best free replacements for Windows Media Player

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in the past you needed to use several separate programs to play MP3 files, streaming media from Real, Mpeg files, Quicktime movies, CDs and DVD discs. But with the advent of Microsoft's Windows Media Player (WMP), all of these media types could be played in one player. Over a period of time, however, WMP for XP and Vista has become bloated and isn't compatible with all of the available file formats. Then along came WinAmp, which began as an mp3 player but now plays almost everything, although it uses a lot of system resources and may contain adware if you aren't careful on the installation. With the ever-increasing popularity of iPods, iTunes has become more prevalent on many PCs, but it also uses a lot of resources and is processor intensive. So I've done some major research to find alternative media players capable of playing all of these media formats. I was impressed, because what I found not only replaced but also exceeded the functionality of WMP, WinAmp and iTunes. The products that I've reviewed here are capable of playing multiple types of media files, including various digital audio and video formats, CDs, and DVDs.

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