You can do all this and more with stellar sound and video quality.Īll media files are easily searchable, and there are media organization tools to help manage your growing collection. It also allows you to play, screencast or easily share your entire library of photos, videos, and music, as well as Blu-rays, DVDs and VOB files.
PowerDVD for Windows 10 is the best video player on this list because it offers a wide range of format support for practically any video or audio file.
You can install plug-ins and codecs to improve compatibility, but you still might not be able to play some videos. You also don’t want to be in a situation where you have multiple players - one audio, one for video, and one for streaming - because your media player can’t handle the files. You can record video, grab screenshots, increase volume beyond the standard 100, manipulate individual audio tracks, have complete control over subtitles and so much more.Since most computers come installed with a video player, why would anyone hassle with downloading a third-party software? Simple, these built-in media and video players only support a limited range of formats, meaning that half of the time you can’t open the files you need. It offers an impressive feature set, but many of those features are tucked away so as not to overwhelm new users, but once you’re aware of all these advanced controls, there’s little VLC won’t let you do. VLC is one of those software tools that you’ll appreciate more with time.
This is one of the most powerful add-on platforms for a media player, and you have many options that allow you to dial in the experience to your tastes in both desktop and Metro mode. VLC also supports feature customization through extensions.
The software has a built-in skin editor that you can use, but there’s also an active community of users who develop custom skins that you can download and install at no charge. Skins allow you to transform the look of the program completely. This means that the application can switch between desktop mode and tablet mode seamlessly and is well suited for use on a Windows 8 HTPC.ĭespite coming with a modern UI by default, this version like all iterations of the VLC media player is highly customizable. Where it differs is that it comes with a modern UI that’s consistent with Metro. At its core, this version is very much the same as any other version of VLC for Windows. More specifically, it includes support for the Windows 8 user experience called Metro. VLC for Windows 8 is a version of VLC that’s specifically designed for the Windows 8 operating system. It also supports most popular audio formats with no codec pack needed, including MP3, MKV and H.264, and if you ever come across a format it doesn’t support, you can usually add support by installing the appropriate codec. The program can play just about anything, including files, discs, streams, webcams and other devices.
Since the beginning, VLC has been free, cross platform and open source, and the developers have strived to support the full range of multimedia that people consume. The VLC media player, often known simply as VLC, is developed by VideoLAN and was first released in 2001. VLC for Windows 8 is a powerful and portable media player and streaming media server.