When you want to play media, films and music, there are tons of possibilities at your disposal. Windows Media Player, RealPlayer, VideoLAN and Media Player Classic are just some of the available software suites.

It’s hard to determine ‘the best’ piece of software amongst the bunch, because this is a very subjective matter (see MakeUseOf Poll on the best music player), but there are several reasons why the Kantaris media player does it for me.

Kantaris

Kantaris is a free piece of software developed by Christofer Persson, the same person who created the predecessor of PSP Updates. It’s an all-in media player that’s based on code from the VideoLAN Client (VLC) and Bass Audio Library.

In very simple terms, Kantaris modifies and upgrades the celebrated VLC player with a slick new user interface. It also integrates several new functions, like support and integration of Last.fm and Apple Trailers. You can use Kantaris to play files, folders, DVDs and CDs, or you can stream video or audio from a server.

For the latter, it suffices to supply Kantaris with the URL of the file or stream in question.

Integrated Codecs

Kantaris is a media player with integrated codecs. This means you can play nearly any imaginable media file without the usual hassle of finding and downloading the correct codec packs.

Supported formats include AVI, MPEG, MGEG-AVC, WMV, MOV, MKV, Matroska, Divx, Xvid, H264, MP3, WMA, OGG files and more.

Apple Trailers

I don’t know about you, but I’ve always prefered the Apple site as a trailer source. The trailers are MOV files, but they can stream in incredible quality. Kantaris has integrated Apple Trailers in the application and it is like a dream come true.

You can browse through the different trailers in a 3D gallery, similar to Cooliris. Unfortunately, a search option is not yet included, as Kantaris simply crawls about most recent trailers. This makes it a great tool to waste some time, but far from ideal as a more specific information source.

Once you’ve selected a trailer, you can view a summary and some specifics. With a click of a button, the trailer then starts streaming to your application.

Conclusion

Kantaris brings us a blend of VLC and Windows Media Player. Still a little bit rough around the edges, it’s a slick and versatile media player. Where the application lacks some of the more advanced features of both aforementioned applications, it makes up for it by integrating Apple Trailers and Last.fm, and introducing an innovative and user-friendly interface.

Unlike VLC, which is open source, Kantaris only works on Windows 2000, XP and Vista.

What do you think, hot or not? Tell us below which is your choice of media player, and why!

(By) Simon is a student and tech enthusiast from Belgium. On MakeUseOf, he’s the primary gaming writer and eBook editor. Check Simon out @ http://meme.yahoo.com/slangen/

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