QuickTime Alternative: A Lean, Mean Replacement for Apple's Multimedia Player Other Multimedia Alternatives Forrest Stroud and Adam Stone
Considering the application is free, QuickTime Alternative offers an impressive array of options and functions, including the ability to bookmark favorite files, adjust volume in the window, track progress of the file, and more. In short, it looks and feels like the competing players, which also are free. The big difference is that QuickTime Alternative, which plays multimedia content via the open source "Media Player Classic" by default, runs flawlessly and without the in-your-face advertisements or stealthy adware components frequently encountered in competing multimedia players.
That being said, it is important to mention some of the other contenders in the field.
UltraPlayer is a clean, competent media player with a simple interface that allows file management with just a few clicks. Rosoft Media Player supports a diverse array of audio and video formats, along with a powerful search function — and a pile of adware, too, unfortunately. Another offering, Ashampoo Media Player, delivers integrated burning support for audio, data, and MP3 CDs, plus a 10-band equalizer for maximum sound quality.
Among the most popular alternative media players is Winamp, a free application with a 10-band graphic equalizer, internet radio and TV support, skins support, and groovy visualizations. In other words, it is chock full of bells and whistles.
But do you need all those bells and whistles if all you really want to do is listen to your bells and whistles? When all is said and done, how much time do you want to spend configuring the skins and setting the bass and treble on your media player? We heartily endorse the maxim that life is too short to spend time configuring skins on a media player.
And that is why we like QuickTime Alternative, especially when paired together with Real Alternative. Both tools are simple and low-maintenance (not to mention, free). They play what we ask them to play — and then leave us alone. And that's exactly what a multimedia player should do.
Pros: All the same functionality as QuickTime without the added bloat and advertisements; freeware; plugins for Internet Explorer, Mozilla, Firefox, and Netscape
Cons: Based on QuickTime, so development will inevitably trail that of QuickTime; can be somewhat buggy and doesn't play all QuickTime content perfectly; only plays QuickTime content (although the companion Real Alternative client does an excellent job of handling RealPlayer, Windows Media, and other multimedia content)
