Supports online streaming with most mainstream protocols. Supports playback from files, discs, external devices, webcams. Supports most media codecs out of the box. Summary of benefits and notable features: Considering it's been in active development since 2001, it's safe to say that VLC won't be going anywhere any time soon.įor all of this, VLC keeps its spot on our list of best Windows software. No need to download, install, and fiddle with codecs.Īll in all, we understand why VLC ranks as one of the most popular GitHub projects to date. It can stream video URLs in real-time, and it can play all standard media types, including CDs, DVDs, and most popular video formats like MP4, AVI, and MKV. The downside? VLC verges on 'bloated' status and may not offer the best performance on older, slower hardware.īut if you hate tinkering and just want a media player that's free and works right out of the box, VLC is the answer. 'All-in-one solution' describes it best, and you can do a lot with it, particularly with all of the advanced settings and options to tweak. But is it right for you? Maybe, maybe not.
If you look on a site like AlternativeTo, you'll see that VLC ranks up top with over 6,000 Likes. VLC Media Player is the most popular media player in the world.
