Elmedia Player appSimple, targeted solutions is the name of the game for me when it comes to 3rd party software. I no long want apps that try to do a whole bunch of loosely-related things just to justify the cost.

For as long as I can remember, people have been complaining about iTunes and web browsers as it relates to their ability to download and manage videos. And for several years I’ve been telling you about Elmedia Player Pro because I found it to be a great solution.

Eltima Software recently updated their powerful media player/manager Mac app, Elmedia Player, to version 6, bringing with it some speed improvements via hardware acceleration, and support for Apple’s latest OS X version, El Capitan.

If you’re wondering why you might need Elmedia Player, and what makes the Pro version worth $20, read on for a brief summary.

Elmedia Player (EP) is a free media player that supports almost every popular audio and video format, including AAC, FLV, SWF, WMV, AVI, MOV, MP4, MP3, and more. So basically you’re covered for audio/video viewing on your Mac with no further software installations or hacks. In fact, it makes a great iTunes replacement as a basic music player.

Elmedia Player controls

EP also allows you to open URLs in its built-in web browser, perfect for the YouTube lover in all of us. Playing and managing audio/video files in EP includes the ability to adjust video playback such as adjusting color and brightness in videos, an EQ to tune your sound, and aspect ratio adjustments.

That’s all with the free version. Upgrading to the Pro version is where the magic happens.

You can of course create playlists for YouTube videos in EP. Heck, you can do that right on YouTube’s website. But how many times have you gone back to a video you added to a playlist, only to find that YouTube had deleted the video. EP Pro rids you of the “Video Not Found” message by allowing you to download videos and soundtracks from YouTube, along with Metacafe, Vimeo, Facebook and Yahoo.

EP isn’t the sort of app that everyone needs. But if you find yourself overwhelmed with the amount of different types of videos, and want to keep them all organized and on your own storage drive, Elmedia Player can definitely make your life easier. For me, the killer feature is the ability to do all of this with one app and not have to think about it.

Elmedia Player 6.0 is faster than previous versions, and I found it to be quite stable in my two weeks of use under OS X El Capitan. I really like the fact that I tried every video I could throw at it and never got the “missing codec” message.

Give the demo a try, and when you’re ready for Elmedia Player Pro, you can use the coupon code THGM-DSC at checkout to receive 30% off the $19.95 purchase price.