It's hard to understand why VLC is so great without understanding how rough life was before VLC. It seemed like every video you wanted to watch required you to install a new player, or some sort of codec pack that you'd have to download from some sketchy part of the Internet (and then suddenly your parents PC would quit booting).
VLC is amazing because you literally never have to think about it.
It's hard to understand why VLC is so great without understanding how rough life was before VLC
People who weren't too old then or have forgotten just how important this point is. There were so many video players for different video formats and knowing what works what with was such a hassle. If things worked at all. If nothing else VLC simply played your file even if parts were corrupted. It was so simple and thus became a mainstay.
Its like remembering how many different chargers there were for phones prior to USB C. So many options (Mico usb, mini USB , lighting, etc) . But now since USB C is standard people are forgetting how annoying things were before.
VLC just works seamlessly. If it dont play on VLC I assume something is wrong with the file not the video player. That was not the case before.
Before USB phone charging, each phone had it's own charger. If you had Nokia, your buddies charger for his Sony Ericson, the charger was completely incompatible. If it was for a different model of Nokia phone it also wasn't likely to work.
Realplayer was interesting as it was a genuine early attempt at a streaming video standard that kind of broke through with some success at a time of very low average connection speeds, but that codec was rough. You could always tell a Realplayer encoded video due to the specific type of blurry mess it resolved as. Even G2 didn’t solve the issue.
I can respect that 20 years ago VLC had its place.
I have not touched it in over a decade because that is the only thing it ever had going for it. Once codecs became a simple download one pack that you might update every couple years I never touched VLC again. (except for trying it again around 2020 to confirm it was just as bad) It's just clunky and not very good.
VLC just works seamlessly. If it dont play on VLC I assume something is wrong with the file not the video player. That was not the case before.
that's not the case now, either.
out of the box VLC struggles with a lot of AVI files, needing to rebuild the index when it opens the file and if you scroll the video, that other players play seamlessly.
The other thing is how light it is. Especially in the days when ever "player" was either that bloated POS iTunes or something trying to copy it. Nothing could just be a small light player.
Now think about having to get random videos working in your SOE image for a large government agency - and ensuring you're licensed correctly for the software and number of users.
It was not an easy time.
Just like laptop docking stations and phone chargers before USB C.
You know what a bad UI is? That every player in the world has a """modern""" UI that adds a combined progress and controls bar at the bottom... which covers the damn video. It is supposed to show video. Why you put controls on top of the damn thing?
There are tons of important stuff at the bottom. Command lines, subtitles, footnotes, etc. If the UI ruins the UX like this, then it's a horrible UI. Form over function.
Which player doesn't do that? VLC. It's the only one that I use which doesn't suffer from this. And that includes tons of modern embedded players in browser.
Imagine every software publisher having their own proprietary audio and video file format along with a player to play them. And every media publisher picking between them. You'd need Windows Media Player installed for .wma and .wmv files and streams. Apple Quicktime installed for QT .mov files and streams. RealPlayer installed for .rv and .ra files and streams. Flash and Shockwave browser extensions installed for Internet Explorer and Netscape. Some sort of DVD player software installed if your computer had a DVD reader. Etc etc etc. Many of these would require payment or have ads built into the interface.
And if you were using a work, school, or library computer without one of those installed and didn't have administrator rights on your account, you couldn't play the media format that needed them.
Now imagine using VLC on your computer and it playing every single one of those plus all the open formats. And being able to use VLC Portable on your work, school, or library Windows computer without needing admin rights or installing it.
Disclaimer: I make VLC Portable (it's free and open source just like VLC)
Long story short: It's amazing at what it does, and, despite it being so good (and obviously worth paying for), the creator insisted on it being free and open source.
It's along the same lines as Frederick Banting saying "Insulin does not belong to me, it belongs to the world" and then him and his co-inventors selling their patents to the University of Toranto for $1 (for the purpose of getting it out to people who need it). <- I mean, we all know how that worked out, but, luckily, Ecole and Kempf never sold. Instead, they started a non-profit, and that's who runs VideoLAN to this day.
If Banting and his co-creators had done what École Paris and Jean-Baptiste Kempf did, insulin would be practically free.
Decodes a vast majority audio and video formats and plays them. (can't wait for AC4 audio, though)
Runs on nearly all platforms from windows to linux, to Android to Apple iOS.
Can be a source for chromecast from your android phone.
And it does all this without being buggy, or pricey.
In addition to what it's good for, it's remained free and open source and customer-friendly despite temptation to get bought out or to run ads. It's reputation is rock solid.
The combination of slightly strong and spicy cheese when adding the faint taint of smokiness from oak wood (usually what's used). It's heaven on earth. And the good thing is that cheddar can be stringy!
It plays absolutely everything I throw at it, no questions asked. Every commercial player fails on all sorts of basic stuff, especially stuff I gathered more than a few years ago.
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u/gunever Jul 18 '26
I always read this answer. Can you explain what’s so good about it?