VLC Media Player is a worldwide media player on multiplatform. You can get comprehensive format support and video streaming/converting/editing functions. There are many positive comments about VLC Media Player. However, some people think VLC Media Player is overpraised. VLC Media Player is not as good as other people describe. Is VLC Media Player the best? You can check the following VLC Media Player review to find your answer. Moreover, you can get some nice VLC Media Player alternatives to play multimedia files smoothly as well.
VLC has held the media player crown for years, even before graduating from its beta phase in 2009. The free, open-source software is capable of playing just about any media format you can imagine.
VLC Media Player for Mac is a powerful and efficient app for playing all kinds of media in multiple formats right on your Mac. With this app in place, you can just download and watch what you want, without having to worry about formats, compatibility, and conversions. Spiciest Positive Review Nov 4, 2014 'Excellent utility for playing almost any type of video. VLC media player is my daily driver for playing just about everything. Very few formats it's not capable of playing. Great on Windows and Mac and Linux VLC media is a great alternative to the default player that comes with your Operating System. There are many alternatives to VLC Media Player for Mac if you are looking to replace it. The most popular Mac alternative is MPV, which is both free and Open Source.If that doesn't suit you, our users have ranked more than 100 alternatives to VLC Media Player and loads of them are available for Mac so hopefully you can find a suitable replacement. VLC media player is a media player - audio and video - for desktop operating systems such as Windows, Linux and Mac OS X. It comes with a set of binary codecs so that it supports all major audio and video file formats and lots of lesser known formats right out the box.
Part 1: VLC Media Player Review
Here are some unbiased reviews of VLC Media Player software. You can know what VLC Media Player is, what you can/cannot get from VLC Media Player and other questions in details.
VLC Media Player Overview
• Multiplatform
VLC Media Player is a free and open source media player that runs on almost all platforms. You can download VLC Media Player for Windows, Mac, iOS, Android and Linux from its website or official stores safely.
• Multimedia
Thanks to the powerful input media and formats support, you can use VLC Media Player to play most popular media files. In spite of the common video and audio formats, you can use VLC Media Player to play Blu-rays, DVDs, audio CDs, VCDs and other streaming protocols.
• Safe & free to use
VLC Media Player is completely free to use. There is no spyware, bundleware, ads or user tracking before/during/after playing with VLC Media Player.
VLC Media Player Pros
- VLC Player is capable to play media files, discs, webcams, devices and streams for free on multiplatform.
- Play all formats including MPEG-1/2, DivX 1/2/3/4/5/6, MPEG-4, ASP, MPEG Layer 1/2/3, Vorbis, DTS, etc.
- Convert video/audio, sync subtitles, filter video/audio and apply other effects.
- Hardware decoding. The media loading speed is fast.
- Support screen recording with VLC Media Player.
VLC Media Player Cons
- The VLC video player interface is not straightforward.
- VLC cannot play damaged or unfinished videos.
- Still need to download codecs for some video and audio formats.
- VLC Player crashes during playing or subtitle inserting occasionally.
- Playing videos with loud volume using VLC will damage the speakers.
Part 2: Top 5 VLC Media Player Alternatives for Windows and Mac
The user-friendlessness UI and unstable media playing problems makes VLC Media Player not so good. If you want to get smooth audiovisual experience, you can try the following media players as well. These are highly-recommended VLC Media Player for Windows, Mac, iOS and Android alternatives.
Top 1: Vidmore Player – Play Videos and Discs What VLC Cannot Play
VLC cannot play DRM-protected Blu-ray and DVD discs. If you want to get seamless Blu-ray and DVD playback, Vidmore Player can be your best VLC alternative. All kinds of discs, folders and ISO files are supported. You can enjoy DVD and Blu-ray movies with HD image quality and lossless sound effect. The intuitive interface and easy-to-use options are friendly to all users.
- Play the latest Blu-ray or DVD disc, folders and ISO files losslessly.
- Open all types of videos, including 4K UHD and 1080p/720p HD videos.
- Offer navigational menu support and customizable controls to personalize video playback experience.
- Get the surround sound effect with the advanced audio encoding technologies.
- Adjust image effects, take snapshots, change subtitles, switch audio tracks and enjoy smooth playback.
Top 2: Windows Media Player – Burn CD and DVD with VLC Alternative
Windows Media Player is pre-installed on Windows computers and Windows mobile-based devices. You can use Windows Media Player 12 to play video and audio on Windows 7 for free. Moreover, you can burn CDs and DVDs by using Windows Media Player on your Windows computer. This is a new feature that you cannot get from VLC player for Mac or Windows. In addition, you can use Windows Movie Maker as your free VLC video editor alternative for Windows.
Pros:
- Create playlists and mix up songs from different albums.
- Rip a CD for free without installing anything else.
- Play Blu-rays with Windows Media Player.
Cons:
- MP3 and Windows Media Audio are all your choices for output audio formats.
- There are limited sound quality options in Windows Media Player.
Top 3: Photos – VLC Player Free Alternative for Windows 10
The Photos app is a free VLC Media Player for Windows 10 alternative you can consider. You can open not only images, but also videos on Windows 10 within Photos. There is a built-in Video Editor app within Windows 10 Photos app. You can create a videos using your photos in a short time easily. Compared with VLC player, Photos has a better interface.
