VLC media player
Cross-platform media player with extremely broad format support.
Why it is included
Decades of maintenance, ubiquitous installs, and dependable playback across OSes.
Best for
Playing almost anything locally without codec hunting.
If you use Windows, Mac, or paid tools
Player alternative to Windows Media Player, QuickTime, Apple TV app file open, and PowerDVD for codec breadth.
Strengths
- Codec breadth
- Streaming
- Conversion features
Limitations
- UI is utilitarian
Good alternatives
mpv
Related tools
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mpv
Minimalist player focused on high-quality playback and scriptability.
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Strawberry Music Player
Qt music player and collection manager forked from Clementine’s lineage.
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SMPlayer
MPlayer/mpv front-end with remembered settings, subtitles, and YouTube stream helpers.
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FFmpeg
Multimedia framework for decode, encode, stream, and filter graphs.
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Spotube
🎧 Open source music streaming app! Available for both desktop & mobile!
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Feishin
A modern self-hosted music player.
