Total Video Player by DVDVideoMedia, 8.4

If it is simplicity that you are after when it comes to choosing a free tool to playback your favorite video and audio files, then Total Video Player is certainly an option to consider. This extremely easy to use media player comes with minimum navigation controls you need to watch any AVI, MPEG, MP4, FLV, DivX, XviD, or WMV video file (among others) and to listen to any WAV or MP3 file.

Total Video Player comes with very limited navigation controls and with no settings to customize your playback experience. As a user, you can merely play, pause, and stop your media files, move to a specific point within the file using the slider provided, and expand the size of the program’s interface to fit your screen. Some users will find this high level of simplicity really useful, though I find it a bit constraining. Being a free tool, it may be a bit unfair to be too hard on the program’s limitations, but considering that the choice of free media players on the web is extensive enough, a number of potential users may probably consider other cost-free options more appealing.

It is just right to say that the choice of formats supported (and their corresponding built-in codecs) is wide enough to attract a number of them to the site, and that is probably what DVDVideoMedia had in mind when they released this free media player. Actually, right where the fast-forward and rewind controls should be, you will find a link to the manufacturer’s Free Video Converter and another link to their website. It is fair to say that there doesn’t seem to be any commercial interest on the developers’ side in luring users to their site, as all the tools they produce are free of charge.

Anyway, though Free Video Player performs as promised and it will cost you nothing to download and install it on your PC, I find it to be of little use to anyone considering adding a playback tool to his or her desktop. All versions of Windows come with their own free media player, all with a more extensive functionality and a nicer look and feel, and a lot of media players will allow you to do a million more things for just the same price.