I dubbed off all my DVDs into ISO files onto a network attached storage and I just play them from there using a Logitech harmony remote. You know what works really well is the Western Digital live player and ISO files. But if you're an experienced user, I recommend one or all of these five options because they have a lot more power user options packed into them. Because of this, the aforementioned alternatives end up being great free replacements.Īlso, if your computer came with a bunch of extra bloatware from the manufacturer, chances are it has DVD playback software which you can always use. The company is definitely phasing out Media Player and pushing its new Xbox video and music services. But now it's an extra add-on which will only work on Windows 8 Pro and will cost you $9.99. It was free for a short time when the new OS was initially released for US$39.99. It's no longer included in Windows 8, and it isn't free anymore either.

One program I didn't mention here is Windows 8 Media Player. If you like to customize your Windows experience, you should know that all of these players can be skinned with different custom themes.

So definitely make sure you're paying attention during the installation process. However, the main thing you need to look out for on a few of them is the extra bundled software they try to throw in.

It also supports Blu-ray playback, so if you're looking for a free program for Blu-ray, PotPlayer is a good choice.Īll five of these programs are fairly similar, and work great for playing DVDs on Windows 8. As with the others in this list, it supports DVD playback as well as a large number of file video and audio file formats. Daum PotPlayer is a lot like KMPlayer, allowing for easy DVD playback on Windows 8 as well as tons of power under the hoodĭaum PotPlayer is currently in beta and it feels a lot like KMPlayer, which is no big surprise considering it's from the same developer.

Apple dvd player application