While QuickTime is the default media player, VLC is often the best option for a host of reasons. The main one is that it supports a massive number of both audio and video file formats. The media player is also open-source and available on Windows, Mac, and Linux. VLC Media Player (Windows, MacOS, Linux) 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.

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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.

• 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 is a great free way to access a variety of media files directly on your Mac, with no conversions required. It could stand a bit of a facelift, but overall, it's a convenient app to.
• Portable VLC OS X is the VLC video stream and multimedia player packaged as portable application that you can carry around with you on any portable device, USB thumb drive, iPod, portable hard drive, memory card, other portable device (also on your internal hard disk) as long as it has 140 MB of free space and use on any Mac OS X computer, taking your preferences with you.

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.

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.

• 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.

2. Do I need VLC media player?

Vlc Media Player For Mac Review Cnet

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

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.

Summary :

Sometimes, you may need VLC alternatives because of the annoying 'Rebuilding Font Cache' thing or others. This post lists different VLC alternatives for Windows/Mac. Choose the best VLC alternative 2019 depends on your actual situation.

Have you ever used VLC media player? This post is going to show you some excellent VLC alternatives for Windows/Linux/Mac. You can find a suitable VLC alternative 2019 to play video and audio files.

VLC is a free, open-source, portable, and cross-platform media player and streaming media server developed by the VideoLAN project. It is able to play incomplete, unfinished or damaged video, but it will drive you crazy sometimes.

For example, here is a true story.

I have been using VLC media player for a while and was pleased with it. Then I get a notice about an update, which I did. Now all I get is green lines over the movie. I have tried everything to solve the problem, installing the backup, uninstall and install, with no success. Everything worked great until this update. Does anybody have a solution to this? It is driving me crazy. Please help. Thank you.

In general, a VLC alternative can solve this problem easily. The below are some common problems you might encounter when using the VLC media player.

4 Reasons Why You Need a VLC Alternative

1. VLC is unable to play broken files.

Generally, VLC media player can play unfinished or damaged video. But, sometimes, it cannot play video file and tells you that the file is damaged. Actually, this file is just being downloaded.

2. VLC doesn’t support a few codes and file types.

VLC supports a lot of video and audio codes and formats, but it requires codec settings for a few formats. For many common people, it is a difficult job.

3. VLC crashes without warning.

Sometimes, VLC media player suddenly crashes when you watch some normal files, try to insert subtitle or make it full screen.

4. VLC media player will damage the speakers!

If you are using VLC media player and keep the volume loud for a long time, your speakers could be damaged. Sadly, some manufacturers like Dell say replacing the speakers will not be covered by the hardware warranty. Therefore, please keep the volume down while using VLC.

Now, it is time to look for VLC alternatives to play your video or audio files. No matter you have come across these problems or not, it is a good idea to prepare a suitable alternative to VLC.

You will find many people are searching for VLC alternatives on the Internet. Here, we list different alternatives to VLC media player for Windows/Mac/Linux. Read on and find out which one suits you best.

Part 1. VLC Alternatives 2019 for Windows

VLC is a free video editing software, you might need to look for a VLC alternative because of the unfriendly UI, “Rebuilding Font Cache” thing and other problems. Now, try the following alternatives to VLC media player for Windows.

No 1. Windows Movie Maker

There is no doubt that many people have probably heard of Windows Movie Maker, a video editing tool developed by Microsoft. It not only allows you to watch video, but also lets you edit this video simply, for instance, add text to video.

Related article: How to Add Text to Video in Windows Movie Maker (Step-by-Step Guide).

Now, some users might want to know where to get this tool since it was officially discontinued on January 10, 2017. Fortunately, you can get this Microsoft video editing tool by clicking the following button.

Cons

• It supports playing videos as well as pictures.
• It can edit your videos simply.
• It is able to share your videos on YouTube, Facebook, etc.

Related article: How to Use Movie Maker | Step-by-step Guide for Beginners.

Pros

• Microsoft does not support it now.
• It cannot play music alone.

No 2. 5KPlayer

5KPlayer is a mixture of free (MKV) HD video player and music player. This real media player is compatible with Windows as well as Mac OS X. If your VLC crashes suddenly, you can try this alternative.

Pros

• It supports a lot of video formats, including MKV, M2TS, MPEG1/2, WMV/ASF, AVI, MOV, RM, OGV, FLV, MP4, H.264, M4V, WEBM.
• It can play 4K UHD videos without any glitches.
• It is able to play 1080p or 1080i high-definition videos under 10% CPU cost.
• It can play MP3 AAC APE FLAC music perfectly to activate your senses.
• It can download online videos from YouTube, Facebook, Vimeo, etc.

Cons

This alternative to VLC media player for Windows might be confusing for beginners.

No 3. Windows Media Player

Windows media player is another VLC alternative. It allows you to play video and audio files. Besides, it allows previewing images on personal computers running the Microsoft Windows operating system, as well as on Pocket PC and Windows Mobile-based devices.

Pros

• It provides a less cluttered user interface.
• It offers a better music library.
• It supports network sharing.
• It can access to online music services.

Cons

• It cannot handle 4K, 3D and 360-degree video.
• It doesn’t support for VR headsets.

