GOM Player 2.2

If I were to pick a video player of a high tier, GOM Player would be a good choice. I first stumbled across it while searching for a video player in desperation that I could not for the love of me make some bootlegged movie play. GOM solved the issue by detecting what codec I was missing and pointing me to it on the web. It is fitting to note that in those days bootlegged movie files usually had some sort of glitch that sometimes manifested by crashing the player at certain frame. Unlike others of its ilk, GOM managed to overcome those instances and continue the playback. These feats amazed me and secured GOM Player a place on my computer for years. Do I still use it today? Well no, but that is mainly because I seldom watch movies anymore. I went to see Interstellar recently though and I have some strong opinions about it but this is not the time and page for them. Returning to my original topic...

Minutia

GOM Player's interface is pretty standard looking with the addition of a big button that opens the GOMlab website and two other decent sized buttons that capture still frames and expand the control panel respectively. There is also a transparency slider. I cannot say I've figured out the purpose of watching a semi transparent video, but I guess it's a good idea to have quick access to this control in case of some unfathomable emergency.

In terms of compatibility, GOM can play a variety of formats including DVD's and audio files. It even has a skin specifically designed for a playlist view. In case there is a missing codec, GOM will search for it and give you a download link for you to install it.

Fixing broken files is also something that it handles pretty well, by skipping problematic frames. There are also a couple of tools for fixing bad quality videos such as Chroma and Luma offsets along with some colour optimization presets.

Overall, the aesthetics and black-orange design is pleasing to the eye and fit well with my current wallpaper. The window is also snapping to edges (screen edge or other window edges), something that may work in your advantage if you usually arrange windows in a tile fashion.

The aspect that GOM Player treats in detail is the subtitle function. Not only can you select size, but can set character and line spacing, shadow and outline levels, characters per line, and screen positioning. Speaking of which, after setting up you custom preferences in video, sound, subtitles et caetera, wouldn't it be a shame to lose them after a re installation? GOMlab though the same and provided you with a "Backup Preferences" button. Clicking it will save a "Registration Entry" file that you can load up at any time to restore you settings.

Features

• Codec finder
• Broken video fixer
• Real time Audio & Video effects
• Playlist Interface

Pros

• Awesome skills for making videos run!
• Good subtitle customization tools

Cons

• Nothing notable

Conclusion

GOM Player is perfect for running faulty video files. Further more, is quite capable of running almost any media type you throw at it.