Splash - Free HD/4K Video Player 2.5.0.0

Overview

Splash Lite is a fully-featured media player that can cover all your music and video playback needs. Its difference with common media players is that it is designed for playing High Definition videos smoothly, without lagging or playback issues. A vast variety of audio and video formats is supported, allowing you to enjoy maximum video quality without having to install any additional codecs, since Splash Lite uses Mirillis’own codecs.

Installation

There is nothing really hard during installation, you just have to watch out for some additional software the program wants to install. In one of the first steps, you will be prompted to choose whether you want to download and install Babylon toolbar for Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome, as well as set Babylon search as the homepage, new tab page and default search provider (for the same browsers). Next, you are asked if you want to install FilesFrog update checker, a software used to keep your drivers up-to-date. In the last step before the main installation begins you have the opportunity to select the audio/video file types you want to associate with the program.

The program can run under Windows XP (SP3), Vista and 7 without problems.

Interface

Like any fresh, intuitive and modern media player, this one has an extremely nice and clean interface. The progress bar and playback buttons are at the bottom, whilst a menu appears at the top when you hover your mouse over it. It has 6 options: Open File, Subtitles, Settings, Playback Options, Watch TV and Go Pro. The last one is for upgrading to the PRO version of the program and the second-to-last option is for watching digital television (DVB-T) if you have a TV card. You can also access those features by right-clicking on the main screen.

Pros

Hardware acceleration is available, if your video card supports it. This is a must-have feature for any HD media player, and with its power Splash Lite allows you to watch H264 HD videos seamlessly. Advanced Deinterlacing is another important feature worth noting, as is the program’s ability to convert 1080i (interlaced) to 1080p (progressive). Many other image post-processing techniques are included (like Motion²) but they are only available in PRO and PRO EX versions of Splash. Of course, Aspect ratio and Lipsync adjustment and Subtitles settings are implemented too. Users with a TV tuner installed can enjoy DVB-T playback as well.

Supported video formats are: AVI, M2T, MTS, M2TS, MKV, MKA, MOV, MP4, MPG, TS, M4V, VOB, DIVX, XVID, WMV and MBT. As for audio files, MP3, MP2, M4A and AAC are supported.

Cons

This version of the program is quite limited. Paid versions have so much more to offer to the user, HD audio codecs for example. In addition, it could support more subtitle formats (currently only TXT, SUB, SRT and SSA are supported).

Alternatives

ArcSoft TotalMedia Theatre (paid) is one of the best media players for HD video playback. It has awesome features, such as SlimHD upscaling technology, which essentially gives you the ability to watch low-resolution videos in HD. With TotalMedia Theatre you can also watch your images and videos in 3D, a function that you rarely find in media players. DVDFab Media Player (paid) is another affordable and reliable product for your HD viewing pleasure.

Conclusion

Even though it has some negative points on its side, it is a lightweight HD media player with rich-features. However, the embedded additional software lowers our rating significantly.