No 4. Photos App

If you are running Windows 10, you have another great VLC alternative 2019 – Photo app. This Windows 10 hidden media player not only can play video but also can play images. Besides, it can help to trim video.

Related Article: How to Cut Video Easily and Quickly (The Definitive Guide).

Pros

• It can play videos quickly.
• It has a simple, touch-friendly interface.
• It also supports browsing photo, and is able to create albums automatically.
• It has cool video editing effects.

Cons

• It cannot tag faces.
• It doesn’t support panorama stitching and selective focus.

No 5. KMPlayer

KM player can play video as well as audio in Windows. This alternative to VLC supports almost any format that Windows can play including AVI, ASF, WMV, AVS, FLV, MKV, and many more. With the VLC alternative, you can slow down or increase playback speed, select parts of a video as favorites.

Pros

• It supports many audio and video formats.
• It supports 3D and VR and setting related to that.
• It has extensive subtitle management.
• It can capture audio and video.

Cons

Advertisement (There are no hidden or misleading clauses while installing, but we will be asked whether we want to install Avast Antivirus after installing.)

After learning these different VLC alternatives for Windows, you can take a look of the below wonderful video tool.

No 6. MiniTool Movie Maker

MiniTool Movie Maker, free and simple video tool, lets you review videos, and pictures. Besides, it also lets you create videos and slideshow easily and quickly. For instance, I usually use this simple and free tool to create Facebook Slideshow.

Pros

• It supports a lot of video format including WMV, MP4, AVI, MOV, F4V, MKV, GIF, MP3, and so on.
• It offers wizard-like interfaces. This tool can help you create a movie without requiring professional knowledge and skill.
• It offers movie as well as trailer templates. You are able to easily create cool movies or Hollywood-style movie trailers.
• It allows you to make video with pictures easily and quickly.
• It offers some filters to help you change the color, style, or tone in minutes.
• It offers plenty of useful transition effects to make the presentation, slideshow or movie good looking and impressive.
• It not only can split large video into small parts but also can trim video to remove the unwanted frames from the start or end of a clip. More details can be found in How to Trim Video Easily (Step-by-Step Guide with Pictures).

Cons

It only supports Windows OSs, now.

Part 2. VLC Alternative Mac

Mac users can try the following alternatives when the VLC media player isn’t working.

No 1. QuickTime Player

QuickTime player, the best VLC alternative Mac, is the most familiar media players for Mac users. As the default movie player as Mac, QuickTime player is capable of supporting various formats of videos, music, images, and other media files.

Vlc Media Player For Macbook

• QuickTime player enables you to set playback from 1/2x to 3x the normal speed.
• This alternative to VLC is capable of watching videos from hard drive and internet.
• This VLC alternative Mac allows you to screen recording your Mac, edit movies and extract audio from a video. However, you need to purchase the QuickTime Pro license key to unlock the recording, editing and extracting features.

No 2. MPlayerX Media Player

MPlayerX, a free and open source media player, is another VLC alternative.

• It can handle any media format in the world without extra plug-ins or codec packages as it is armed by FFmpeg and MPlayer.
• It provides you the easiest way to control the playback as it will follow your gestures.
• It can automatically and seamlessly detect and convert the encoding method of the subtitle file.

No 3. Movist

Movist, a free, simple yet powerful player for Mac, supports QuickTime, FFmpeg as well as subtitles.

• It is easy to use.
• It owns a beautiful and convenient user interface.
• It is available to adjust aspect ratios and configure keyboard shortcuts.

Unfortunately, this VLC alternative Mac doesn't support Apple remote.

Part 3. VLC Alternative Linux

Let’s start with a true example from my best friend.

I've used VLC in Linux for years. But lately, it's been choking and dying for no discernible reasons and attempts to troubleshoot have failed. Are there any other comparable alternatives for media players out there at the moment?

Now, my friend can try the following VLC alternative Linux.

No 1. Bomi Player

The best VLC alternative Linux, Bomi player (known as CM Player), works well on Linux and provides GUI features.

• This easy-to-use VLC alternative Linux provides some powerful features which you will find in the context menu.
• It supports audio file and subtitle at all.
• It allows browsing your old playlist because it generally saves all your playback record.

Vlc Media Player Download

No 2. SMPlayer

SMPlayer supports for all the default formats as like as other media players.

• This VLC alternative Linux allows you to play YouTube video directly from this player because of its built-in codec.
• This VLC alternative 2019 loads the subtitle of a movie from the internet. And, it saves your all settings when you play video.
• This alternative to VLC is fully resume supported video player.

Your Choice

The above video editing tools are good alternatives to VLC media player. You can choose a suitable one to play your videos.

Which VLC alternatives do you like to choose? Let us know by leaving comments.

Vlc Video Player For Mac

Should you have any other good suggestions about VLC alternatives, please share them with us. Thanks in advance!

VLC Alternatives FAQ

Vlc Media Player For Mac Reviews

1. PotPlayer
2. KMPlayer
3. Media Player Classic – Home Cinema
4. ACG Player
5. GOM Media Player
6. DivX Player
7. Kodi
8. Plex
9. 5KPlayer
10. MediaMonkey

Download Vlc Media Player For Mac

1. VLC Player
2. PotPlayer
3. Media Player Classic – Home Cinema