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Pick your Favorite Media Player Software for Playing Audio and Video

Here are some of most popular media player software along with a quick description of their features. They help you play audio/video files, organize your digital media collection, rip or burn CDs, play videos in full screen and much much more.

Which one of these media player is your favorite ? Please tell us through this quick 10 second poll. (If your personal favorite is missing in this list, do mention the name in the "Others" category).

Windows Media Player - This popular digital media player from Microsoft can play most common audio-video formats, audio CDs and DVDs. WMP can be also used for copy tracks from music CDs to your computer or for burning new CDs with your music files. Excellent support for organizing music through tags and ratings.

Media Player Classic - It's like the light-weight edition of the official Windows Media Player from Microsoft. Once you install the k-lite codecs separately, the Media Player Classic can play most video formats including Quicktime and Real Media. Everything is great about this software except the interface which is so 90s.

VideoLan VLC Media Player - It can play almost every audio and video file format (including Flash Video), records streaming videos and music, rip DVDs and can also capture screenshots from DVD movies. Available for all platforms.

WinAmp Media Player - The most popular MP3 player that can also play video files in Full screen mode.  Winamp also supports streaming media content and ripping of Audio CDs. This media player probably has the largest number of skins, visualizations and plug-ins than any other media player.

iTunes + Quicktime - If you have an iPod, you probably need this media player from Apple. Good interface, excellent support for podcast feeds but this Apple jukebox has a slightly large memory footprint. Best features include Smart playlists, seamless integration with iPod (and now iPhone) plus it can backup your entire digital media collection into DVD disks.

Miro (formerly, Democracy Player) - Like iTunes, you can use Miro to subscribe and download Audio or Video podcasts.  Miro supports full-screen mode, can play virtually all video formats, supports file downloads via BitTorrent and best of all, it search and save videos from most video sharing sites and watch them for new videos.

JetAudio 7 - Can play most audio and video formats, convert among audio file formats, cross-fading for a smooth transition between two songs and CD burning support.

GOM Media Player - GOM Player supports file formats such as AVI, DAT, MPEG, DivX, XviD, WMV, ASF and even FLV video. 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.  Can also take screen captures of the current video frame.

Real Player 11 - The new version can rip video clips from YouTube and other video sharing sites and downloads them offline in the background. A lot of streaming audio content on sites like BBC is still available in Real format so you probably need the Real Player on your system.

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