VLC media player

“My mental list of things like VLC, uBlock Origins, and Kagi are what keep computers usable for me”

“I might want the volume slightly higher without increasing my whole system volume just to hear a quiet section”

“I have never once had VLC tell me that the mkv file I just opened can't be played because I'm not in the right region”

“You can watch them through most media players like VLC without having to download anything shady.”

“I double click on something I want to watch and it opens in VLC. Dead simple and works.”

“The only reason a few of it - like VLC, for example - still survives on the App Store is because some kind people donate the money”

“I virtually never run into a media file that VLC or MPC-HC can't play by default these days”

“in the few cases where the UI basically hasn't changed in a long time (XFCE, VLC, probably more), they fucking love it”

“it lets you mess around with them and maybe get something usable, where other apps would just give up”

“A lot of the programs you use on Windows are actually the exact same ones on Linux be it VLC or Chrome”

“Using VLC 3.7.2 (which uses dav1d for decoding AV1), I played the video continuously on repeat.”

“VLC always renders subtitles at the video's storage resolution and then up/downscales all bitmaps returned by libass individually”

“pretty much anyone I know in the fansubbing or encoding community does not recommend VLC because of various assorted issues”

“VLC tends to be more tolerant of slightly broken files or random issues that you encounter when streaming”

“My main problem with VLC is that when I accidentally hit the wrong key on my keyboard, it is quite often almost impossible to get the settings back”

“on Windows, it often renders things much worse than stock WMP (both legacy and modern). Videos with a lot of motion play especially poorly.”

“VLC does not play a MPEG-TS file very well (although it recognizes the file and plays it, it does not work very well)”

“VLC is glorified because it was a video player that used to be amazing back in the day, but hasn't been for several years now.”

“It seems to me he's talking about using it for re-encoding/conversion as part of your editing workflow and is not really talking about its media playback capabilities. In that sense he is very much correct.”

“VLC is pretty much one of the default things I download on any of my computers.”

“VLC is great for playing stuff back, but can produce some horribly incorrect video files especially if you're dealing with stuff for editing.”

“friends, family and I have been using it for a good 15+ years without encountering the issues folks are describing”

“VLC used the wrong primaries for converting to RGB for a long time (years) even after it being reported to them as wrong”

“It was notorious (to the point of it being a popular meme topic) for video artifacts, slow/buggy seeking, bloated/clumsy UI/menus”

“it's very common to hate on VLC for a variety of imagined (and occasionally real but marginal) issues”

“It's one of the few programs where I expect the exact same look and feel regardless of the underlying OS.”

“it's been the most stable and friendly video player for Windows for a long time”

“This is terrific as I need to support a wide variety of codecs (voice recordings)”

“I used VLC only because of the nightmare of codecs back in the day, and worked well for me for ages.”

“Today with modern tools like VLC or MPV and ffmpeg nearly anything can be viewed, streamed, or locally saved”

“Just download the VLC app on your smart tv and you can stream anything you like.”

“To me, it's like any other application - you double-click the file (or run `vlc file.mp4`), and it plays.”

“VLC and Finamp both work great as players depending on whether you want to just load up files in a directory”

“I still use VLC to this day on Linux because it's still as great as it ever was.”

“Also available on tvOS and you can watch video files from your home NAS or just send them from your iPhone/iPad!”

“On Windows at least VLC has had better alternatives for the past 20 years, both feature and UI wise.”

“I have benefited so much from the versatility and reliability of VLC over the years.”

“VLC also still (or at least recently?) provides APKs you can download to install on very old Android versions.”

“VLC was a godsend a few years ago but I’m not sure what VLC brings to the table nowadays”

“So many hours of fun watching videos over the years, without the constant fear that some odd codec would make the experience impossible.”