I always use Potplayer for Video, and Foobar for Music. I would be interested to hear any reasons why these are not a good choice. Both offer a good range of playable files. I need APE for Music and MKV for Video.
If you care your privacy at all, stop using Potplayer. It's free for a reason. Use open source media players. MPC-HC or MPC-BE. These are high quality players that can play basically anything you throw at them.
You don't need codecs with MPC-HC, it comes with them built in, the only purpose codec installing will serve is if you have another app that needs them like media player.
I suggest you checkout the site and the support forum. Edit to add : Exactly what do YOU think the "MPC" in "MPC-HC" dtands for ?