With the uprising of online media websites like YouTube, Netflix, etc., more and more people are getting accustomed to watch videos or movies online. But watching videos online can get stuttered easily because of the internet connection. Therefore, if you want to enjoy 4K movies or higher-resolution videos without sudden pausing, it’s recommended to watch them offline with a powerful video player.
For Windows users, many people have upgraded to Windows 11 for a better experience with advanced features. However, some people reflected that they have met diverse issues on the playback, such as video freezing, blurry video display, unable to play 4K or higher resolution videos. Thus, we are here to introduce top 8 best video player for Windows 11 after strictly testing.
Compatibility: Windows 11/10/8/7, Mac 10.10 or later
Supported formats: WMV, AVI, ASF, RM. 3PG, MPG, MPEG, MP4, TS, MOV, QT, M4V, MTS, FLV, MKV, DV, AMV, AU, DIVX, MP3, M2TS, DIF, NUT, WMA, OGG, AC3, AAC, M4A, AIFF, etc.
Price: free, $9.99 for conversion function
When it comes to the best video player for Windows 11, Cisdem Video Player earns my full support due to its stable performance and smooth playback. It offers a full control bar to play almost all video and audio files for free. You can apply it to play 4K, 5K, 8K, or higher-resolution videos according to your mind. Besides, you can update it to enjoy the conversion function, allowing you to make conversions between almost all popular file formats. But, this is a paid service.
Compatibility: Windows, Mac, Android and iOS
Supported formats: MPEG, AVI, ASF, WMV, WMA, MP4 , MOV, 3GP, OGG, MKV, Real, WAV, MP3, DTS, AAC, AC3, DV, FLAC, FLV, SMF, etc.
Price: free
VLC Media Player is well-known as a free and open-source audio and video player available on cross platforms. This best free video player for Windows 11 can help you play almost all digital audio and video file formats. And it is equipped with some useful features for people, such as VR support, AirPlay, supporting subtitles, etc.
People can master it easily by the simple operation and clear configuration. Besides, this best free media player for Windows 11 can also play CD/DVD, convert digital files and rip unprotected DVDs.
Compatibility: Windows 11/10/8/8.1/7, Android and iOS
Supported formats: MP4, MKV, MOV, AVI, WebM, HEVC, AVC, VP9, etc.
Price: $69.99 for new users, $39.99 for standard users to upgrade
PowerDVD player is well-known as high-quality video picture to create ultimate visual enjoyment for people. This best video player for Windows 11 produces a TuneTheater technology to make people feel watch movies at real theater with stunning picture and audio quality. Thus, if you to watch 4K and 8K videos without shuttering, you can try to use PowerDVD. Besides, it offers a big free cloud storage up to 100GB for people to watch favorite movies at will.
Compatibility: Windows and Mac
Supported formats: 3GP, DIVX, AVI, M2T, M2TS, FLV, MKV, MTV, MPEG, OGM, SWF, RMVB, VOB, etc.
Just as the names shows, this player is proficient in playing 5K, 4K, 1080P videos, which can play videos easily by only dragging and dropping. It also offers the features that most powerful 4k video player for Windows 11 provides, such as 360-degree video playback, adding subtitles, sharing files through wireless stream.
What’s more, it is able to download online videos from 300+ streaming websites, stream DVD and AirPlay.However, only media player service is free.
Compatibility: Windows and Mac
Supported formats: DivX, MKV, MP4, AVI, MP3, AC3, etc.
Price: free, RMB 99.99 for DivX pro
DivX Player is a decent 4K video player for Windows 11 to play popular video formats such as AVI, DIVX, MKV and MP4 with high quality up to 4K. It allows you to cast and watch the videos in big screen, which must be compatible with DLNA devices. Also, You can use it to convert various video formats to DivX, MP4, HEVC and MKV files. But if you want enjoy more privileges, you should move to the pro version, which permits you to view videos from the cloud, clear ad, enjoy higher audio quality in DTS-HD, etc.
Compatibility: Windows, Android and iOS
Supported formats: CDs, MP3, M4A, FLAC, OGG, WMA, ALAC, MPC, APE, AVI, MP4, WMV, MKV, etc.
