[mikeSiLVO]

The benefit, for me, is not a matter of what the player plays, but rather in how the player plays the video file.

DSPlayer has the advantage of using madVR and LAV filters to split then render the video files. I can have much, much more control of the shaders used, the pre and post processing, the upscaling and downscaling, the audio quality and mixing features, etc, etc.... The most powerful benefit is that in the end, I can use my graphics card to it's fullest potential, taking a lot of strain off the cores in my CPU. Picture quality increases, and CPU overhead decreases....

If perchance I happen across something that DSPlayer won't play ( which has not happened yet, it plays everything I have thrown at it, including x265 files ), there are pre-configured rules and exceptions that enable the branch to fall back to using the stock DVDplayer in Kodi. The community build didn't get rid of the stock DVDplayer, it just added another, much more configurable primary player to it.

It takes about 20 minutes to set DSPlayer up so that it uses madVR and LAV correctly, but well worth the time and effort. There is a great step-by-step tutorial showing how to configure the DSPlayer branch of Kodi using madVR and LAV. And now that I know Mike's excellent skin works with DSPlayer, it's an outstanding combination of features for me!

One caveat here.... DSPlayer will only really shine if you have a mid to high grade graphics card in your Windows system.

Just one man's opinion.......

Now it is my turn for a question

When using this can you still use the screenshot button? I understand how this all works but am not clear on if it renders the video in place of the standard internal player or does it minimize Kodi and start a new player in its place and then return to Kodi when playback is finished