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I Don't Think Vlc Player Is That Great

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Everyone seems to love VLC Player, it's always recommended by people. I've been using it for a long time and at one time I thought it was great too, it replaced Winamp and because my primary video player, but now I think it's only average. It's support of video formats isn't so great, considering it has a reputation of being able to play everything. I found it incapable of playing at least 3 formats of video I have. On Windows, I think a much better option is media player classic. Despite the fact it has the apperance of a Microsoft product, it's much better than VLC from that I can tell. First reason, it's faster. VLC isn't slow, but MPC is faster and has a quicker response from my testing. It just feels right too, when I click on the screen, it pauses. I like that. I don't think VLC does. Two, MPC player has more options for changing the shape of the video (aspect ratio). VLC can do the job, with a few presets, but MPC seems to be easier with more presets, and the ability to resize it with arrow keys. 4:3 and 16:9 presets aren't always enough. Third reason, it's support for different formats is sub-par. I frequently go to other programs to play things that VLC won't play. On Linux, I'm not sure what would be a good alternative to VLC. My current "stable" linux version of VLC has a bug which detaches the video from VLC, and I'm waiting for it to be fixed. Yes, I could download the "unstable" version and fix it, but I could just use Totem too. It does the job. I've found the surprising Xfmedia to be the best at playing my obscure video files, though it's interface is dreadful, so I only use it when my other options failed.So anyway, I don't think VLC is undisputed king of the video players. It's not bad, but it's only a tiny bit above average in my opinion. I didn't take into account any of VLC's advance features, because if there are any I don't often use them.


I like VLC because it is able to play most media files compared to my outdated version of Quicktime. To support the few types of files that VLC can't play, I'm sure you could download another program to fun those files. VLC is a great program, and it runs quite fast for me.


hey, don't diss on VLC! :P they have passed a milestone just recently when their app reached version 1.0 status after all these years in constant development. you gotta try the *newest* version if you only have an outdated one in your media arsenal. microsoft's media player classic doesn't really make the cut for me as an all-in-one media player. and to compare VLC with it? just insane in my opinion. :( it's cross-platform as well so i don't see how it can't be a good media player for other OS other than windows. for screen pause, use the spacebar. aspect ratio? VLC has got 1:1, 4:3, 16:9, 16:10, 2.21:1, and 5:4 which is suitable enough and just fine for me. :lol: "distorting" video using arrow keys via MPC to "normalize" it's view? well, you ought to get a better video to watch which has been encoded well so as not to need that. and i've yet to find a video that i can't run on VLC. anyway, to each his own... you just got to know how to use the app you own to really maximize it's potential.


I'm not dissing VLC really as it was my primary video player for a long time but I started to get disappointed with it after a while. I don't mean Microsoft Windows Media Player, which is way too bloated for me, and would be insane! I mean Media Player Classic, which I think is an open source video player which happens to look a lot like the old style WMP. I don't know think it runs on linux, which is bad news, and means my days of using it are probably over. I haven't found too many alternatives on Linux. Media Player Classic was really the only one I preferred over VLC. Other than that, VLC is probably the best. There are a lot of people who like MPC from what I can tell from a search on google (Media Player Classic VS VLC). I know what you're saying about getting a well encoded video, but I'm on dialup, and often download the lowest quality videos I can find that are watchable, and to make it more watchable, I sometimes shrink the height to make it a bit more clear, though dimensionally distorted, though I live with that. It's better to have everyone looking short than everyone looking pixelated. I realize it's not something most people do, I wish *I* didn't have to, but I liked the option to do it on MPC :P. VLC can still do it somewhat, but I like being able to adjust it manually. As for videos that can't run on VLC. One of the big ones for me is .trp files which I think is some kind of an MPEG TS. These are the files my STB (Satellite box) records. I've downloaded all the codecs I could find, I've asked for suggestions and nothing could get VLC to open it. This is the big reason that made me switch from VLC back on Windows and the big reason I'm still not using it after my switch to linux. I installed Xfmedia and they played with ease. It might not be impossible to get these videos playing on VLC, but I sure wish someone would tell me how!I'll download the new version of VLC, I just hope they have that detached video window bug fixed. I wish it'd play my .trp files too, then I could delete Xfmedia (old faithful .trp player!). My favourite MPC is out of the question on linux so I guess I'll have to move on.. :lol:.


You can always WINE everything! And for those who say that you can't WINE everything, just watch me... :lol: So if media player classic is your favorite and vlc is causing problems, just WINE it!


VLC is good but can't play all the formats. Also i've found it's hard to work with playlist. Just my observation of comfort with player. So i found out K-lite media codec pack. It comes with real player alternative and plays almost every famous file format. Some maybe missing due to copyright issues but as far as i've seen it covers most of the file formats. You can get K-lite media codec pack from here. I'm not sure if K-lite runs on linux without any issue. I've to check it by downloading. In between there are few sites that did reviewed K-lite codec pack for linux. You can check them from google.


VLC isn't perfect but that doesn't mean it's that bad...pick any player available out there and it won't be able to play at least one or two formats. So if VLC isn't able to play your required format, then I guess its just plain bad luck that the format you chose is the one vlc doesn't like!!! And as mahesh2k said, in such cases you can use wine to play your formats in media player classic and other players meant for windows.


I use VLC on Windows and it's quite great, it plays everything I need and usually has no problem, it's light and etc. Mainly I used it for DVD and Video, but I also have K-lite codec pack together with Quick time alternative, so some video formats or sound formats which VLC does not play I watch it through media player classic, those files are usually from mobile phone cameras or some digital cameras which doesn't seem to be supported by VLC and I guess fro some serious reasons, VLC is open source. :lol:


I use vlc player. I would say that is it one of the best media players out there with its light-weight design and customizable interface. I used it for quite a white and it never had any bugs or crashes. Try uninstalling vlc and downloading the newest version. I remember mine was crashing all the time back in the day so I reinstalled it and there were no more crashes afterwards. There are lots of other near features too. If you don't know where to look then check out the vlc player download page. Here's the link to vlc player download page if somebody doesn't know what it is.


I've been using the VLC player for a while and noticed that the playlist feature usually caused the player to crash in the older versions. Version 1.0 was actually quite stable, with playlists working as intended and better support for certain file formats, and just when things took a turn for the better, VLC pops up a message about the availability of 1.1.0, which I upgrade to. I now experience frequent crashes when switching between videos by double-clicking another file while the first file is playing or when using a dual-display setup. I have no clue what I'm going to miss when I hop over to the next version, but I won't even know what I'm going to gain, so what the heck.... "Update Now"

The Simpleton

Maybe VLC isn't the perfect media player out there, but in a way it's like Internet Explorer - it's being used by millions of people and a majority of them will stick by it no matter how finely you prove that it's bad. Of course VLC isn't anything like IE in terms of quality - it's very impressive and I've been using it for a long time, and found very few faults with it. Still, it's the fastest player I could find and I'll stick by it no matter what :)esha's Profile