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GOM player secure, free media player which offers much more than just movie and music playback. You can also play corrupted files or those that are downloaded. It comes with a YouTube tab that allows you to search and play videos right from the app. Playback comes in many modes and configurations that allow you to view or listen to media in a variety of ways.

Versatility

GOM Player does a lot more than regular multimedia software. Behind the simple interface are numerous features, including codec finder, YouTube player, and subtitles. One thing it doesn’t do is manage your files well. This app is more like a browser than what it aims to be. Most of your activities will be related to watching a YouTube video, which you already did before downloading it.

A nice feature is the GOM remote. You can control PC software from your smartphone

There are some niche features when you watch videos on GOM. They serve to not bore you to death doing what you can do in any other application. One of the features in particular is 360 VR Mode. This option allows you to zoom in on the video and look around as if you were in it. While the concept is cool, the actual effect isn’t all that great. For example, if your device has less than 8 GB of RAM, all you get is a rotating screen with pixelated processing. You also won’t see much action going on in the video. The only thing that can make this work is if you watch a video specially made in 360 mode.

GOM has a stylish design and user-friendly interface. You can easily find what you are looking for – navigation is easy. In this regard, it is better than Winamp and PotPlayer. The developer was smart enough to compress most configurations into a right click.

Playback and file management

GOM plays most file types, including MP3, MP4, AVI, MKV, WMV and ASX. It can also play files that are exclusive to other programs. However, when you open it, the file extension will be converted to ASX, since whatever you save from this application becomes that type of file. If you have more than one media player, it’s best to leave the default one. You can make GOM the default player during installation or at any time.

One oddity about this app is that it does not play automatically from the specified folder. In fact, you can’t even set the default folder from which files will be downloaded. You will have to manually select the songs you want to play from the folder where you store them. What’s worse, every time you close the app, all your songs will be erased and you’ll have to download them again. To prevent this from happening, you need to save them to a playlist. These playlists will then be placed in a folder as an ASX file and you will have to repeat the process to listen to the music. This is extremely cumbersome, and this alone makes most other applications preferable.

Configurations

GOM has extensive selection of user interface controls. So many that you don’t know what to do with most of them. For example, you can adjust the aspect ratio of the application in various sizes. This will not improve the playback quality one iota, and most users will watch the movie in full screen mode.

This application allows you to play the file in specific frame rate. You can also navigate media using small frames forward and backward. This is useful when you are viewing footage from a security camera or a recorded voice clip. It’s good that all these settings do not clutter up the interface. Access them with the right mouse button.

360 VR Mode would be a great feature if the developers spent a little more time on it. You don’t really get much out of this mode, except for the pixelated screen that splits as you spin. If you have a 360-degree video, the experience will improve a bit, but there are apps that can play them better than GOM.

Performance and Issues

Extensive customization doesn’t make up for GOM’s poor performance. The playback quality is not as high as they claim. Popular media players like VLC Media Player or WMP play your music at the maximum power of your sound card. GOM is not. The sound is quiet and there seems to be no bass.

You might be tempted to use a viewer app to watch YouTube videos. While this is a cool feature, it consumes a huge amount of data. There is no good reason for video streaming in GOM. This is highlights your bandwidth and RAM, which significantly slows down your device.

Another problem is advertising. Whenever you close the GOM player, pop-up ads appear. You can turn them off in the settings, but they’re still annoying.

Redundancy

The biggest problem with GOM is that it contains too many settings. Looks like the developers bit off more than they could chew. Most GOM features will go unused, not to mention the resources required to run them. Apps like Groove Music and VLC are in high demand due to their simplicity. This application, however, is not what you want to run in the background. Many users enjoy having their music playing while doing other tasks. But if these tasks don’t require a lot of memory or data, you’ll experience latency.

Another thing when you download the free version of GOM is that it may come with other software. They give you the option to install additional applications such as GOM Audio, GOM Mix and GOM encoder. Don’t do this as it will spam your device with installs.

If you like settings and playback options, GOM gives you a lot. But for those who just want to listen to music and watch offline videos, there are many better alternatives.