RadLight Media Player Stops Short

In my never-ending search for the perfect media player, the latest entry is Radlight, a decent but ultimately unfulfilling contestant. The interface is easy to navigate (especially the "Oldskool" skin, which mimics Windows Media Player)--it doesn't overwhelm you with options as KM Player does--and the player handles basic playback chores and file types nicely.

RadLight played OGG, APE, WMA, and MP3 files with its own internal CODECs, but it didn't handle FLAC. It played 16- and 32-bit wave files but not 24-bit (a common DAW format) types. However, the biggest disappointment was that the program didn't seem to support DirectShow filters. I had Xvid, Quicktime Light, and Real Alternative installed and RadLight still wouldn't play RM, MOV or Xvid supported files. That said, the player did a nice job with subtitles in the MPEG files it did play.

Ultimately, though I liked its interface and layout, RadLight lacked the versatile codec support I consider essential. There's an ad-supported Pro version available which adds more convenience features--or you can pony up $35 and skip the ads.

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In my never-ending search for the perfect media player, the latest entry is Radlight, a decent but ultimately unfulfilling contestant. The interface is easy to navigate (especially the "Oldskool" skin, which mimics Windows Media Player)--it doesn't overwhelm you with options as KM Player does--and the player handles basic playback chores and file types nicely.

RadLight played OGG, APE, WMA, and MP3 files with its own internal CODECs, but it didn't handle FLAC. It played 16- and 32-bit wave files but not 24-bit (a common DAW format) types. However, the biggest disappointment was that the program didn't seem to support DirectShow filters. I had Xvid, Quicktime Light, and Real Alternative installed and RadLight still wouldn't play RM, MOV or Xvid supported files. That said, the player did a nice job with subtitles in the MPEG files it did play.

Ultimately, though I liked its interface and layout, RadLight lacked the versatile codec support I consider essential. There's an ad-supported Pro version available which adds more convenience features--or you can pony up $35 and skip the ads.

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