Windows 11 New Media Player Uses 3.5x More RAM, Charges for Popular Video Codecs

#1

Post by tcp_handshaker » Sat, Jun 20, 2026, 2:08 PM UTC

Windows 11 New Media Player Uses 3.5x More RAM, Charges for Popular Video Codecs
extremetech.com

Re: Windows 11 New Media Player Uses 3.5x More RAM, Charges for Popular Video Codecs

#2

Post by megamike » Sat, Jun 20, 2026, 2:15 PM UTC

Is vlc still popular and widely used or is there a new 'kid' in town?

Re: Windows 11 New Media Player Uses 3.5x More RAM, Charges for Popular Video Codecs

#3

Post by functionmouse » Sat, Jun 20, 2026, 2:15 PM UTC

[flagged]

Re: Windows 11 New Media Player Uses 3.5x More RAM, Charges for Popular Video Codecs

#4

Post by functionmouse » Sat, Jun 20, 2026, 2:16 PM UTC

megamike wrote: post #2

Is vlc still popular and widely used or is there a new 'kid' in town?

mpv is really good but a little light on the GUI; I recommend VLC for most people

Re: Windows 11 New Media Player Uses 3.5x More RAM, Charges for Popular Video Codecs

#5

Post by rf15 » Sat, Jun 20, 2026, 3:27 PM UTC

functionmouse wrote: post #3

[flagged]

I switched to OpenSUSE this year. Good bye, Torment Nexus.

Re: Windows 11 New Media Player Uses 3.5x More RAM, Charges for Popular Video Codecs

#6

Post by MiracleRabbit » Sat, Jun 20, 2026, 3:36 PM UTC

rf15 wrote: post #5

functionmouse wrote: post #3

[flagged]

I switched to OpenSUSE this year. Good bye, Torment Nexus.

Sadly you have to install the codecs from external sites.

This - at least for me - messes up the rolling release stuff at least one a month.

Re: Windows 11 New Media Player Uses 3.5x More RAM, Charges for Popular Video Codecs

#7

Post by epistasis » Sat, Jun 20, 2026, 3:43 PM UTC

functionmouse wrote: post #3

[flagged]

The "power user" group which was traditionally completely Windows users is seeing some shifts to Linux. Linus Tech Tips' recent Linux switch tests went really well for Linux:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8KQFgWdiudo

Linux on the desktop is close, and Windows is getting a lot lot worse.

Re: Windows 11 New Media Player Uses 3.5x More RAM, Charges for Popular Video Codecs

#8

Post by herf » Sat, Jun 20, 2026, 3:47 PM UTC

HEVC used to be a capped license per organization, so not providing it in the OS seems really harmful and expensive. Has the cap changed recently?

Re: Windows 11 New Media Player Uses 3.5x More RAM, Charges for Popular Video Codecs

#9

Post by close04 » Sat, Jun 20, 2026, 3:48 PM UTC

functionmouse wrote: post #3

[flagged]

I think Media Player is there just to have a built in option. Can’t say I’ve ever seen anyone use it, even non-techies install some other player in my experience.

The lack of codecs takes us back 20 years when everyone was installing codec packs. Both the Dolby and HEVC extensions now come from alternative codec packs. Not a real problem but does signal a degradation of the experience to the level that was usually considered the “downside” for Linux.

Always a good idea to run alternatives to every software that might pull the rug from under you. Always be ready to switch when the experience starts to stink.

Re: Windows 11 New Media Player Uses 3.5x More RAM, Charges for Popular Video Codecs

#10

Post by magicalhippo » Sat, Jun 20, 2026, 3:49 PM UTC

megamike wrote: post #2

Is vlc still popular and widely used or is there a new 'kid' in town?

Well there's an old kid in town, MPC-HC is still being maintained[1] to the great joy for us who dislike the VLC UX.

[1]: https://github.com/clsid2/mpc-hc/