[FFWD]

Let me explain what do I mean compatibility in mind: I'm on a Windows desktop now, but I'm not married top it. I'd consider myself a power user needing some advanced features of desktop media players. If and when I find a good setup for Windows, preferably I would like to be able to transfer my setup to any other popular desktop operating system.

Now let's get into it! The three main desktop media players (for Windows, at least) I'm aware of are: MPC-HC (Windows only), MPlayer (which is a command line application at its core with various GUIs, SMplayer being the dominant one for Windows), and VLC (cross compatible).

I'm having trouble with a little bit of all of them:

MPC-HC: When seeking in a video, the media often gets blurred. On a simple video, like an MP4 downloaded from YouTube. Did I mention that it's Windows only and I'd like a cross compatible one?

MPlayer might be fine (videos render smooth even with seeking, unlike MPC-HC), but the popular Windows SMPlayer GUI is totally counter-intuitive to me.

VLC: I used it a long time ago, I forgot why I stopped using it, but probably I had a good reason. For one, it isn't really recommended for power users, is it?

Now I don't even know what's the relation of Kodi to any of these three? Is there any other major one that I should know of and I missed?

[nickr]

Kodi is different to all three. But shares with mplayer and VLC being based on ffmpeg. Try it and see.

[User 182116]

Unfortunately the opening post does not really help with what the post title asks for.

They describe themselves as a power user without any clarification of what such an ambiguous term means in their eyes.

Then they describe the 3 main operating systems, none of which are operating systems but I'm guessing a typo as I suspect most users would be able to differentiate betwen media players and operating systems.

They want cross compatibilty, so why mention anything that is restricted to just one, when from the specified requirements, it's a non starter.

Then they make the one statement that would probably make anybody want a facepalm meme.

"VLC: I used it a long time ago, I forgot why I stopped using it, but probably I had a good reason. For one, it isn't really recommended for power users, is it?"

Well here is an idea.

If you do just a tad of research, you will see that the cross platform VLC has gone thtough many updates over the "long time" that you have not used it and surely it is worth the small amount of effort in terms of power utilisation to actually install the latest version(s) and see if the unknown reason that you stopped using it so long ago is still present.

It might just shortcut further research if when testing across the platforms of interest that it has all the power user functionality that you desire.

Personally I would not describe SMplayer as being the dominant one for windows but this of course will be up for wide interpretation of perceptions.

Does Kodi not offer enough features across it's many supported platforms to satisfy your requirements?

My palm is truly in my face with this one.

[PatK]

The obvious elephant in the room is that the question is posted in a Kodi forum.

I suspect the op is trying to re-affirm that Kodi is in the top tier of players, and needs the comfort of knowledgeable users that it indeed does answer some of his concerns. Yes, I can assure the op, that Kodi plays almost everything that is thrown at it and is still being supported and in development for even richer features. As a stand-alone media player, Kodi utilizes the best of open source and will continue the love of media with it's advancments.

Most of the 'players' mentioned, do not have media management integrated, but Kodi can utilize any or all player externally; including PotPlayer, Zoom Player, Gom etc. Don't have time for something as good as Kodi? You will one day.

Please have a gander at https://kodi.tv/about