A typical computer has outgrown the simple internet search and email capability. Almost all households are now using some form of streaming audio and/or video. Be it radio, talk shows, user generated videos or full blown TV episodes - every possible kind of entertainment has been ported to the Net. For a computer to be able to play all the various media a variety of conditions have to met - browser plugins must be installed, media players must have all the required audio and video codecs. For example Windows Media Player often spits out errors for ‘missing codec’ or ‘unable to play video’. You might upgrade to the latest version but to no avail. VLC on the contrary is able to play anything that I throw at it.

From VLC website - VLC media player is a highly portable multimedia player for various audio and video formats (MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, DivX, mp3, ogg, …) as well as DVDs, VCDs, and various streaming protocols. It can also be used as a server to stream in unicast or multicast in IPv4 or IPv6 on a high-bandwidth network.

Features - I have been able to play any and all kinds of video with VLC - from mp4 to ogg and from avi, wmv to DVD’s & it can even play Flash files (.FLV). How cool is that! Check out the full feature list on their site - http://www.videolan.org/vlc/features.html The only place VLC falls short is playing video/audio inside the browser which Windows Media Player and Real Player are adept at. You can learn more about VLC and download VLC completely free of charge or any subscription service. It is licensed under GPL and is completely free to use.

Skins - VLC allows for various skins to be applied. See the wide range of skins available here -http://www.videolan.org/vlc/skins.php
Screenshots - If you wish to check out the player before downloading and installing it VLC site has a large selection of screenshots - http://www.videolan.org/vlc/screenshots.html

Install Procedure - A detailed installation video is available on the TeqEdge site. It shows how you can have a personalized media player which is completely free, allows you to skin it and plays any media. Install is straightforward and very easy as seen in the video. Check it out - http://teqedge.com/doku.php?id=all-in-one.media.player

Did you like this article? Subscribe to our full RSS feed or subscribe via email.