Pros:
- Play, edit and share videos on Windows 10 for free.
- Trim videos to delete unwanted clips on Windows.
Cons:
- No face tagging feature.
- Lack the panorama stitching or selective focus support.
Top 4: QuickTime Player – A Good Competitor of VLC Media Player for Mac
QuickTime Player can be your free VLC alternative for Mac as well. You can play most videos and music files on Mac directly. Furthermore, the built-in QuickTime screen recording features work better than VLC screen recorder. You can record Mac, iPhone and iPad screen video and audio for free within QuickTime Player.
Pros:
- Play media files with high quality and 1/2/3x faster playback speed.
- Watch the local and online streaming videos on Mac.
Cons:
- Need to upgrade to QuickTime Pro to unlock its video editing and recording features.
- Cannot work with common subtitle files.
Top 5: MPlayerX – Free and Open Source VLC Alternative
Being a free and open source media player, MPlayerX is often compared with VLC. You can watch videos without extra plugins or codecs on multiplatform. The auto subtitle detecting and converting feature can sync your subtitle seamlessly.
Pros:
- A lightweight and free media player alternative to VLC on Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS and Android.
- Be compatible with Apple Remote. You can control the video playback remotely.
Cons:
- The MPlayerX in Mac App Store is outdated. You need to update MPlayerX to the latest version manually.
- MPlayerX download package contains bundled software. You need to be careful and deselect unwanted programs manually.
Part 3: FAQs of VLC Media Player
What VLC Media Player portable alternatives to choose?
If you are looking for VLC for mobile alternatives, you can take a look at GOM Player, MX Player, BS Player, GPlayer, Dice Player, Winamp, KMPlayer and more. These video and audio players are alternative to the VLC Media Player app.
How to fix VLC blinking or flickering?
The VLC video flickering problem is quite common on NVIDIA graphic adapters with HDMI connected projectors. To stop VLC screen flashing issues, you can go to Preferences. Choose Video and then change from direct3d11 to direct3d9. Or you can choose Preferences followed by Input/Codecs to disable hw decoding.
Why is VLC not opening and how to fix?
The VLC registering and setup process may not be completed. Delete the VLC installer folder first. Later, you can uninstall and reinstall VLC Media Player. Restart your computer to see if the VLC won’t open problem still exist or not.
VLC is a free media player and editor that is worth to try. Moreover, there are also many other powerful media players in the market. If you are not satisfied with the VLC disadvantages, you can get a better choice from the above VLC Media Player alternatives.
VLC media player is an open source and free multimedia player for videos, audios, DVDs, audio CDs, VCDs and various streaming protocols. Besides the playback features, is there any special feature about the program? When you want to get a simple guide about VLC media player, just read the article and get the desired information accordingly.
It is impossible to play Blu-Ray movies with VLC media player on Windows or Mac. What should you do? Of course, there are lots of other drawbacks of the program. The article also shares 5 alternatives for Windows and Mac to enjoy the desired file format with ease.
Part 1: A Simple Guide About VLC Media Player
Brief review about VLC Media Player
VLC media player is more than a multimedia player for Windows and Mac. It supports almost all file formats without downloading extra code. Is that all for the program? Actually, there are some excellent features you should know about the program.
1. Convert video and audio files. Whether you need to convert a video to another unsupported device, or extract audio from a video file, VLC media player should be the right choice.
2. Stream over the media files via the Internet. Once you set up VLC media player as a media server, you can watch the videos from YouTube and online streaming sites with ease.
3. Control the media playback from a browser. VLC has integrated HTTP server that you can enable. After that you can remote control a media center PC from a web browser.
4. Tweak video and audio effects and synchronization. Besides the basic crop, rotate, overlay, color video, atmolight, you can also tweak the way a video’s audio and video streamline up.
5. Set the videos as the desktop wallpaper. If you have some favorite clips about your kids or family, you can always enjoy the function, which is not available for the other media players.
6. Besides the above features, you can also access more other features with some add-ons. When you need to explore other functions, you can search for the add-ons for VLC media player.
Free Vlc Player Mac
Cons
- 1. It does not work with any type of Blu-Ray files, such as Blu-Ray discs/ISO files and folders. Moreover, you might find some purchased DVDs cannot work or won't play DVD with VLC.
- 2. Copyright protection, region code and more other restrictions should be another drawback of the program. It only works with the standard DVDs and video files.
- 3. The program crashed out of the blue on multiple occasions. When you need to play some large video files, especially exploring its menus, the VLC media player might crash.
How to play DVDs and videos with VLC Media Player
Of course, watch the videos and DVD should be the most important function of VLC media player. How to play DVDs and videos with VLC? Here is the detailed process that you should know.
Download and install VLC media player on Windows 10 or Mac. Click on the icon to launch the program on your computer. In order to play the DVDs, you have to insert the one you want to play in the DVD drive.
Import the DVD movies into the program. Usually the program is able to play the DVD disc automatically. Of course, you can also click the “Open Disc” option from the “Media” menu.
