Potplayer - Best settings

Tutorial on how to do basic setting in Daum Potplayer app for better media playback.

Potplayer offers a lot of configuration options to the user.

OS : Windows 10 Pro x64
Software : PotPlayer 1.7.21396

To open Potplayer Preferences windows, do the followings:

Open Potplayer dropdown menu.
Select Preferences. ( Shortcut key : F5 )

1. Add custom configuration

This preserves the default settings in configuration file named Default preset which you can activate later on.

To add custom settings, do the followings:

Select Configuration tab.
Click Add button.
Select the preset named Option 1.
Click on Activate button.
Click on Apply button.

2. Set Potplayer window to remain on top while playing a media file

Select General tab
Set While playing in the drop down menu labelled Stay on top.

3. Set Potplayer to run only one instance

If you don't want Potplayer to open multiple instances of itself for playing media files then do the following:

Set Multiple instances to Disable: Play files in existing Potplayer instance.

4. On Screen Control

You can enable the display of controls on the video screen itself.

On Screen Control Method options:

Disable : Selecting this option will disable use of On screen Control.
Enable Direct3D9 Mode : It will use Direct3D 9 API for displaying On screen Control.
Enable Direct3D11 Mode : Using Direct3D11 for on screen control, will enforce use of Built-in Direct3D11 Video renderer.
Enable OpenGL Mode : Using OpenGL for on screen control, will enforce use of Built-in OpenGL Video renderer.
Enable Layered Window Mode : Use layered window for display of On screen Control.

Recommenced : Direct3D9 Mode or Layered Window Mode

To Enable On screen control, do the followings:

Select General > Skin Advanced tab.
Select an option from the drop down list labelled On Screen Control > Method.

5. Default window size setting

Default window size setting control the size of the Potplayer window during video playback.

Select Playback tab.
Select option Do not use for Default window size.

6. Show thumbnail preview on navigation bar

If you want Potplayer to show the thumbnail preview of the video file being played in the Potplayer navigation bar, then do the following :

Select Playback tab.
Enable Show thumbnail previews on nav. bar.

7. Adjust AR to Window Size

Select Playback > Aspect Ratio tab.
Enable Adjust AR to Windows Size

8. Use GPUs Video decoder to decode video files

Select Filter control > Video Decoder tab.
Click on Built-in Video Codec/DXVA Settings button.

Enable Use DXVA in group box labelled Hardware acceleration (DXVA) settings.

9. Video Renderer Settings

There are multiple option for the user.

Option 1 - Default setting

Select Video tab
Set the Video Renderer to default setting which is Auto (Recommended). Potplayer will automatically select the Video renderer to use.

Option 2 - EVR Custom Preset

EVR Custom preset is supported in Microsoft Windows Vista,7,8,10.

Select Video tab
Select EVR Custom Preset in the drop down list labelled Video Renderer.
Select Apply button.

Option 3

Direct3D 11 Video Renderer : It uses Direct3D 11 graphics API to render the video.

Select Video tab
Select Built-in Direct3D 11 Video Renderer in the drop down list labelled Video Renderer.
Select Apply button.

Option 4

To set OpenGL Video Renderer as the Potplayer video render do the following:

Select Video tab
Select Built-in OpenGL Video Renderer in the drop down list labelled Video Renderer.
Select Apply button.

10. Setup a Video resizer algorithm

Depending on video renderer selected by the user in Video > Video Renderer Potplayer will the Resizer algorithms which can be used with that selected Video renderer.

Resizer options:

Texture Nearest Neighbor : Nearest neighbor algorithm will be used to resize the video. It requires least computing power. The output image quality is bad when up-scaling the low resolution video frame..
Texture Bilinear : Bilinear algorithm will be used to resize the video frame. It uses very low computing power. The output image quality is not good when up-scaling the low resolution video frame.
Shader Bilinear : Bilinear algorithm will be used to resize the video frame. It uses very low computing power. It will use GPU Pixel shader to resize the video frame.
Shader Bicubic ( A = -1.0) : Bicubic algorithm will be used to resize the video frame. It will use GPU Pixel shader to resize the video frame.
Shader Bspline : Bspline algorithm will be used to resize the video frame. It will use GPU Pixel shader to resize the video frame.
Shader ( 2-Pass) Lanczos 3: Lanczos 3 algorithm will be used to resize the video frame. Lanxzos algorithm will be applied two times. It will use GPU Pixel shader to resize the video frame. The output image quality is very good. It requires high amount of computing power.

