WM Professional media players test
News iconPublished on: 06 October, 2008 by PhoneArena Team
Free ones:
TCPMP
Despite an ugly interface and having support discontinued some time ago , TCPMP is still one of the best video players out there. The main advantage it has is the support for DivX, XviD, MKV videos and the little amount of operational memory it requires. With additional plugins it can even play AC-3 and FLAC files.
The player fails to run on some phones, the OMNIA for example, and since development has ceased there will be no support for future formats. TCMCP is still a great solution used by many in the Windows Mobile community.
Paid:
Core Player:
This is the commercial version of the TCPMP player with support for the latest models and built-in codecs. Its interface is quite good-looking and codec support is still pretty impressive: AVI, DivX, XviD, ASF, MPEG4 and Matroska (.mkv, .mka). High resolution displays (720х480) are not a problem either, and as long as the phone has a fast processor you’ll be able to watch quality video. During our tests with Samsung OMNIA and i-mate 6150 we had no troubles, but with the HTC Wizard playback was too choppy.
Core can also be used as a decent music player with good album art visualization and many options. Add the built-in YouTube support and you’ll realize that the price of $24.95 is fully justified. There’s a free Beta Player application with open source that is expected to come out soon, supposedly, the successor of TCPMP.
Kinoma Play
The main idea of this brand new offering is to combine all the multimedia features of a phone, allowing you to listen to music, watch videos and view photos through the same player. What makes Kinoma Play different from the rest is the support of streaming audio and video from sites such as Digital Podcast, YouTube (including the option to upload your own videos) and ShoutCast. Another handy extra is the built-in picture browser compatible with Flickr, Google and Yahoo images. The interface is well designed and relatively easy to use without a stylus. It also offers an effective transition when opening the menus.
Unfortunately Kinoma Play has limited codec support,far behind Core Player. You can’t watch DivX, XviD or MKV videos which is a serious drawback. That makes Kinoma Play suitable for people interested in web based multimedia, but not in watching quality video. It has the highest price of all the applications mentioned in this article - $30.
Conclusion:
The choice of a multimedia player is actually a very hard task. We think that the free applications are good enough to satisfy the needs of most consumers, but some advanced users may appreciate the extra polish or file support only found in some paid players. Luckily every player we reviewed gives you a trial option, allowing you to form your own opinion before laying down the money.
TCPMP
Despite an ugly interface and having support discontinued some time ago , TCPMP is still one of the best video players out there. The main advantage it has is the support for DivX, XviD, MKV videos and the little amount of operational memory it requires. With additional plugins it can even play AC-3 and FLAC files.
The player fails to run on some phones, the OMNIA for example, and since development has ceased there will be no support for future formats. TCMCP is still a great solution used by many in the Windows Mobile community.
Paid:
Core Player:
Core can also be used as a decent music player with good album art visualization and many options. Add the built-in YouTube support and you’ll realize that the price of $24.95 is fully justified. There’s a free Beta Player application with open source that is expected to come out soon, supposedly, the successor of TCPMP.
Kinoma Play
The main idea of this brand new offering is to combine all the multimedia features of a phone, allowing you to listen to music, watch videos and view photos through the same player. What makes Kinoma Play different from the rest is the support of streaming audio and video from sites such as Digital Podcast, YouTube (including the option to upload your own videos) and ShoutCast. Another handy extra is the built-in picture browser compatible with Flickr, Google and Yahoo images. The interface is well designed and relatively easy to use without a stylus. It also offers an effective transition when opening the menus.
| YouTube | Yahoo Images | Flickr |
Unfortunately Kinoma Play has limited codec support,far behind Core Player. You can’t watch DivX, XviD or MKV videos which is a serious drawback. That makes Kinoma Play suitable for people interested in web based multimedia, but not in watching quality video. It has the highest price of all the applications mentioned in this article - $30.
Conclusion:
The choice of a multimedia player is actually a very hard task. We think that the free applications are good enough to satisfy the needs of most consumers, but some advanced users may appreciate the extra polish or file support only found in some paid players. Luckily every player we reviewed gives you a trial option, allowing you to form your own opinion before laying down the money.
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