In order to choose the desired DVD playback mode, you can click the “Open Media” dialog box, which enables you to select various playback options, such as alternate audio or subtitle track.
Now you can enjoy the DVD or videos with VLC media player. You can use the controls to pause the playback, watch the movies in full screen, and adjust the volume as desired.
Part 2: Top 5 VLC Media Player Competitions for Win/Mac
Are there some VLC Media Player alternatives to enjoy all the video files, including all the DVDs and Blu-Ray discs? Here are the top 5 VLC media player alternatives you have to take into consideration.
Top 1: Free Blu-Ray Player – Best Free VLC Media Player
Whether you need to play videos, DVDs or Blu-Ray disc, Free Blu-ray Player is the best VLC media player alternative for free. It supports commercial DVD, home made DVD, Blu-Ray disc/folders/ISO files. Just drop any video into the program, which you can enjoy them with a high quality without problem.
- 1. Support Blu-Ray, DVDs, HD videos, most of the video and audio formats.
- 2. Compatible with different audio channels and playing technologies.
- 3. Multiple screen modes with full, half, normal, double to enjoy the movies.
- 4. Capture the favorite snapshot while you watch the video files.
Top 2: SMPlayer
Just as VLC media player, you can use SMPlayer to play most of the video files as well as the YouTube files. Moreover, you can also find the settings for subtitles, graphic equalizer, screenshot tool, adjustable playback speed, customizable playlist, options to customize the skin of the user interface and more.
Vlc Video Player For Mac
- 1. Read audio CDs, DVDs, VCDs, ISO images via title, chapter and angle.
- 2. Custom the position, font, color and other parameters of the subtitles.
- 3. Advanced video equalizer to adjust brightness, color, hue and more.
- 4. Remember all tweak done for each individual video file you play.
Top 3: MX Player
MX Player is another VLC media player alternative to watch a wide variety of file formats. You can stream videos directly from the Internet on your MX Player app for the PC. When you need to further customize the media player, you can take advantage of the additional plugins to tweak the program according to requirement.
- 1. Add video/audio files to the media player to playback in a batch process.
- 2. Multiple editing features to crop, edit, cut, and apply video effects.
- 3. Support various subtitles with various formats, txt, sub, psb and srt.
- 4. Swipe gestures to play, pause, resume, rewind and fast-forward.
Top 4: BS Player
BS Player is more than a media player to play videos, music files, DVDs, stream TV shows, podcasts, radio files and more. The VLC media player for Windows 10 alternative has all essential codecs to play most the video formats. There are tons of options and useful specialization to customize the media player as expected.
- 1. Support DivX, HD, AVC video, movie, audio, DVD and YouTube files.
- 2. Display the subtitles in different types, srt, sub, txt and more.
- 3. Built-in option to hardware accelerates all video and audio playback.
- 4. Expand control for configuring and playing videos, DVDs, audios, radio, etc.
Top 5: Media Player Classic – Home Cinema
When you want some light-weighted media player as VLC media player alternative, MPC-HC is the desired tool that supports all common video and audio file formats available for playback. Besides the high quality video and audio formats, it all supports image files, such as BMP, TIFF, PNG, GIF files.
- 1. Watch movies on any SSE2 CPU, even on a computer back from 2000.
- 2. Compatible with most of the video formats, including 4K videos.
- 3. Support high quality audio files, such as WAV files up to 96KHz/32bits.
- 4. It can be used as a DVB player for unprotected video files from iTunes.
Part 3: FAQs of VLC Media Player Alternatives for Windows/Mac
1. What files can VLC play?
VLC can play most popular formats, including: Container formats: ASF, AVI, FLAC, FLV, Fraps, Matroska, MP4, MPJPEG, MPEG-2 (ES, MP3), OGG, PS, PVA, QuickTime File Format, TS, WAV, WebM. Audio coding formats: AAC, AC-3, DV Audio, FLAC, MP3, Speex, Vorbis.
Vlc Media For Mac
2. Do I need VLC media player?
VLC Media Player is a popular cross-platform media player that supports almost all file formats without the need to download additional codecs. For good reason, it is completely free. If your budget is limited, VLC deserves a try.
3. Is VLC better than QuickTime?
QuickTime Player is bundled into the macOS, thus it becomes the default option for a lot of Mac users. However, VLC is often the best option since it is available on Windows, Mac, and Linux. And it supports the widest range of both audio and video file formats.
4. How to play 1080p videos smoothly on VLC?
From VLC official website, we learn that MP4 is one of VLC Media Player supported video formats, but you must know that VLC Media Player is only compatible with MPEG-4 ASP, DivX 4/5/6, XviD, 3ivX D4 and H.264 / MPEG-4 AVC.
Conclusion
Download Vlc Media Player For Mac
When you want to enjoy videos, DVDs and Blu-Ray discs, VLC media player is one of the best choices. It should be a versatile media player with advanced features. But there are lots of drawbacks, such as the DVD region and DRM restrictions. In order to enjoy all the videos, the article also shares top 5 VLC media player alternatives on Windows and Mac you should know. Just learn more about these programs and choose a desired one accordingly.