can i get opinions on VLC player

[genxie]

can I have more than one online video player/driver for watching videos online?...for example i have nvidia/adobe flash on my windows 7 hp laptop now and there are a bunch of different codecs and platforms for watching online. and I was advised to download the VLC player as it covers most of the formats out there including divx ( which caused me so much trouble it may have been responsible for crashing my last laptop - installing/uninstalling older/newer versions ). will the VLC conflict with what I have now?

 

[jberenyi]

Boring GUI and fugly.

 

[Capella]

Uses more memory than windows media player...
For a simple avi file, VCl used 100 mb of mem
Windows media player uses only 40, even less
Also, VCl uses approximately 10 % more cpu on average. The only advantage to VCL is the compatibility with many formats.
@jbereny, Stop randomly criticizing media programs. You also posted something very similar about window smedia player Try to be more positive won't you?
I hope you aren't criticizing them just for the heck of it?

 

[johnwillyums]

I have several media players installed including VLC.
I agree VLC is a fairly plain looking piece of software but I use it to play all kinds of video file formats.
So I use Winamp for music because I like the look and the various skins and visualisations(symplicipod is my favourite) and the sound is fine plus there is a FLAC addon.
Winamp does play video but I've found it to be a bit picky when it comes to video formats.
Consequently I use KMPlayer for movies but that doesn't play everything so if it won't play in anything else it'll play in VLC.
I use WMC with my TV tuner and for streamed TV.
Truth be told I usually go with VLC for all video/movie formats. It's ugly but you only have to look at it for a few minutes and then you're watching a movie so you can't see it and it plays virtually any file format.
I've not had any issues with conflicts.

Hope this helps, John

 

[jimbo45]

Boring GUI and fugly.

If you want to play a video - who needs a huge GUI -- in Full Screen mode - especially if you have a decent monitor - you want to see the movie properly.

If you want tiny screen sizes and a flashy gui watch the movie on an I-Phone or similar -- and get "Square Eyeballs" after a while doing it.

VLC is small, works on Linux as well and plays almost every video and audio codec thrown at it -- and of course we'll even have Blu Ray and HD versions soon that aren't riddled with stupid DRM etc.

Cheers
jimbo

 

[valtonray]

VLC has excellent file support, it's UI is pretty sparse no eyecandy but it does support skinning although i've not looked into that. in my opinion it handles video great but is pretty lackluster when it comes to music. it just sounds flat to me, this can be fixed but i shouldn't have to. the settings can be pretty confusing if you don't know what it all means but overall it's a pretty good video player, personally i use the portable version that i keep in the cloud with a shortcut to it on my task bar, which is nice since it resides off the system.

 

[Etihtsarom]

VLC has few bugs that are not worked out yet. Hardware acceleration isn't properly done and the player consequently crashes/stutters. As well, video image quality is not optimal. It does offer the codecs advantage, but that is nullified by better players out there, Media PLayer Classic Home Cinema for example. VLC was my favorite for a while until I started using it for mkv 1080 playback when these problems started showing up throughout various builds. Try it for yourself and see, if none of these problems occur for you, you'll find it the best one to have, else, switch to MPCHC.

 

[severedsolo]

it does the job... as mentioned previously though it doesnt exactly look great, also the Volume controls dont remember themselves, they automatically reset to 100% each time (out of 200%... yeah i dont understand that either) as well as a "hidden" volume control that is accessed by spinning the mouse wheel, which again resets to default levels everytime you open it, the only thing i can say that makes it "better" than WMP is it plays MKV files,

 

[Fantail]

It plays media and will remind you of construction zones on the highway.

 

[fseal]

Hahaha. Yes VLC is all that but it is a handy tool to have though in case youDON'T have a codec fo rthat ONE file you wanna play..

The answer to the main question though is VLC is entirely self contained and plays well with others. So installing it will not affect any other player or codec installs or conflict with them in anyway (other than possibly taking over file associations though I don't think it does that without giving you the option of saying no).

 

[smarteyeball]

Boring GUI and fugly.

oh noes - it must be bad then :sarc:

I don't use a lot of exotic formats/containers and it handles 97% of what I throw at it. It's my primary video file player.

 

[severedsolo]

Hahaha. Yes VLC is all that but it is a handy tool to have though in case youDON'T have a codec fo rthat ONE file you wanna play..

The answer to the main question though is VLC is entirely self contained and plays well with others. So installing it will not affect any other player or codec installs or conflict with them in anyway (other than possibly taking over file associations though I don't think it does that without giving you the option of saying no).

it takes over file associations automatically.... i had to go through manually changing everything back to WMP

one thing i WILL say in its favour, is it is very good about telling you when its talking to the internet, on installation it says quite clearly (obviously i paraphrase) "id like to talk to the internet sometimes to get album names and such, but if you dont want me to tell me now and ill only do it when you tell me to" rather than this being "default behaviour" with WMP

 

[Lebon14]

If you want a cool looking all-around video player, get The KMPlayer. But, The KMPlayer is a little harder to get around (mostly because the menus aren't as well organized as VLC). But I think The KMPlayer is better IMO. It offers image options like Brightness and stuff whereas VLC doesn't. Also, unlike VLC, The KMplayer doesn't have subtitles problems...

There is two things, I think, VLC is better at though : It's not only for Windows and the development is much more active than The KMPlayer.

Excuse me for my The KMplayer fanboy side.

 

[Dinesh]

Been using VLC for years. One of the best free essential software.

 

[zigzag3143]

I agree with Dinesh. Been using it forever and it is the only player I use.

 

[Dinesh]

It is the only player I use.

Me too.

 

[RST101]

The kmplayer is better.

 

[KazeNoKoe23]

Honestly I never liked VLC. Dunno why really, but I just couldn't get used to it. Personal preference is MPC-HC + Shark007's codec pack.

 

[Guy with a Colt]

I perfer BS Player, It uses less memory when watching video's or listening to your music. It also downloads codecs.
Yes you may have to pay for it.

I've used VLC Player for some time too, I had too many issues with it.
For 3 years now I've been using BS Player. Touch wood, it hasn't let me down.

 

[smarteyeball]

I tried KmPlayer, was impressed by it's feature set, but ultimately it wasn't for me. I've also tried plenty of other different players.

Basically it boils down to personal preferences and needs.

If it does what you want - then it's for you, but it's always imperative to have a back up when your main player decides not to play ball on the odd occasion.


BTW, in case any VLC users missed it - the latest release is now 1.0.5:

VLC media player for Windows