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VideoLan

An open-source video player that can also handle MP3 files and other media files

9.4

427 Votes

Videolan is commonly known as VLC. VLC is a software used by many people to play different video types. It works right out of the box but is also highly customizable making it great for any sorts of consumers. Whether you stream videos all the time and want a native player or just have a collection on your hard drive that you want to watch, VLC will be able to do it for you.

One of the reasons that VLC is used so much by people around the world is that it supports all of the common video types and even a lot that are not very common. If you are on Windows and try to open up a video in Windows Media Player and it will not play, it is likely not able to be played due to the encoding. If that is the case, then you should try opening it up on VLC as it is almost certainly able to play the video.

Aside from supporting all types of videos, VLC has tons of other great features. It allows you to record videos as you are playing them, including from a stream. By doing this, you can potentially record a live stream that you cannot download otherwise. This can be a great feature that comes in handy for whatever videos you are streaming but want to watch later.

There are also good features for your viewing experience as you watch them. For instance, you can change the speed of the video in small and large amounts. Another great feature that you can use is that you can change the delay on the audio in case it is not properly synced with the video. This can be helpful when downloading videos from not exactly authentic sources or any video that may be off. Sometimes a delay effect happens when you wear headphones, which can also be fixed with this handy feature.

If you consider yourself a power user, then you will like all of the customization options VLC has. If you go to settings, you will see about seven different menus of options, which seems like a lot already, but there is more. You can triple, maybe even quadruple the available choices that you can make. These options can change the entire appearance of your videos, prevent skipping, and a whole lot more. You can also slightly change the look of the video player, but you cannot make major changes to it. Other than the look and feel, which will not make much of a difference when it is in full screen.

Pros and Cons

Pros

  • Completely free and trustworthy software
  • Tons of available options
  • Plays almost any time of video
  • Full of features

Cons

  • Not a lot of theming choices
  • May be more resource intensive than other video players
  • May need tweaking to get videos to play properly

Company
VideoLan
HQ Location
N/A
Year Founded
1998
LinkedIn® Page
https://www.linkedin.com/company/2980340 (26 employees)
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