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VLC Media Player 3.0.20
Editor's Choice

Play just about any video or audio format using this versatile media player

Rating:
Operating Systems:
Windows 10, Windows 7 (32 bit), Windows 8
License:
Open Source
Developer:
VideoLan
Software Cost:
Free
Category
Audio, Video & Photo
Date Updated:
31 October 2023
Downloads To Date:
161607
Languages:
English
Download Size:
20.00 MB

Whilst the various media player developers attempt to convince us to use their codec to encode our home video, this means that we often have to have more than one media player installed to play every video, audio and other media, on our computer. Factor in old videos that were encoded using codecs that have been long discontinued, then it becomes a real pain to just play back your collection of movies.

There must be a better way, a way of handling the various audio and video formats, without having to experiment with different media players. There is, it’s called VLC Media Player. This isn’t a recent application, although it’s been ages in development. This is a cross-platform versatile media player that does one thing well: attempts to play just about every format available.

By installing VLC Media Player across your various computers, you can be assured that a video that plays back on your Mac will also play on your PC. It also supports Internet-based media streaming, so you can use the player to listen to a streamed audio stream and much more.

Version 2 brought radical changes, most found on the Mac platform, with support for Blu-ray playback being overshadowed by a radical overhaul of the user interface. This major step forward has divided the VLC community since it first emerged, with some decrying the loss of version 1’s minimalist approach to video playback.

VLC 3 on the Mac platform replaced the simplistic interface of version 1.x in favour of something more akin to iTunes, while also embracing the look of OS X Lion. It opens in Playlist view, with a two-paned window containing a list of common locations for media files in the left-hand pane, and an invitation to drag and drop files into the window for playback on the right.

Media controls sit at the bottom of the window, and there’s a new audio effects option next to the full-screen button, which takes advantage of Lion’s full-screen support. Options in the left-hand window include a shortcut to the user’s iTunes library and a playlist option, as well as UPNP and various internet streams.

VLC for Mac also includes experimental Blu-ray support, plus adds support for VLC’s lua-based extensions. These support various interactive features, such as pulling movie information and subtitles from the internet, or posting to Twitter.

Verdict:

This is the best cross-platform, multi-format versatile media player that will play just about any format

Your Comments & Opinion

If My Boyfriends Were As Reliable As VLC...
28 April 2015 09:30, Johannes Bols
...VLC is far and above the least problematic media player I've downloaded in 15+ years of personal internet use. Unlike my POS Mac, which I've codenamed "Princess," VLC doesn't require DAILY ventures BEYOND THE POINT of sanity. Instead, it takes 99.99% of everything thrown at it, digests it and plays it. Who could ask for anything more?
VLC
15 December 2012 10:36, Donald Schilling
Vern- earlier versions (all the way back to 0.5.0) are available on the website. Pretty certain you can find one that will work for you. I use an earlier version,as I prefer the interface to the current one. For me, it's been 'improved' into being annoying.
VLC Player
28 February 2012 01:29, Carroll Donald
This is my Default Player for everything but my music... Music is player via AIMP3. VLC can play 99.999997% of everything I throw at it. I can adjust just about anything I need to with VLC, if a video has an issue vlc will even attempt to fix it... and does in most cases.

Two thumbs up for VLC!
Does not support
19 February 2012 20:26, Vern Rb
Win XP1 or earlier. From the release notes:

* The Windows version will only work with Windows XP SP2 or later.
Windows 2000 SP4, Windows XP < SP2, Windows 2003 SP0 are now unsupported.
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