Example 1

Select Video tab.
Select DXVA-HD Video Processor from the drop-down list labelled Resizer.

Example 2

Bilinear algorithm requires least computing power.

Example 3

Shader Bspline will output good quality video

Select Video tab.
Select Shader Bspline from the drop-down list labelled Resizer.

11. Colorspace settings

Enable Multiple-threaded conversion.
Enable High quality YUV2/RGB24/32 conversion.
Select ITU-R BT.709 as YCbCr <-> RGB conv.

12. Color controls settings

It can help achieve better video quality.

Set Brightness: to approx 42.0%.
Set Contrast: to approx 57.8%.
Set Saturation: to approx 39.8%.

Check the checkbox labelled Use hardware color controls (if possible).

13. Audio Renderer Settings

Select Audio tab
Set Audio Renderer to Built-in WASAPI Audio Renderer (if it is available)

14. Speaker configuration

Make sure that you select the correct speaker configuration which is connected to the computer.

Check the computer manual.

For external speakers check the speaker manual. Check the wiring config used to connect the speaker to the computer.

Select Audio tab
Set Speakers: to (your speaker configuration). In my case its "2/0/0 - 2.0 Stereo"

15. Volume steps

It sets the step size (in percentage) for both increase and decrease of volume control in the main interface.

Select Audio > Volume control.
Set Volume steps to 2.

16. Volume Normalizer

Its recommended to disable it unless you need it while playing media files with low volume.

Select Audio > Normalizer/Freeverb tab.
Untick next to Enable in the group box labelled Normalizer (Auto Volume Control).

17. Potplayer media file Association

Associate media files to run with Potplayer when opened through Windows Explorer.

Select Association tab
To select the Video file formats click Select Video Ext.
Click on Apply to system.

In Windows 10 this windows will popup
Under Video player select Potplayer as default app as shown below.

18. Windows OS Speaker Configuration

Setup of proper speaker configuration in Windows OS sound setting is necessary.

Select Control Panel > Sound > Playback tab.
Select the Default sound Device which will be used to output the audio.
Select Configure button.

Select proper Speaker Configuration connected to the computer from the list labelled Audio channels.
Complete the speaker configuration.

Potplayer Advanced Settings

Audio Preferred languages Settings

When there are multiple audio tracks for the video file, Potplayer needs to select one of it for playback.

By default Potplayer select an audio track which has been tagged as Forced or/and Default.

The Potplayer inbuilt Preferred languages setting allows the user to set a list of preferred languages which will be preferred by Potplayer for the selection of a audio track in specified language from the list of multiple audio tracks which has been loaded in Potplayer .The language which has been entered first in the list will be given highest preference followed by other languages in the list.

For Potplayer track selection based on language will work only if the audio track has proper Language attribute(tag).

User need to enter the languages3 letter language codes (ISO 639-2) separated by semicolon(;), comma(,) or space.

ISO 639-2 Code : 3 letter language codes
ISO 639-1 Code : 2 letter language codes
Name of Language ( in English

Link to ISO 639-2 codes for various languages : https://www.loc.gov/standards/iso639-2/php/code_list.php

Language code examples :

English name : English , ISO 639-1 Code : en , ISO 639-2 Code : eng

English name : Arabic , ISO 639-1 Code : ar , ISO 639-2 Code : ara

English name : Chinese , ISO 639-1 Code : zh , ISO 639-2 Code : chi,zho

English name : Finnish , ISO 639-1 Code : fi , ISO 639-2 Code : fin

English name : French , ISO 639-1 Code : fr , ISO 639-2 Code : fre,fra

English name : Korean , ISO 639-1 Code : ko , ISO 639-2 Code : kor

English name : Romanian , ISO 639-1 Code : ro , ISO 639-2 Code : ron,rum

To set the Preferred languages for audio track selection, do the followings:

Select Audio > Language/Sync/Other tab.
Select Prefer specified languages from the drop down list labelled Selection Method.
Enter a single or multiple language codes in the textbox labelled Preferred languages in the groupbox labelled Language/Stream Selection separated by space.
Select Apply button.

