There are a lot these apps can do that your regular apps cannot.
Heres what you told us.
VLC
This ones a no-brainer, right?
If youve been around a computer for the last decade or so, youve probably heard ofVLC.
And if you havent, your tech-savvy friends have probably mentioned it.
And iftheyhavent,youre all about to get a crash course in all things VLC.
As Lifehacker readerJson Coxwrote:
…VLC is the video monolith.
It has literally NEVER failed me.
Like, not even once.
AndLars Vargas only operates on reflexes and endocrinesaid:
For video, its VLC.
I even use it on my Android devices.
Nothing else comes close to customizability and consistency, not to mention it plays pretty much everything.
WingcommanderIV, who gets bonus points for that Kinja name, echoed similar thoughts.
Though I have a problem with VLC on Xbox where it keeps blacking out my screen randomly.
Ive wondered if its someone like spying on me blacking me out for watching pirated videos.
Does VLC on Xbox allow people to monitor that?
Want to convert video or audio?
It can do that too.
Make a video your Windows desktop background?
Tweak your viewing experience with all kinds of crazy filters and effects?
Unfortunately, active development for the app ceased more than a decade ago.
But then, the open-source community lept to its feet and forged onward!
A forked project,MPC-HC, was born.
And that went well for quite some time, until this project fell by the wayside in mid-2017.
As Lifehacker readerShuffywrites:
I use MPC-HC using madVR as the renderer.
MPC-HC because of its simplicity and wide support of what it can play.
Never had any issues handling almost any format whatsoever.
Its lightweight, performance is fantastic with GPU acceleration support and overall just love the minimal interface.
The player immediately launches without any buttons, timelines, or anything to look at.
All you see is your video, which is a lovely design.
The options you see are the options you get, too: There are no menus in MPV whatsoever.
As Lifehacker readerDanielwrites:
VLC is too complicated.
MPV does everything I need, and I dont need a GUI.
Videos start playing immediately in an uncluttered window.
Full screen with F, scrub with arrow keys, pause with space.
For music, it can shuffle play the directory.
My favorite part of the app?
You dont even have to install MPV.
PotPlayer
I confess, Ive never usedPotPlayer, but Ive heard a ton about it.
I especially likeeverything PotPlayer lets you do with subtitleswhen youre watching a movie.
Its still solid, highly customizable and flexible, looks better than most other tools, and is free.
If youre fan of apps with skins, this ones worth a try.
For some reason those audio tracks cut out all over the place.
PotPlayer works without issue.
Stupid human tricks, though.
I was irritated with PotPlayer because it wouldnt play back HDR media correctly - everything looked washed out.
Id have to use VLC for anything HDR.
Until I found the HDR toggle on the bottom of the PotPLayer playback progress bar.
There isnt another app Id use to stream media from machine to machine; Plex is just that good.
Yes, you’re free to have two media player apps.
What about music?
Lifehacker readers also suggested some apps that they love to useonlyfor playing music.
They include:
Clementine
I simply like the interface and find it easy to navigate.
I have a huge music collection (~70,000 tracks) and like to shuffle everything.
Has lots of features, and it looks really good too, following design conventions for the platform!Embl
