Splash Player for HD Video
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Splash player is the continuation to the old discontinued Oxygen media player project. The Splash player has a similar user interface as the Oxygen player, but the decoders for the h.264 and AVCHD video files are much faster. If you own a HD camcorder and have a challenge in playing AVCHD high definition video files on your PC, you will be pleasantly surprised with the Splash player.
First impression – easy to use and polished
On first impression the Splash player feels like a polished KMPlayer. I have introduced the KMPlayer earlier and it seems that Splash player is indeed worthy competitor to other media players with it’s polished user interface and low entry barrier. It seems that this media player is designed more to common people rather than only for technology experts. To get started, Splash is very easy to setup, actually there is nothing to set up. Once you install it you are ready to start playing media files.
Fast AVCHD playback out of the box
As the first test, I took my 1080i M2TS and M2T video files that are recorded with my Sony HD camcorder. With my older core2duo 1.8 GHz laptop, only the KMPlayer thus far with the CoreAVC codec has being able to play these files smoothly. Without touching any of the settings, the Splash player was immediately capable of playing the both M2TS and M2T files smoothly. This is a very good achievement, so it seems that Splash is one of the faster media players in the market.
Truly next generation player
Splash player is truly a next generation player, with less confusing options compared to the VLC, Media Player Classic or the KMPlayer. In addition, Splash player has a multi-thread and hardware optimization, which makes it very fast particularly on slower computers. There is also best quality setting for video to make 1080p from 1080i streams. This seems to make good improvement on the video quality while still does not consume too much CPU performance.
Pros
- Very fast AVCHD and h.264 playback (software decoding)
- Stylish and smooth user interface
- Fast application start time
- Simple to configure. In fact, you do not need to configure it at all to get started
- Fully functional Splash lite version is free
Cons
- De-interlacing was not perfect on AVCHD interlaced content
- Some horizontal waves was shown on the screen without possibility to force deinterlace.
- No media library function
Conclusion
I have to conclude that on my older core2duo 1.8 GHz laptop, the Splash player by Mirillis is far better than more well known VLC and Media Player Classic in terms of AVCHD video playback performance. The Splash player plays M2TS files better than the KMPlayer or any other media player I have tried. You can download the Splash player from the official website here.
Before downloading the Splash player, read also the other guide on how to play HD video on slow computer.
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