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VLC – Best of the Free Media Players

on December 15, 2008 in Uncategorized

We looked at Mozilla’s iTunes alternative SongBird last week. When I was writing about SongBird I realized I had never shared my views on one of my favorite free multimedia player for a long time – VLC Media Player.

VLC media player – Quick Features

  • Highly portable capable of playing multiple media formats
  • Plays audio and video formats including MPEG-1. MPEG-2, MPEG-4, DivX, MP3, OGG, etc and a mind-boggling array of options.
  • Also plays DVDs, VCDs and supports various streaming protocols
  • Use it as a Server to stream in unicast or multicast on a high-bandwidth network
  • It is supported in multiple operating systems – Windows, Linux, OS X, BeOS, etc
  • Streams SHOUTcast internet radio stations
  • Recent 0.9 version added Last.fm support
  • Tag support
  • Supports a lot of subtitles
  • Mouse gestures
  • Supports metadata editing

VLC stands for Videolan and if you want to take a look under the hood, the chart in this VLC features page will give you the mind boggling amount of audio, video & strreaming formats it supports in different operating systems.

Things you can do with VLC

Lifehacker has a great article that shows different things you could do with this excellent media player. A few includes:

  • How to rip any DVD
  • Convert any video for your iPod or iPhone with a drag and drop batch script
  • How to stream media to other computers
  • Play ripped DVDs

Also, VLC is available in a portable format so you can carry it in your USB drive.

Download VLC

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  • http://www.themediaguru.co.cc carrotmadman6

    The only place where VLC sucks is x264 playback. The built-in codecs are definitely not suited to the job. :)

  • http://www.i-medien.com Chris

    I love VLC, use it on Mac, Win and Linux alike.

    The only thing that is a little weird is the .wmv-support in the 0.9 branch, but i can live with that.

  • http://www.effortlesshr.com/ Aaron@HR Software

    Thanks for the post about VLC. I have used it in the past and while it worked well for some things, it did not for others. My preferred player of choice is now kmplayer with “media player classic home cinema” being second. I’ve actually never been able to find something that crashed or didn’t play in kmplayer. Just my 0.02 of rambling. Thanks for the post – maybe I’ll try to new version of VLC.

    Aarons last blog post..Final Rules – Newborns’ and Mothers’ Health Protection Act

  • http://rugbycoaching.net/ Simon@Rugby Coaching

    VLC really is the best media player, I carry the portable version around on my usb pen drive, and it’s amazing how many times I find my self using it! It plays just about anything! FireFox and VLC are my two must have apps! Once upon a time I would have said winamp but it’s too heavy these days.

  • http://www.cure-for.info/dandruff/ Sarika@Dandruff Treatment

    Oh I love VLC Media Player. Have been using it for more than two years now. I did not know that it was supported on so many systems or it could do so much more. I was happy with it playing all my media!

    Sarikas last blog post..Underarm Hair Growth Retardant?

  • http://www.shop4laptop.com/ JR @ Cheap Laptop Computers

    Do you think this is better than Media Player?

  • http://wallywashis.name/mp3/ Wally

    xmms is still good enough for me

  • http://babystrollers.thingsiknowaboutstuff.com aaron@baby stroller reviews

    @JR – VLC in my opinion is much better than media player. There are many more things it can do, and is actually portable across other platforms; not just Windows.

    aarons last blog post..Sit and Stand Strollers are the Best Double Baby Strollers

  • http://applemp3.info Eric

    Free Portable Mp3 Player…

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  • http://blurnot.blogspot.com/ Computer Guides For Beginners

    In my personal opinion, media player classic is still the best for viewing movie experience, though there might be some problems opening some stubborn movie formats without the proper codecs.

    Computer Guides For Beginnerss last blog post..Cumulative Juicy Updates For December 2008

  • http://techmalaya.com Syahid A.

    An app that is miles better than the one that comes with Windows. Another fav of mine is Gom Player.

    Syahid A.s last blog post..How to Delete Files with Long / Not Valid Filenames in Windows

  • http://www.shankrila.com K

    Thanks everyone for chiming in. There are some worthy alternatives mentioned here for those looking for something other than VLC for any reason. :-)

  • http://sample-resignation-letter.net/ sample resignation letter

    I have always used vlc, good player km too

  • http://www.shankrila.com/tech-stuff/flv-editor-pro-giveaway/ FLV Editor Pro Giveaway | ShanKri-la

    [...] edit the FLV videos with your usual tools like Windows Movie Maker even though you can play it with free media player like [...]

  • http://www.regrowreport.com/provillus-unbiased-review/ Colin@provillus reviews

    Yes VLC is one of the greatest players I’ve ever seen. It could even play files broken, partly downloaded files, or file downloading.
    The only shortcoming is it could not play with rm, that’s why I also use GOM player.
    Thanks for the review, I’ll keep using my VLC.

  • http://www.iphonerat.com/iphone/how-to-unlock-iphone-3g/ diego@iphone 3g

    yes, its a great player, but it doesnt look very professional, like itunes.

    diegos last blog post..Download Flash player for your iphone

  • http://alkaline-water.info Alley@Alkaline Water

    Gom player is the best I’ve personally come across with. It plays everything I know of! Even those FLV files…take that windows media! ;)

  • http://www.newbabynames.net Zaldy@Baby Names

    I was unable to play .flv files with VLC player :-(

  • http://www.types-of-flowers.org/ Lily @ Types of Flowers

    I agree that that VLC Media Player is the best choice. I use it for a couple of years and can say nothing bad of it. One of its major advantages is that it is supported in many operating systems.

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    [...] All can look at all the mpr3 links in a page and creates a .m3u playlist. You can open this file in music players like VLC, Winamp, etc. Songbird music player can also create playlists from any [...]

  • CHRISCLAP

    I have read this review an the comments, an i must say i think that VLC is a great piece of software but i have to recomend Moovida as the best i have used.
    It does all the work for you, & i like that hahahah

    Free download for moovida – http://Www.moovida.com

  • http://www.shankrila.com/tech-stuff/free-blu-ray-ripping-software/ Free Software to Rip Blu-Ray Discs – MakeMKV | ShanKrila

    [...] can convert Blu-ray discs to the MKV file format that can be played with free media players such as VLC Player. Or you can choose to convert MKV files to a more common format such as mp4 or avi using free [...]

  • http://www.shankrila.com/gadgets/best-free-mac-osx-software/ Top FREE Mac OS X Apps [Lifehacker] | ShanKrila

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    [...] But, if you are not on an supported device to watch the stream and still want to, MacRumors has a nice tip on how you can watch it with the VLC media player. [...]

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    [...] But, if you are not on an supported device to watch the stream and still want to, MacRumors has a nice tip on how you can watch it with the VLC media player. [...]