% size it opens the GOM player at that size next time. Admittedly, if I run a video file by clicking on the video file, not on GOM, then it does remember my choice to always play any file at 320x240 in 50% size; but sometimes I need to start by running GOM from the .EXE file and then it defaults to opening at 100% size (which, at 640x480, almost fills the whole screen if I'm using an 800x600 screen).
Updated on Apr 21, 2010 -
"One of the best"
Version: GOM Media Player 2.1.21.4846
Pros
One of the three programs that i use.
Cons
Interface/skins
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"Better than WMP?"
Version: GOM Media Player 2.1.21.4846
Pros
For me, on my Dell XPS w/ Vista, it not only loads the application FASTER, but it also loads my 500 song library FASTER and without crash. It also has a surprisingly powerful equalizer and presets.
Cons
No song visualizer and very few plug-ins. Also, for some reason (whether it is human error or the program does not allow it), but I cannot drag and drop my entire music folder into the playlist, like how i can on WMP.
Summary
It is a great programs and loads faster in all aspects than Windows Media Player without the crashing. Not to mention that it is working on a Vista, this program in my own opinion beats out WMP, but only slightly. This program has no plug-ins for enhancers and no downloadable or pre-installed visualisers for music.
I still highly recommend this program for people who just want to play music or watch a movie without long application start up times or crashes. -
"I like it very much"
Version: GOM Media Player 2.1.21.4846
Pros
It can play almost anything I download
Cons
It can't play most Disney movies
Summary
Best so far
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"good quality and easy to load"
Version: GOM Media Player 2.1.21.4846
Pros
straight forward to use
Cons
cannot think of anything bad
Summary
used the system twice and found it to be very functional and easy to use,
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"Very good video Player"
Version: GOM Media Player 2.1.21.4846
Pros
This is one of the best video players specially for HQ. DVDs using lesser cpu compared to Winamp,WMP,KMPlayer and others.Its Deluxe skin is very attractive.
Cons
nothing so far
Summary
It plays most of the video formats and if,any one does not,it helps to download the necessary codecs.Ref. their site: gomlab.com/eng/GMP_Introduction.html
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"it can not record http stream"
Version: GOM Media Player 2.1.21.4846
Pros
It can play http steam, but could not record them.
I use another which be in www.steelsoftlab.comCons
It can play http steam, but could not record them.
I use another which be in www.steelsoftlab.comSummary
It can play http steam, but could not record them.
I use another which be in www.steelsoftlab.com -
"1st time giving a rating. Wanted GOM to get praise."
Version: GOM Media Player 2.1.21.4846
Pros
Plays DVDs best of all 6 media players I've installed on my PC.
Customizable settings to allow max quality/speed.
Well designed user interface. Easy navigation. Appealing design.
note: GOM was the only media player able to fix my DVD lag issuesCons
Annoying ads popped up after finishing install, but it was just that one time.
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"This is Spyware"
Version: GOM Media Player 2.1.21.4846
Pros
It can play movies.
Cons
This video player tries to phone home every single time I open it. I even disabled the internal updater. My firewall keeps logging intrusion attempts from GOM player.
Summary
I would suggest something else. This player is a botnet, plain and simple.
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