VLC (initially VideoLAN Client) is a highly portable multi-platform multimedia player for various audio and Video formats (MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, DivX, mp3, Ogg, OGM, MOV, wma, wmv...) as well as DVDs, VCDs, and various streaming protocols. TheVideoLAN project targets multimedia streaming of MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4 and DivX files, DVDs, digital satellite channels, digital terrestial television channels and live videos on a high-bandwidth IPv4 or IPv6 network in unicast or multicast under many OSes.
VideoLAN also features a cross-platform multimedia player, VLC, which can be used to read the stream from the network or display video read locally on the computer under all GNU/Linux flavours, all BSD flavours, Windows, Mac OS X, BeOS, Solaris, QNX...
Rewrite of the playlist (tree structure, input preparsing ...)
Preferences improvements
XML parsers
Client-side SSL/TLS support
Massive Matroska improvements
Support for SOCKS proxy
Support for Shoutcast Meta-data
Support for (HE-)AAC raw-audio streams
TiVo demuxer
Samba (Windows shares) access module
Dirac decoder and encoder
PNG decoder/encoder
Support for Apple Lossless Audio Codec
Services discovery modules (brand new SAP module, HAL discovery, DAAP (iTunes shares), shoutcast)
Support for 20/24 bits LPCM
Video snapshot support (png or jpg)
Image file video output (png)
Mosaic (picture-in-picture system)
Pocket PC port
Brand new Internet Explorer ActiveX plugin
Changes in VLC (VideoLAN Client):
Demuxers
* Fix wmv/asf issues that caused audio to drop
* Various fixes for ac3, mp3, dts and stability for wav format
* Fix seek in RTSP in conformity to RFC 2326
* Fix Dailymotion access script
* Fix crashes in xspf files handler
* Fix seeking and timing issues in some flv files on Windows version
Access
* Add extra caching for files on network shares
* Prevent integer underflow in Real pseudo-RTSP module, discovered by tixxDZ, DZCORE Labs, Algeria
Decoders
* Fix seeking in mpeg2 video files
* Improve SSA subtitles rendering
* Update most codecs for the Windows and Mac version
Muxers
* Fix sound recording of .flv files with mp3 audio
Qt Interface
* Possibility to change the opacity level of the Fullscreen controller
* Fix various crashes and VIDEO_TS folders opening
Mac OS X Interface
* Added options to disable support for Apple Remote and Media Keys
* Fixed options for Volume, Last.fm password and Subtitle Encoding
* Fixed redraw issues when autosizing the video window
* Preferences panel now includes help through tool-tips
* More reliable Information and Messages panels
* Fix various crashes
Windows port
* The ZVBI module is now available for Windows, for complete teletext support
Download VLC media Player Portable | FileSonic
Features
The VLC player is truly versatile. It plays the largest number of media files of any of the media players I've found. And, unlike QuickTime, you don't need to download any codecs for it to support these formats. The list of media formats that VLC supports is available here.
I know I have found the VLC player indispensable when it comes to playing OGM or MKV files. The VLC player not only supports both OGM and MKV, but also has subtitle and audio track preferences to make the whole process of playing them that much easier. Can QuickTime do that? I don't think so.
Not only does it support various video files (like DVD and VCD), it also supports a large variety of audio files. However, it is not as convenient to play audio files on the VLC player as it is with another audio player like iTunes considering the short nature of most audio. If you are going to listen to something of any length, a VLC player would be a good idea. If you just want to listen to music, I suggest you find a different audio player.
Ease of Use
Not only does the VLC support almost any type of audio/video format you can think of, it is also easy to use. While some of the features are very Windows (it is cross platform software), it is simple enough to figure out. I find it easiest to open everything with Quick Open File over Open File since Open File is a little more advanced. The Mac version of the VLC player even looks very Mac OS X like.
Overall
The VLC player really is your Macs one stop shop for all things media. I no longer use any other media player at all (besides iTunes) on my Mac. Why switch between several different media players when VLC has everything you could want in one and more?
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