[Jim]

Looking for a media player instead of using WMP which in its latest incarnation is more annoying than ever before.
It needs to be a good direct show player that can play everything yet be very easy and basic but not lacking in functionality
If you will, the WMP equivalent of what firefox is to internet explorer

oh yeah and x64 would be nice and all

[Bubba]

VLC is a good, no frills player.

[butters]

As Bubba said but since I have typed it out and refuse to waste it here is my belated reply...

I think VLC Media player should do what you want - pretty sure that it supports x64 (the latest release mentions that it has been ported to the MAC x64 so one assumes that it already runs on M$.

[Jim]

thanks but its not a direct show player

[Bubba]

My bad - it lists "Direct Show" in the features page - is that something different? Forgive my ignorance, I've no idea about what Direct Show is/does.

[slackline]

Do you mean x64 in that it should be 64-bit or is it a typo and it should support the x264 HD codec?

According to the font of all disinformation DirectShow is to be made obsolete by M$'s Media Foundation (no surprises there then, got to keep moving things forward and break backwards compatability to keep the masses buying the latest versions eh?  )

You might want to investigate VLC further as it does have DirectShow API's so you may well get it working with a bit of tweaking.

I was going to suggest MPlayer but I see no mention of DirectShow codecs.

[Tris]

I find KM Player is significantly better than VLC (I have been using VLC for years and years). I run it on my x64 Win 7 machine no probs. It has a lot more functionality and controls than VLC, and can play MKV files much better. VLC stutters with certain MKV's. It also has a basic interface if you don't want all the options.

If you want a true x64 player, media player classic has an x64 version. The interface is pretty dated though...

[Houdini]

FOOBAR 

All formats supported, if not on the standard DL the codec is available; transcoding formats, burning - all piss.