Example :

If eng fin kor fre has been entered then Potplayer will give highest preference to the audio track in English language, followed by Finnish, Korean and Russian language.

If ar zh fi has been entered then Potplayer will give highest preference to the audio track in Arabic language, followed by Chinese and Finnish language.

If ron fr English has been entered then Potplayer will give highest preference to the audio track in Romanian language, followed by French and English language.

If Korean Finnish ara en has been entered then Potplayer will give highest preference to the audio track in Korean language, followed by Finnish, Arabic and English language.

Subtitle Preferred languages Settings

When there are multiple subtitles for the video file, Potplayer needs to select one of it for playback.

The Potplayer inbuilt Preferred languages setting allows the user to set a list of preferred languages which will be preferred by Potplayer for the selection of a subtitle track in specified language from the list of multiple subtitle tracks which has been loaded in Potplayer .The language which has been entered first in the list will be given highest preference followed by other languages in the list.

For Potplayer track selection based on language will work only if the subtitle track has proper Language attribute(tag).

User need to enter the language codes separated by semicolon(;), comma(,) or space.

ISO 639-2 Code : 3 letter language codes
ISO 639-1 Code : 2 letter language codes
Name of Language (in English)

Link to ISO 639-2 codes & ISO 639-1 Code for various languages : https://www.loc.gov/standards/iso639-2/php/code_list.php

Language code examples :

English name : English , ISO 639-1 Code : en , ISO 639-2 Code : eng

English name : Arabic , ISO 639-1 Code : ar , ISO 639-2 Code : ara

English name : Finnish , ISO 639-1 Code : fi , ISO 639-2 Code : fin

English name : French , ISO 639-1 Code : fr , ISO 639-2 Code : fre,fra

English name : Hindi , ISO 639-1 Code : hi , ISO 639-2 Code : hin

Preferred languages settings for subtitles is located at Subtitles > Language/Sync/Other > Language > Preferred languages.

semicolon(;), comma(,) and space entered in the preferred languages list is treated as OR condition.
"&" entered in the preferred languages list is treated as AND condition.

By default forced&english default&english encc eng en english has been entered in the preferred languages list.

forced&english will select a subtitle which has been tagged as Forced and its language is English.

default&english will select a subtitle which has been tagged as default and its language is English.

User can append their own languages in the preferred list.

Example :

If fre fin German ko has been appended then in addition to already existing languages in the list Potplayer will give highest preference to the subtitle track in French language, followed by Finnish, German and Korean language.

If Finnish German kor hi has been entered then Potplayer will give highest preference to the subtitle track in Finnish language, followed by German, Korean and Hindi language.

If Eng default ara has been entered then Potplayer will give highest preference to the subtitle track in English language, followed by subtitle tack with default tag and then subtitle in Arabic language.

Potplayer skins settings

Potplayer has skin mode for both video and audio playback. When playing a video file potplayer uses a video skin. When playing a audio file potplayer switches to audio skin . Both skin type have its own window position and size setting.

Select General > Skins tab
Enable the setting Remember windows position & size of each skin type.

Potplayer subtitle translate settings

Subtitle translation feature is useful to translate a subtitle in any language to the language in which you want to see it.

The requirement for this feature to work is connection to internet.

Select Subtitles > Subtitle Translation > Online Subtitle Translation Setting.

Set Auto Translation to Always Use.
Set Translation to the language in which you want to translate the subtitle.

If you want to translate subtitles in specified language then do the followings:

Set Auto translate to Use when source subs are in specified lang.
Enter the subtitle languages which will be translated in text box named Lang(s) to.
Set Translation to the language in which you want to translate the subtitle.

Reset Potplayer Settings

If something is not working properly then resetting the potplayer setting can prove to be useful.

Method 1

Open Preferences window.
click on Reset button.

Method 2

If you are using custom configuration then select default preset.
Click on Activate button.