VLC is a free and open-source media player available for multiple operating systems, including Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux. It is well known for incorporating a large number of codecs, as well as supporting region-free DVD playback via libdvdcss.
Format Support
Readable formats
- Input
- UDP/RTP unicast or multicast, HTTP, FTP, MMS, RTSP, RTMP, DVDs, VCD, SVCD,CD Audio, DVB, Video acquisition (via V4l and DirectShow), RSS/Atom feeds, and from files stored on the user's computer.
- Container formats
- 3GP, ASF, AVI, FLV, Matroska, Musical Instrument Digital Interface (.mid/.midi), QuickTime, MP4, Ogg, OGM, WAV, MPEG-2 (ES, PS, TS, PVA, MP3), AIFF, Raw audio, Raw DV, MXF, VOB, RM.
- Video formats
- Cinepak, Dirac, DV, H.263, H.264/MPEG-4 AVC, HuffYUV, Indeo 3, MJPEG, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4 Part 2, RealVideo 3&4, Sorenson thus enabling direct playback of the modified Sorenson H.263 encoded videos downloaded from YouTube), Theora, VC-1, VP5, VP6, VP8, DNxHD, ProRes and some WMV.
- Subtitles
- DVD, SVCD, DVB, OGM, SubStation Alpha, SubRip, Advanced SubStation Alpha, MPEG-4 Timed Text, Text file, Vobsub, MPL2, Teletext.
- Audio formats
- AAC, AC3, ALAC, AMR, DTS, DV Audio, XM, FLAC, MACE, Mod, MP3, PLS, QCP, QDM2/QDMC, RealAudio, Speex, Screamtracker 3/S3M, TTA, Vorbis, WavPack, WMA (WMA 1/2, WMA 3 partially).
Output formats for streaming/encoding
VLC can transcode into several formats depending on the operating system.
- Container formats
- ASF, AVI, FLV, Fraps, MP4, Ogg, Wav, MPEG-2 (ES, PS, TS, PVA, MP3), MPJPEG, FLAC, QuickTime, Matroska
- Video formats
- H.263, H.264/MPEG-4 AVC, MJPEG, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4 Part 2, VP5, VP6, VP8, Theora, DV
- Audio formats
- AAC, AC3, DV Audio, FLAC, MP3, Speex, Vorbis
- Streaming protocols
- UDP, HTTP, RTP, RTSP, MMS, File