When you mention 'software itself', are you looking for software for to play video and movies?
1. If you are playing movies up to 1080p, VLC is good enough. It's support of H.265 is still iffy and it does not use hardware acceleration well enough to play this compression smoothly. All other free software are in the same state.
2. If you are looking to play 4K, you need to get a 4K capable card that supports HDR. Even with that, none of the free software worked for me. They just don't understand HDR and similar technologies. I bought a copy of PowerDVD, and life has been smooth after that. PowerDVD is an ace in understanding all formats including 8K and HRD. It also tags all your movies and gives you information on the movies. Though Kodi also does that, it, Kodi does not play 4K and HDR well. Even Kodi on the new RPi4 plays 4K badly though it has the CPU and hardware capabilities available on the system.
I have used and experimented with most of these software for over two years, and finally gave up. Have switched to PowerDVD and deleted all other software. I don't have to worry about Codecs and all that rot.
It is worthwhile looking for promotion from PowerDVD. Sometimes you can get it for 5K or less.
If you looking for play music, it is a different matter.
If you sitting up to 10-15 feet away, a simple cordless mouse (and keyboard) can give you all the control you need. I think PowerDVD also has an Android app for RC, but I have never used that.
Cheers