Movie Spot

excellent
key review info
application features
  • You can load video and playlist files by Drag'n'Drop or command line parameters;
  • (5 more, see all...)

Playing your videos on your computer has become a simple matter of choosing a video player that supports as many file formats as possible. Generally, I use several video players depending on the format of the video file. For DVD video playing I use Power DVD exclusively (despite the fact that WinDVD is more to my taste). As for all the other formats, I usually work with GOM Player or MV2 player. These are the video players that best suit my needs.

But every once in a while I like to see what are the new players up to, how do they handle different file formats, subtitles etc. There is no arguing about the variety of choice in this category. And once a user has discovered a good video player s/he tries to stick with it.

Movie Spot is a very light and configurable software designed exclusively for playing video formats as varied as possible. It is free and can be used in any environment you like, no questions asked. The open source is capable of playing a number of 22 video formats and supports adding new file types to the list. All you need to play them are the necessary codecs. These include the popular formats AVI, DIVX, M1V, M2V, MKV, MP$, MOV, QT, WMV, ASF or FLV.

The interface is nice and simple and it covers the necessary controls for handling the video. It may seem a little odd that the close and minimize buttons are not located in the traditional spot (top right hand corner) but in the opposite side of the application window. That's not a baddie, but most of us are used to having them in the habitual place.

Once you have installed the program, it will automatically associate all the supported file types with it. Now this is pretty bold as some of the users may feel like using it only for specific file types and not all of them. This can be fixed by going into the configuration menu and deselecting the file types you do not want to be associated with Movie Spot.

The main window of the player offers a number of options that are traditionally encountered in such softwares like Open Movie/Subtitles, play controls (rewind, play, forward, pause and stop). The volume can be adjusted in the right hand bottom corner.

For opening a video file the developer provided a faster way by clicking on the No Movie message displayed in the upper left side. The same is available for opening the subtitles. Movie Info section presents the aspect ratio and the FPS (Frame Per Second) of the video.

Going into the context menu, things are getting a little complicated as the list of options available could make it a worthy opponent for more popular video players. Bookmarks are designed to mark a certain part of the video. It can be used when you do not have time to see the entire movie and want to resume the watching later. Jump to time option can be used in the same way, but you will have to remember the time you want to jump to.

Video options includes changing the resolution, turning to fullscreen, color control (brightness, hue, saturation and contrast), movie mode and aspect ratio. Audio contains an equalizer (not too common for video players) and dynamic amplification (I suggest using it if you have a hi-fi sound system).

What would a movie be without subtitles? Movie Spot supports them and if they are desynced with the video and sound you can adjust them by increasing or decreasing the time by 0.5 sec. The font can be configured in terms of color and size.

What makes Movie Spot different from other video players is the direct access to filters like AC3, DivX Decoder, or MP3 decoder and Video Window. These will help you make the most of your movie experience.

Setting up the software is done in the Configuration menu (right click in the movie window or the software window). The four options available allow the user to choose the video formats to be associated with the application, subtitle/video related options or general options. Movie Spot can remember the movie settings, position, close the file when finished, allow multiple instances or auto play the files. Giving a transparent background for the subtitles and enabling the outline font will render better visibility. If the font line is too long Movie Spot can automatically resize it to fit the video window. In Video section, the options provided can set automatic PanScan, enable the OSD display, pause on minimize (very useful option).

Unfortunately, there is no support for playing DVDs. I've been looking for a free player that supports DVD playing and menus navigation. This is one of the few soft spots of the player. Another one would be the fact that you will have to install the codecs on your computer so that the files can be opened (MV2 player has the same weakness).

The Good

The application is free and uses little resources. The generous number of file types makes it suitable for almost all sorts of video formats.

The Bad

There is no support for DVD playing. However, the application is in version 0.58 so it can incorporate in future versions all the missing components.

The Truth

Movie Spot is highly configurable and extremely stable.

Here are some snapshots of the application in action:

Review image
Review image
Review image
Review image

Review image
Review image
Review image
Review image
user interface 5
features 4
ease of use 5
pricing / value 5


final rating 5
Editor's review
excellent