Mac › Audio & Video › Players › VLC media player › Comments. VLC media player comments. Watch your favorite movies and listen to your music from one app. Review Comments (17) Questions & Answers (2) 17 comments. Notify me of replies from other users. I have been using VLC for the last 10 years and no other media player has ever come close to delivering the performance that VLC has provided. Apart from the performance it is so lightweight that it can work easily on a dusty 5 year old computer with same efficiency as on any latest computer. Download VLC Media Player for Mac - Multi-platform multimedia player that helps its users play, convert and stream most popular video and formats via a simple and intuitive user interface. Review Free Download specifications 100% FREE report malware. The Good VLC Media Player is a video player with great onscreen controls, numerous ways to upload media and support for both Dropbox and Google Drive. The Bad Building a video library from scratch.

VLC Media Player is one of the most popular media players today. Not only is it free to use, but it also supports a number of file formats without the need to purchase or download any additional components.

You can use it to optimize audio and video for your preferred device. It can support DivC streaming and MPEG. Plus, it allows you to play videos while they’re downloading.

Now, let’s take a look at some of VLC’s pros and cons for us to know whether it’s really worth downloading or not.

VLC Media Player Pros and Cons

Here are the pros and cons of VLC Media Player:

PROS

If you are looking to download and use VLC, then you are in luck because it offers a multitude of advantages. These include:

• Its user interface is simple and straightforward.
• It has all the tools that you need.
• The functions and features are easy to use.
• You can use it to create or connect to a video stream.
• You can control VLC using keyboard shortcuts.
• Some settings can be adjusted according to your preferences.
• You don’t need any codec installation to read music or video files.
• It supports a wide range of file formats and can play files like BluRay, .mov, and .avi.
• It is compatible with OS X.
• It has an in-built equalizer that allows users to boost the sound without distorting the quality.

CONS

Below are some disadvantages of using VLC:

• To play files, you have to open them directly from their respective folders.
• You cannot use tags.
• It can be difficult to find songs in your library.
• You cannot customize the program’s interface.

Features of VLC Media Player

In case you didn’t know, VLC Media Player has a couple of handy features under the hood. All of them can be used every day. So, here’s how to use VLC Media Player, particularly its features:

Download Videos from YouTube

To download a YouTube video, do the following:

1. Go to Media and select Open Network Stream.
2. Put the URL of the YouTube video into the text field and hit the Play button.
3. VLC will begin streaming the video.
4. Now, go to Tools and select Codec Information.
5. Scroll down to the bottom of the window to find the Location box.
6. Copy the URL in the text field and paste it into your browser’s address bar.
7. Your browser will not begin playing the video file. Should you want to save the video, right-click on your screen and choose Save Video As.

Convert Videos to Other File Formats

Of course, downloading the video is the first part. Next, you may want to convert it so that it plays on your preferred device. Thankfully, VLC Media Player allows you to do so. Just follow these steps:

1. Go to the toolbar and select Media.
2. Click Convert/Save.
3. In the dialog box that pops up, click the Add button and select the media file that you want to convert.
4. Go to the Convert/Save dropdown menu and select Convert.
5. Click on the Profile section and choose the file format that you want to convert your file to.
6. Hit Browse and choose a location to save the converted file.
7. Click Start to begin the conversion process.

Audio Normalize for Ear Protection

The general audio settings for the VLC Media Player can be located under Preferences. If you go to it, you will find the Audio Normalization option that allows you to optimize the volume of any media by a certain range.

For a detailed guide on how to use this, follow these steps:

1. Go to Tools and navigate to Preferences > Audio.
2. Enable the Normalize Volume to option. The value you put in here will allow you to adjust the decibel levels of music, gunshots, explosions, and dialogs in the flicks you watch.
3. Restart VLC.

Wrapping Up

VLC is indeed packed with lots of features. So, make the most of this fantastic player and explore its possibilities. But before you do so, make sure your device is optimized for the best audio and video experience. Get rid of any junk files that may play host to viruses using a PC repair tool for Windows and a Mac repair software for macOS. Better yet, install a trusted anti-malware software to ensure no malware entities affect your PC’s overall performance.

Do you think VLC Media Player is a great option? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

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.

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 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.

Vlc Media Player For Mac Review Cnet

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.

Download Vlc Player For Mac

Conclusion

Vlc Video Player For Mac

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.