Media Player Classic (Windows, Free) # Downlord
Media Player Classic started out as a project to preserve the
simplicity and lightweight playback of the old Windows Media Player
while keeping codecs and features current for the present generation of
video. The outcome is an extremely lightweight, free, portable, and
self-contained video player that has built-in codecs for a wide variety
of media playback. The upside of such a design is you can use it on a
machine that doesn't have the proper codecs installed for the video you
want to watch. The downside is in some instances—although rare—it can
conflict with an updated codec you have installed on your machine.

Originally designed to fill the void of a lack of adequate Linux media
players, the development for the robust media player MPlayer has
branched out and now includes versions for Windows and Mac, among
others. MPlayer supports a wide variety of content and, perhaps owing to
its Linux roots, pays extra close attention to hardware and hardware
optimization to squeeze the most playback power out of your system.

GOM Player is another entrant in this week's Hive that, like VLC,
excels at playing damaged and incomplete video. Originally designed as
the streaming media player for GOM-TV, a Korean TV network, it is
available outside of Korea with the GOM-TV streaming functionality
disabled—although folks outside Korea still have access to the live
streaming of
StarCraft
matches (StarCraft is so wildly popular among Koreans playing it is
practically a national sport). GOM Player also includes a wide variety
of sub-title tweaks, an important feature for a player from a country
that consumes a lots of foreign media.
VLC (Windows/Mac/Linux, Free) # Downlord
VLC is a media player with far-reaching appeal. It is available for
over ten operating systems including systems as obscure as BeOS. Built
with open-source code and fueled by free decoding and encoding
libraries, it has a history of innovation and performance; it was, for
example, the first player that could play back encrypted DVDs on Linux.
VLC allows you to play incomplete or damaged videos, so you can decide
if it is worth finishing a download or repairing a video file. VLC can
also play a variety of formats not commonly supported by media players,
such as a raw DVD ISO file or AVCHD—a format currently used by many HD
camcorders. VLC is available as a portable application.

If
you like all your media player's settings at your fingertips, KMPlayer
has a lot to offer. The right click context menu is absolutely enormous
and gives you nearly instant access to all manner of settings, including
screen ratio, playback speed, video bookmarking, filters, and other
effects. You can set KMPlayer to change its skin based on what media
type you're playing or if you're running it on a media center you can
use an overlay skin to provide easy remote-based navigation. KMPlayer
supports an extensive number of formats including DVD playback and is
easily customized to your specific needs.