The first thing that stands out is the lack of a traditional user interface. This particular project is a fork of both MPlayer and mplayer2, keeping the good bits of those, throwing out the junk, and introducing a whole lot more goodies. In MPV, we have another free media player for Windows 10 and Windows 11, which also happens to be an open-source, cross-platform contender to VLC. Unfortunately, MPC-HC was discontinued in July 2017, but it still works well and is worth using. If you don't like how much bloat VLC took on over the past few years, and if you don't like PotPlayer's closed-source development, this is the free Windows 10 media player for you. Media Player Classic is the largest open-source alternative to VLC. It handles most formats without issue, and it supports some advanced features like subtitle downloads, video capture, and integration with Skype. The Home Cinema version is what you see in the above screenshot, illustrating its basic yet effective (and familiar!) layout.Īnd that's really the biggest selling point of Media Player Classic: fast performance, low resource usage, small installation size-truly lightweight in every way. Black Edition is the superpowered version with more features, improvements, and enhancements, but it isn't as simple to use. Home Cinema is the better choice for everyday users, aiming to remain as lightweight as possible while supporting the latest standards and video formats. Available on Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS, and Android.Customize appearance with the VLC Skin Editor.Hardware acceleration for fast GPU playback.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 anytime 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.

But if you hate tinkering and just want a media player that's free and works right out of the box, VLC is the answer.

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