Price: $59.95
MediaMonkey is a powerful media player for Windows 11 that offers miscellaneous features to play a wealth of video and audio files. This excellent player can not only play different videos with freaking high quality, but also allows you to convert files, and stream media files to big screen for a better enjoyment. Besides, this best video player for Windows 11 can be also used as a great media organizer, which helps you customize and archive videos, audios and playlists in your fully control.
Compatibility: Windows, Mac, and Linux
Supported formats: VCD, DVD, MPEG-1/2, AVI, ASF, WMV, WMA, QT, MOV, MP4, Ogg, OGM, MKT, NUT, etc.
Price: Free
SMPlayer is a free video player that available on multiple platforms, allowing you to play a variety of video formats without installing third-party tools. The highlight feature of this best free video player for Windows 11 is that it supports searching and save the needed subtitles from opensubtitles.org. Plus, it offers a couple of skins and 30+ languages for users to set a suitable outfit.
Compatibility: Windows
Supported formats: DivX, AMV, AVI, MTS, MPEG, WMV, ASF, DPG,WMV, M2V, AAC, MP3, RA, WAV, M4A, FLAC, OGG, MOD, WMA, etc.
Price: free
Pot player is a superior free video player for Windows 11 that supports playing numerous video types. It is widely regarded as a powerful alternative of VLC Media Player, which supports more media formats, offers a clearer interface, works faster without installing third-party plugins. The biggest highlight of PotPlayer is that it supports OpenCodec, which can help you update and install extra codecs automatically.
This best free video player for Windows 11 can be also used as a a screen recorder and video editor. Due to various features it provides, it is designed with a bunch of setting icons on the interface, which may lead a tricky process for people.
Yes, Windows 11 owns 3 media players by default, which are Media Player, Movies&TV app and Windows Media Player.
Media Player works greatly on Windows 11 by default, which capable of playing a variety of audio and video formats smoothly, such as MP4, MOV, AVI, WMV, MKV, FLAC, OGG, AAC, WMA, etc. One the one hand, it is able to detect and sync all your local media library to it after installation. One the other hand, it is equipped with basic settings for controlling the playback, such as showing basic information, creating playlists, adjusting playback speed and so on.
Movies&TV app is another workable default player for Windows 10 and 11, which helps people to easily access existed music or videos on local device or allows people to purchase media sources from Windows store. It is consisted of 3 sections for people to master it easily, which are TV, Movies and Videos. Although it only supports playing a few file formats like M4V, MP4, MOV, ASF and AVI, it can play videos up to 8K resolution.
Besides playing high-quality contents, it can be also used to play 360-degree videos. During the playback process, it allows you to upload subtitles, skip backward/forward, etc. But, it is inevitable to encounter some playback issues, including video-stuttered, black screen, and no sound.
Windows Media Player is a powerful default player that can play almost all file formats, like MP4, AVI, MOV, H.264, MKV, ACVHD, etc., and also can play DVD Blu-ray sources without limitation. Also, it prepares rich customization features for you to manage the playback, like play forward/backward, different playback speed options, and so on. But, it asks you to download it manually on Windows 11.
If you fail to play video on Windows 11, you can consider the causes from multiple respects, for example: unexpected malware, incompatible system settings, old video graphics driver, unsupported file formats, outdated or incompatible video players, and corrupted media files. Accordingly, there are mainly 3 solutions for you to eliminate all these issues.
Solution 1. Check for Windows Update and make sure an effective Windows 11 Media player is installed.
Solution 2. Change settings in Windows 11 to make your media player workable, specifically:
1. Close video processing feature on Windows 11 if your hardware is not compatible with this feature
2. Enable video playback Troubleshoot to scan and solve the playback issues
3. Check for display drivers and update it to show the best graphical interface and videos
Solution 3. Change the format codec or use another reliable player that can play more file formats to play the files. In this case, you can take the aforementioned media players into consideration.
This article has specifically introduced the pros and cons of these top 8 video players for Windows 11 respectively, hoping to be of great help to you to enjoy any movies smoothly. All of them can assist you to watch 4K movies or higher definition movies on Windows 11, for example, Cisdem Video Player, which can not only overcome those playback issues on Windows 11, but also gives you high quality screen and rich customization features to enjoy any videos for free.
Jenny is a technology editor who has been blogging since she was a student. Since joining Cisdem, she focuses on writing articles about video software and how-to guides. She loves exploring new tools and techniques.
Free Download
Free Download