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VLC's latest version: 81,297,899 downloads and rising
By the time you're reading this, the download number for the latest version of the popular VLC Media Player is well past 81,297,899. And for good reason.As cross-platform, plays-every-type-of-media-file, and-for-free players go, it's tops in a lot of people's bookmarks. It's one of those toolkit apps that we have ready to go for the right occasion. You know, those moments when a friend gets a new Macbook and wants to play AVI (or MPEG, MOV, MP4, and many more) files. They ask you, and you fire back "VLC" without hesitation.
It's tough to get this type of mass following and community around an application, but VideoLAN has done it.
With really easy installs on Windows, Mac, and all of the popular flavors of Linux, there's no excuse not to give this a try if you haven't yet.
The major knock on VLC has been its bland interface, which obviously isn't their main focus with this app. But with skins you can liven it up a bit. It even works with Winamp skins. Remember Winamp? Of course you do, heck, some of us still use it (but refuse to admit it).
Give it a shot, put it in your toolkit. Pretty or not, it gets the job done.
Comments
32
Subscribe to commentsDrew OlanoffMay 21st 2008 6:52PM
This is why you guys rock. I didn't even know that. Weee! I love portable stuff, I keep Opera on a USB drive at all times.
hazardMay 22nd 2008 12:00AM
VLC is portable by design anyway .. you don't need a special "portable" version as you can copy the program files to any computer/drive and it works cause like mplayer as everything's built-in .. the installer is just there for shell integration etc ..
GilbertMay 21st 2008 6:55PM
VLC is by far the best media player I have come across. No fuss plays everything. Nuff said.
HaploMay 21st 2008 7:41PM
AIMP2 is also incredibly good as an audio player. I've been using it replacing winamp for some time now, only drawback is no gapless playback.
CGAMay 22nd 2008 3:20AM
[quote]AIMP2 is also incredibly good as an audio player. I've been using it replacing winamp for some time now, only drawback is no gapless playback.[/quote]
Totally agree, recently begun using this as my music player and it's awesome.
Why people are still using VLC is totally beyond me when there are far superior alternatives as GOM player and KMplayer.
DarkbhuddaMay 22nd 2008 4:43AM
I play everything threw VLC except wmv and mpg files which don't work so well on it.
adam.thorMay 22nd 2008 5:52AM
For video playback I use Gom player and KMplayer, and for audio AIMP2. If you haven't tried any one of those, please do. :)
JamesMay 22nd 2008 1:48PM
I had been using VLC player for years as it was the most simple with the most comprehensive codec support but it always gave me some trouble with certain files and at times became a bit unstable. Especially with DVDs. I just got on the GOM Player http://www.gomlab.com/eng/ bandwagon and found that it seems to have even greater codec support and plays DVDs even better, as well as flash. It's more beginner friendly in my opinion too. Anyone tried both and have a preference.
JamesMay 22nd 2008 2:40PM
I got used to the interface for Media Player Classic, so I only fire up VLC for things that won't work in MPC, and sometimes for transcoding. It's got a pretty good command-line transcoding interface, though sometimes it screws up the audio offsets on my MythTV recordings (which unfortunately means I just have to switch to something else for "problem" recordings...). Good program, just not the interface for my tastes.
idodialogMay 23rd 2008 12:40PM
Like others, it is a mystery to me how this player has the following it does. The "throw anything you like at it" just doesn't hold up, the interface is worse than clunky with or without skins, it has some non standard behaviors in windows (can't move it around) it doesn't play nice with dual monitors etc
And I call out for the two Russian apps Gom and AIMP both terrific powerful players (video and Audio respectively)(and AIMP takes winamp plugins too!)
arteseaMay 27th 2008 4:18PM
Because I can run it off a USB stick on my work PC and watch movies / TV programmes during my lunch break.
kumarAug 21st 2008 6:51AM
nice