Video playing method and device, terminal device and server

The invention discloses a video playing method and device, a terminal device and a server, and belongs to the technical field of networks. The video playing method comprises the following steps: a first video playing request is received; a preference video source is acquired according to the weight of multiple video sources; a second video playing request is sent to the server so that the server can send back a playing address list according to the second video playing request; the video playing device plays videos corresponding to video identifications according to the playing address list when receiving the playing address list send back by the server. According to the video playing method and device, the terminal device and the server, various factors which affect video playing effects such as playing speed and jam and pause frequency can be taken into comprehensive consideration, the video source which has a better playing effect is automatically selected from the multiple video sources to be played, the operation is simple and convenient, repeated switchover of the video sources is avoided, and therefore the problem that the switchover of the video sources causes incoherent video plots is solved.