Switch

Switch may look like an ordinary media player, but if you take a closer look at what it has to offer, you will see that there's nothing ordinary about it. The software provides you with industry-standard tools for inspecting, correcting and transcoding media like a professional. You can expect a smoother playback, thanks to its fine controls, regardless of where your files come from and what format they're in. From simply playing a video to exporting it to another format, there are countless operations you can perform with this piece of software.

The software comes in several paid versions, but a free demo is available as well, which has some functionality restrictions. Its setup file is well over 150 MB large, and it may take a few minutes to install it since the process involves restarting your computer. The good news is that you can run the software right away, without installing any prerequisite codecs or drivers.

Once the program is up and running, its user interface will present the options you need to import your music or videos, as well as a list of recently played media. Its main playback window doesn't present anything more than a minimalistic player, but you can access a wide range of useful tools through the top menus. For starters, the software lets you play your video frame by frame, using the arrow keys, and you can also play in slow motion in any direction. Additionally, you can bring up a timeline, beneath the video playback, which can be switched between GOP, Datarate and Flags modes. It is also possible to bring up an audio analyzer, which lets you solo or mute individual channels.

Switch supports numerous media formats, as well as all popular subtitle formats. What's more, the software provides you with a wide range of details about the file you're playing, on a tabbed inspection window. You can look up container info, technical details about the video, like bit rate, encoded size, aspect ratio and so on, as well as audio, subtitle and timing details. What's more, if you click a switch, on the same window, the program will let you edit most of the details and even transcode and export your file if you want to make it playable on the web, on iTunes or other platforms.

Another feature you will definitely like is the possibility of loading additional videos for comparison. You can import up to sixteen alternative videos and play them sequentially or switch between them, on the same window, with a simple hotkey. What's more, the software lets you play videos in split view, which gives you the possibility of viewing two different versions of the same video side by side and see pixel-level differences.

If you look at everything it has to offer, you will agree that Switch is something every professional in the media industry should have.