ImPlay

When it comes to media players, there are various alternatives out there for you to choose from. Aside from the major players in this field, there are also less popular alternatives, some even open source, that are worth your while. One of them is ImPlay, a cross-platform multimedia player with support for multiple formats, featuring playlist creation, advanced playback controls and video editing capabilities.

ImPlay is easily installed on a 64-bit Windows system. Following the straightforward setup process, the application opens up its simple GUI with no menus and no options. Intuitively, you might start left and right clicking within the main window, which reveals the application’s menu, the only way to configure and control it.

You can start by creating a new playlist, which requires you to add either a folder or multiple files. They are all displayed in the “Playlist” menu. Unfortunately, there is no way to save the playlist, but you can toggle it and pin it in the main window, which makes jumping from one file to another much easier. Playlist shuffle and looping is possible.

What is noticeable about ImPlay is its playback editing tools. It comes with options to rotate and scale the video, modify its size or height, or change the aspect ratio. Moreover, the built-in equalizer allows changing parameters such as the brightness and the contrast, saturation, gamma and hue. HW decoding and deinterlacing are also available.

As expected, ImPlay supports loading subtitles as well. It is worth mentioning that you can delay the subtitles in case it is not fully synchronized with the video. In other words, you don’t need a subtitle editor to keep the subtitles and the video in sync, as you can do it all with just a click in ImPlay.

Given the array of options it comes with, ImPlay proves to be a promising alternative to popular media players. With multiple playback controls and editing tools, and a good command palette available, this multimedia player is worth trying.