A Simple Trick To Make Kmplayer More Crash-Proof!

Now Kmplayer do have its vulnerabilities, but when properly optimized it can give you a unique multimedia experience which is something most other players lack. But as with everything, sometimes when crashing, Kmplayer seems a bit unstable.

For instance, let's say that you were trying to play a video file but somehow the player got stuck and started to consume 100% or somewhere close of your CPU usage. But according to my experience and with some of other friends, other players such as K-lite codec pack, is more controllable in those situations. Even they started to use a lot of your CPU but still most of the time you can start the task manager and put an end to it ;-).

But with Kmplayer, when it started to consume a lot of CPU, you can't even successfully use the task manager to kill it most of the time thus forcing you to do a manual re-boot of your PC which is not that good. Now there could be a lot more deeper reasons for this but did you know that by changing a single setting you could easily "kill" Kmplayer as easy as with other players!... thus spare you the trouble of doing manual re-boots on your PC.

So wanna know how to do it?... OK then hang on champ ;-) here I go.

1. Open Kmplayer.

2. Press the "F2" button on your keyboard (if you can't find it call 911... just kidding) which should bring you a configuration window.

3. From the top of the left side click on the small Rectangle on the "General" menu.

4. Now from that click on the "Playback" sub menu.

5. Now to your right side you'll see another configuration window. From that choose the tab called "Work Priority".

6. On that tab you'll see a slider below a heading called "Priority Class".

7. Now the default option is the "Above Normal" priority, which is behind all that arrogant behavior ;-) (not kidding it's true). So use the slider and bring it to your left until it says "Normal" (1 position from the right would be enough by default.

8. Now click "Close" and you're done!.

I think most can guess how this can help, so I'm not going to write about it (that stuff is boring). But to be short, by default Kmplayer assign a priority which is above "normal" thus forcing windows to give a lot more attention to it even when it's crashing or malfunctioning which is the reason for that "tough" behavior.

But remember this won't fix crashing due to codec or bad files ... but most of the time this would give you enough time to end the kmplayer process faster.

How to Enhance Audio Quality in Kmplayer

If you've read my previous posts then I'm pretty sure you all are aware that I am a bit of a Kmplayer addict ;-). Although some of my friends don't like it ... according to them it tends to hung-up under rough conditions (which is true - part of it) but when considered its features and the "look" I just love it.

So if you're ready then let me tell you few of the audio settings inside the Kmplayer's settings section that can enhance the output audio quality.

How to use it to boost some of the audio levels

*. First open the Kmplayer and then simply press the "F2" button on your keyboard.

*. Then from the window Click on the smaller looking box with a triangle and from the expanded menu to the beginning of "Audio Processing"  option.

*. From the expanded menu choose "compressor/Normalizer/etc".

Now then you'll be greeted with a another little windows. In that under the blue label which says "Automatic Volume Control (normalizer)" you'll see an "enable" option (see the screenshot below). Click on it and active it. Below that under "Gain" set the value according to your preference.

But be aware that if you put a lot of "gain" then sometimes it can create distract noises... so my personal choice is about "91".

Enhance the Boost

You can use the kmplayer to boost some of the audios as well. To do that...

*. Again use the above steps come to the "Automatic Volume Control (normalizer)" window.

*. Now at the bottom of that windows you'll see a sub heading called ETC (in blue color).

*. Under that click on the "true bass" to activate it and again you should experiment.. but my choice is about setting it to 139.

*. Now then click on the "treble enhance" and change its value to "62". (have a look at the "blue" market areas in the above screenshot).

These settings won't give you like super quality outputs but I do feel a little quality improvements through my nose (no I meant my ears ... kidding ;-) ). As usual just don't be afraid and experiment.. I ain't the one who's gonna tell you what to do right?.

But if anything bad happens just use the "Default" button under each of those settings which will take you back to the original values.

How To Save KMplyer's Settings to a Single File

Now ya all know that I'm a huge fan of KMPlayer. Now let's say that you did a lot of customization to player such as enhancing videos, adding few audio effects, changing brightness, etc but let's for some reason you had to uninstall it or had to completely install the whole OS, then you'll have to customize all that changed settings all over again ... but

Thanks to its built in import and export settings you can easily save all the customized kmplayer settings to a single file which can later be loaded thus applying all that customized within seconds!. So how to do it??.

1. Open the KMPlayer.

2. Press the "F2" button on your keyboard or right-click and choose "Options" - > "Preference"

3. And from the Preference window look at the 4 buttons in the lower end of the GUI (look at the screenshot below) and click o the "Export Presets" button.

Click on that "Export Presets" button...

4. Choose a desired name and a location then click "Save".

Yep that's how you save all customized settings of the KMPlayer to a single file. Now if you want to restore these settings then,

*. Look at the exported file

*. Double click on it and click the "Yes" button to the next message. That's it.

How to Enhance Low Quality Videos Using Kmplayer

Well everybody seems to be interested in HD videos these days but I'm pretty sure that from time to time you do get a low quality video file which looks crappy and wondered how to enhance the video quality. There is such a method actually which is not a secret but is a popular technique, but the obvious fact is the people who are interested in the area of video editing, etc are the ones that knows about it most of the time. It is called video postprcessing.

Now this is not a new thing and what this does basically is, when you apply this effect it uses some layers of video effects to the currently playing video thus minimizing the ugly looking blocks or pixels (to put it into simple terms). Now this actually is done in two major ways. One method is when producing DVD's for instance they apply this in the video making process and is included into the file self.

But one disadvantage of this method is as all effects it does sucks some of the CPU power of yours and those postprocessing effects that are included in the pre video creating process cannot be undone. So if you want to play the video you gotta pay the price, think you get the idea right?, OK cool.

The other method is the one that I'm going to talk about today is applied when the video is playing lively. And since it applied not directly to the save video file on your HDD, etc but on to the live rendering video on your VGA RAM (I'm no expert guys and trying to put these in simple terms - this tech blogspot is not for geniuses ok ;-) ). So anyway this video postprocessing is temporary applied but as said will need your CPU you to do some work but can be turned off/or canceled anytime you want also.

So I'll give you some good details on how much you should apply if you have a grandpa old computer like mine (welcome abroad).

1. So first of all make sure you have downloaded the kmplayer (if not click here to download it).

2. Then after installing it open it and press the "F2" key on your keyboard or right click on it and go to

"options" -> "preference".

3. Then from the window you get, from the left side choose: "video processing"-> "postprocessing"

4. Then from right side to the window you'll see some customization options. From that choose "Custom" button and from under the "strength" heading use that slider and set according to your preference.

*. I have an old P4 desktop so I usually go about 21%-30% which strains a little of your CPU but if you have never processors (AMD 64 or Intel Core i....., dual core) then you can go for higher ones.

Click to Enlarge

But don't apply too much since it can add a lots of "mist" on the video thus jeopardizing the whole process, but again don't be afraid just test, test and test a bit more. If you have a sharp eye you'll see the quality improvements it has even by raising the slider about 10-15%.

So that's how you enhance low quality videos on MS windows using kmplayer. Ahh as Hecktor said in Troy "enough for one day!". Hope this helps.

If you have any questions don't be afraid to type it in the comment section.