Darshan Player — Free Open-Source Media Player for Windows

Darshan Player is a fast, open-source desktop media player for Windows built with C# and WPF. Designed for Indian audiences — smooth playback of local videos, Hindi/regional audio tracks, and subtitle auto-loading out of the box.

Download v1.2.0 →

• Features
• Screenshots
• Download & Install
• Keyboard Shortcuts
• Built With
• Getting Started (Developers)
• Roadmap
• Contributing
• Support
• License
• Contact

• Hardware-accelerated video playback via LibVLC (MP4, MKV, AVI, MOV, WMV, FLV, WebM, TS, M2TS, 3GP, and more)
• Audio formats: MP3, AAC, FLAC, WAV, OGG, M4A
• Variable playback speed: 0.25× to 4× with ComboBox or keyboard
• Frame-by-frame stepping (when paused)
• A-B loop repeat between two points

• Auto-loads subtitle file from same folder as video (SRT, ASS, SSA, VTT, SUB)
• External subtitle load via menu
• Subtitle delay adjustment
• Multiple subtitle track switching in controls bar

• Multi-audio track switching directly in controls bar
• Audio delay adjustment
• Volume 0–100 with mouse wheel

• Drag-and-drop files and folders
• Shuffle (Ctrl+S) and Repeat modes — None / One / All (R key)
• M3U / M3U8 save and load
• Sort by name or duration; filter by keyword
• Watch history — remembers resume position per file

• True fullscreen covering entire monitor (no taskbar gap)
• Picture-in-Picture (PiP) mini player
• Taskbar progress bar and thumbnail play/pause/skip buttons
• Zoom / video scale (portrait reels, 9:16 content)
• Session restore — resumes last position on relaunch

• Appears in Open with for every supported video and audio format
• Listed in Settings ▸ Apps ▸ Default apps — pick Darshan Player as your default there, or use Set as default player… in the app (Windows always asks you to confirm; the app never changes your defaults on its own)
• Add to Darshan Player playlist on media files, Play with Darshan Player on folders (under Show more options on Windows 11)
• Start Menu and Desktop shortcuts, and Win+R → DarshanPlayer
• Recent files in the taskbar and Start Menu jump list
• One window: files opened from Explorer go to the running player — select several and the first plays while the rest queue (can be turned off in Settings)
• Everything is per-user (no admin prompt) and removed cleanly on uninstall, without touching other players' registrations

• Silent background updates via Velopack (v1.1.0 onward)
• In-app updates download over HTTPS with no browser and no SmartScreen prompt (the first install of an unsigned build can still show one)
• Notification shown when update is ready; applies on next restart
• Download icon in the title bar opens the releases page for a manual update

Screenshots coming soon. Star the repo to follow updates.

1. Download DarshanPlayer-win-Setup.exe from Releases
2. Run it — no admin rights needed; it installs for your user and launches the player
3. Optional: choose Set as default player… in the menu to open Windows Default apps

System requirements: Windows 10 (1903+) or Windows 11, 64-bit

No .NET runtime needed — installer is fully self-contained.

winget install UjjwalDadhich.Darshan

Download the .zip from Releases, extract, run DarshanPlayer.exe directly.

Darshan Player is not code-signed yet, so Windows SmartScreen may warn you the first time you run the installer. Choose More info → Run anyway. You can verify you have the genuine file by checking its SHA-256 against the checksum listed on the release page, and updates installed from inside the app are not affected.

Playback

Audio & subtitles

View

Playlist & loops

• C# / .NET 10 — WPF (Windows Presentation Foundation)
• LibVLCSharp — media engine
• Velopack — auto-update
• MahApps.Metro.IconPacks — icons

• Windows 10/11 64-bit
• .NET 10 SDK
• Visual Studio 2022+ or Rider

git clone https://github.com/Ujjwal-08/DarshanPlayer.git
cd DarshanPlayer
dotnet restore
dotnet run --project DarshanPlayer.csproj

dotnet publish DarshanPlayer.csproj -c Release -r win-x64 --self-contained -o publish

Requires Inno Setup 6 and Velopack CLI:

# Velopack package (for auto-update delta)
vpk pack --packId DarshanPlayer --packVersion 1.1.0 --packDir publish --mainExe DarshanPlayer.exe --outputDir Releases

# Inno Setup installer
& "C:\Program Files (x86)\Inno Setup 6\ISCC.exe" Installer.iss

• Core video/audio playback (LibVLC)
• Playlist — shuffle, repeat, sort, filter, M3U
• Subtitle auto-load and multi-track switching
• Multi-audio track switching in controls bar
• Variable speed (0.25×–4×)
• Frame step, A-B loop
• Watch history — per-file resume position
• PiP mini player
• True fullscreen (no taskbar gap)
• Taskbar progress + thumbnail controls (SMTC)
• Session restore
• Auto-update (Velopack, v1.1.0+)
• File associations + right-click context menu
• Equalizer
• Chapter navigation
• Network stream (RTMP, HLS)
• Jump List (recent files in taskbar right-click)
• System tray / minimize to tray
• Protocol handler (darshan://)
• Thumbnail seek preview
• Android / cross-platform (future)

Contributions welcome — bug reports, translations, UI improvements, new features.

1. Fork the repo
2. Create feature branch: git checkout -b feature/your-feature
3. Commit: git commit -m "Add your feature"
4. Push: git push origin feature/your-feature
5. Open a Pull Request

Please check open issues before starting new work.

If Darshan Player is useful to you:

• Star the repository
• Report bugs via Issues
• Share with others

• Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/cw/BABU_ISHU
• PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/ncp/payment/SECBQ62TRZZ6Y

Email: help@chapterchase.com

Distributed under the Unlicense — public domain, no restrictions.
See LICENSE for details.

Maintainer: Ujjwal Dadhich
Email: help@chapterchase.com
Repository: https://github.com/Ujjwal-08/DarshanPlayer