There are a lot of free third-party media players and PotPlayer is another great option for both video and music playback.

While most people listen to streaming music or video now, there are occasions when you do not have a data connection and locally stored files are your only option. PotPlayer is an excellent media player that can handle a large variety of media file types.

Playback quality will depend on the hardware the program is installed on, but in tests, PotPlayer had no problem playing a 1.6 GB MOV file, 865 MB MKV, or a 1.4 GB AVI. Smaller files should play back without any issues as well. You can toggle file information and see an in-depth breakdown of file information including CPU usage.

There is subtitle support in PotPlayer for .ass and .srt files and will natively play subtitles if they are located in the same folder as the video file. The amount of options in PotPlayer are great. You can optimize PotPlayer to get the best performance, but the default settings work fine for the majority of videos.

PotPlayer can also play audio files. It includes default visualizations or you can download more online. The program provides a lot of information about the audio file like bitrate, file type, and the number of channels. Like other media players, there are also audio presets for the equalizer and they all work pretty well. It it is not a substitute for a good stereo, but does have an effect on the audio.

The program is by Daum, a Korean company, but the program is presented entirely in English during and after installation. One annoyance is that PotPlayer does not show in the taskbar, only in the notification area, so to use the program, you either have to have it running in an open section on your screen or find it in notifications.

PotPlayer is a good alternative to first party media players. The stable build has a large variety of supported formats and the quality of playback is excellent for both video and audio.