Skip to main content

Windows 10’s default video player utterly destroys VLC in battery life

Watching 4K movies on your laptop, while unplugged? Microsoft Movies & TV, the default video player that comes with Windows 10, lasts over twice as long as the competition.

You might think of VLC and Media Player Classic as the lightweight alternatives to Microsoft’s bloated default offering, but that thinking seems outdated. Microsoft Movies & TV utterly destroyed the free competition in battery life in a series of tests run by PC World Executive Editor Gordon Mah Ung.

Recommended Videos

“Most people ‘in the know’ skip the default options for their video player of choice because it’s ‘better’ or more ‘efficient’,” wrote Mah Ung. “My results disprove this from a battery-life aspect.”

The test was simple. A 4K video, Tears of Steel, was played on a brand new Toshiba Satellite Radius 12 running Windows 10. Brightness was set manually, and airplane mode was turned on, but beyond that everything was left at the default settings. The video was looped in several different players until the battery died, and the results were surprising.

Program Minutes Playing 4K Video
Microsoft Movies & TV 314
Media Player Classic HC 138
KMPlayer 130
PotPlayer 131
VLC 125

Microsoft’s Movies & TV lasted 314 minutes, over twice as long as the closest competition, Media Player Classic HC. VLC, long loved by users for being lightweight, offered the worst results of all.

“I’m a huge VLC fan and out of pure laziness, download VLC on my machines and never venture further,” wrote Mah Ung. “So it was a bummer to see my favorite media player perform so poorly in battery performance.”

Apple’s QuickTime 7, long forced on users installing iTunes, couldn’t even open the file.

“It seems odd that Apple would hurl stones at Adobe while sitting inside of a house made of shimmering non-Gorilla Glass,” wrote Mah Ung.

Apple hasn’t done a lot to update that software for Windows, but it’s still noteworthy considering how much time and energy Cupertino spent pushing the Windows version.

The real story, though, is how efficient Microsoft’s video player is. If you’ve been avoiding default players because of how bloated Windows Media Player was in older versions of Windows, it might be time for a re-think.

Justin Pot
Justin's always had a passion for trying out new software, asking questions, and explaining things – tech journalism is the…
Pocket is about to close. Use this read-it-later app instead
A woman looking at her phone.

Read-it-later app Pocket is closing down in just a week’s time, so if you’re still using it, now’s the time to switch to a similar app.

As an avid user of Pocket pretty much since it launched in 2007 as Read It Later, I felt a little sad to receive a message in May informing me that it would be shutting down on July 8.

Read more
A coding blunder just ruined a moment of joy for lottery winners
Eurojackpot lottery slips.

Imagine the joy of being notified of a huge lottery win. What would be the first thing you’d do? Get the champagne in? Book a fancy vacation? Call your boss and tell him where to go?

And then imagine being informed that the notification had, in fact, been sent in error. Well, you can always send the booze back and cancel the holiday, but trying to convince your boss that you were just joking ... well, that may be a bigger challenge.

Read more
This TP-Link Wi-Fi 6 router is 45% off in early Prime Day deal
The TP-Link AX1800 Archer AX21 Wi-FI 6 Router on a white background.

If you're planning to buy a new router to improve your home's Wi-Fi network, the good news is that you don't have to wait for Prime Day 2025 to take advantage of huge discounts on router deals from Amazon. Here's an excellent offer — the TP-Link Archer AX21 with an eye-catching 45% discount, which drops its price from $100 to just $55. The $45 in savings will only be available for a limited time though, so you better act fast and proceed with your purchase immediately as this early Prime Day deal may disappear at any moment.

Buy Now

Read more