VLC’s compatibility rating makes it easy to organize, listen, and view all different formats of media, not matter what operating system you have. This includes media that has been damaged or media with broken streams. VLC also has a high quality viewing and audio rating. Each player can be customized to fit its user, by simply downloading custom skins free from the internet.

Among the customized skins and quality viewing with broken media, VLC has a plethora of other main features that set them apart from the competition. One of the most unique features associated with VLC is the absence of codecs. A codec is a device or computer program capable of encoding and/or decoding a digital data stream or signal. Most media players require them to play different formats. This download comes equipped with all the necessary codecs in order to play the many media formats.

The fact that VLC does not need additional codecs in order to perform efficient media playback for all kinds of digital formats requires users to download less free material from the internet, which can make their system vulnerable to more viruses. By eliminating the need for more downloads, VLC is an effective, secure, and advanced choice for a multimedia player.

VLC Media Player is available for multiple operating systems and can handle any number of digital media formats. At first glance the product website shows all its unique features. Among these features the websites lists which formats are supported by the player. These formats include, but are not restricted to DVD, FTP, Audio CD, MPEG, and DVB files. However, Real Player files are only partially supported for all operating systems on the input side. VLC is a versatile program that has few limitations. The website illustrates the viewing quality of HD movies and concentrates on its playback features.

VLC is an open source program, which means that software developers are free to make any tweaks and changes that they see fit. The default distribution of VLC includes a large number of free decoding and encoding libraries, avoiding the need for finding proprietary plug-ins. Many of VLC’s codecs are provided by the libavcodec library from the FFmpeg project. It also gained distinction as the first player to support playback of encrypted DVDs on Linux by using the libdvdcss DVD decryption library. Based on the versatility in custom skins, all the digital formats the program can support, and its open source seal, VLC gets users a bargain package deal.

VLC Media Player, from VideoLan, is an open source software that is light on your computer. The software’s interface is simple, but houses a lot of high-tech features not always found in association with other media player downloads.

The following are some of the features that set VLC apart from all the other media players on the market:

1.      Playing Damaged Content: VLC is a package-based download and has the ability to play some damaged, incomplete, or unfinished videos.

2.      Support: VLC supports all audio and video formats. VLC can play back MPEG-4, FLV, OR MXF files. This media player can play AVCHD format videos from HD camcorders.

3.      Screencasts: VLC media player can record screencasts and record the desktop.

4.      Installation and extension: VLC can be installed and run from a flash or external drive. It can also be extended through scripting.

5.      Reliability: VLC media player is a direct result of open source software, which means the software can be tweaked and altered to solve minor issues, make it easy to use, and make the new versions available to other users.

6.      Multiple Interfaces: In addition to the standard GUI based interface, VLC can be accessed using command linke, Web, Telnet, and mouse gestures. This feature makes it accessible for the experienced users to carry out more advanced tasks.

VLC is a highly capable media player or a simple and accessible player. All of the above features encourage usage and inspire changes to be made for the next version. This program was designed for, and by, multimedia lovers of all ages and IT levels.

The public is eating up these free and accessible methods of obtaining entertainment like it’s going out of style. Despite the slight harm to the entertainment industry, the general public is saving money be exploring free downloads of all their favorite music and movies. Consumers can even search for album covers, movie posters, and burn and print a CD that could pass for the real thing.

But what programs can you use to organize, play, listen, and look at all of your media files. VLC multimedia player is an open source software application that will play any file format. This software is free, easy to install, and has a number of good features.

However, for the more experienced computer techs, VLC has the potential to be even easier to use with keyboard shortcuts. Put the mouse aside and capture all your entertainment using your computer keyboard.

Hold Ctrl & Press Up Arrow = Increase Volume
Hold Ctrl & Press Down Arrow = Decrease Volume
Hold Shift & Press Right Arrow = Forward song/video by 3 seconds
Hold Shift & Press Left Arrow = Rewind song/video by 3 seconds
Hold Alt & Press Right Arrow = Forward song/video by 10 seconds
Hold Alt & Press Left Arrow = Rewind song/video by 10 seconds
Hold Ctrl & Press Right Arrow = Forward song/video by 1 Minute
Hold Ctrl & Press Left Arrow = Rewind song/video by 1 Minute
Hold Ctrl & Press ‘Q’ = Quit
Press Space = Pause/ Play
Press ‘S’ = Stop
Press ‘M’ = Mute
Press ‘N’ = Play Next
Press ‘P’ = Play Previous
Press ‘F’ = Full screen