YES HEALTH: VLC media player

Simply the best multi-format media player

Subtitles
Basic video effects
Playback options
Basic media menu
Video zoom options

ARTICLES VLC MEDIA PLAYER

If you want to play video or music files in just about any format, VLC media player is probably your answer.

Features

Version 2 ("Twoflower") brings a new interface, faster decoding, support for more formats and the ability to play HD and BluRay. It still remains however the most stable, flexible and lightweight audio and video player around today. While other media players will play unusual formats after downloading a codec, or simply refuse to play things,

VLC media player handles tons of formats, from MPEG to FLV andRMBV files. Version 2 has seen some important additions too such as support for 10 bit codes plus multi-threaded decoding for H.264, MPEG-4/Xvid and WebM.

Also useful is the fact that you can use VLC media player to preview files you are downloading since it plays incomplete parts of video files. VLC media player is not just for video playback however. It also offers superb integration with video channel streaming services such as Channels.com giving you access to channels such as ESPN, Reuters and National Geographic. Just right-click or CMD-click on the playlist, select Services Discovery and Channels.com.

Channels.com will then appear in your VLC media player playlist. Click on it to reveal the the different categories of channels available. Click on the category you want and a drop down list of all available channels appears in VLC media player. Just click on the channel you want to watch and streaming should begin almost immediately.

Usability

VLC media player also has great hotkey support and if you take the time to learn the shortcuts so it can be controlled without touching your mouse. If you're watching DVDs or video files through it, this is not an issue. For music, it plays more or less any file and features an equalizer and playlist creation. VLC media player isn't as intuitive as iTunes as a media manager, but it's a much more flexible player in terms of file formats. You can even use VLC to convert your files, and on top of all the formats and physical media it will play, many streaming protocols and TV capture cards are supported.

VLC media player makes it easy to add subtitles to your video files too - just add the SRT file to the folder where your video is kept, and it will automatically play with subtitles.

Finally, the interface in VLC media player has been somewhat improved in version 2 although it remains strictly functional. However, you can download skins to completely change VLC media player's appearance. The preferences menu is comprehensive without being overwhelming, and there is extensive documentation online.

Conclusion

VLC Media Player is quite simply the best multimedia application for Windows and Mac. It plays just about anything, hassle free - what more could you need?

What's new

Rework and fixes of the Mac OS X interface

Fix Pulseaudio initial synchronization

Fix MKV, SWF, AIFF and subtitles demuxer crashes

Translations updates and new Welsh translation

DVB-S delivery system detection

Fix audio and video track selection through libVLC

Fix system sleep issue on Mac OS X 10.5

VLC media player supports the following formats

MKV, WMV, MPEG, MP4, MOV, AVI, DIVX, XVID, FLV, FLAC, WAV, REAL, VOB plus many more

Review last updated: 20/06/13

Pros

Supports a wide range of formats
Good hotkey support
Easy to use
Very flexible and lightweight
Integration with web channel streaming services
Improved interface in version 2
More format support in version 2
Plays BluRay and HD

"Useful, but overhyped"

Definitely one of the best media players, but I find it is a little overhyped. The advantages are well documented but I want to go over some of the details that I don't like so much in this player. Having said that, I still use the player a lot. First of all it's a very ugly player. While this doesn't matter in the long run it would be nice to have something that looks half professional. Secondly there are some features that either take a long time to get used to or work in strange ways. I still find it difficult to set up a playlist. For all of the mention that it supports nearly every video type I still run in to problems with some DVDs (maybe it's because of my PAL region?), sound issues, and graphical errors from time to time which is always disappointing. I think I need more hands on time with the player rather than using it as a backup when others will not work to appreciate the additional features. Having gone over these minor problems I will say that I still love the ease of use, good range of files supported and I will continue to use the VLC player when other players have failed.