All posts tagged: VLC

You’re using VLC wrong if you’ve never opened this menu

You’re using VLC wrong if you’ve never opened this menu

Published by skeptic

VLC has been around for over two decades, and yet most people still use it the way they did on day one. Its humble interface may not give you many clues, but VLC is quite capable. And no, I’m not talking about features, like screen recording, video streaming, format converter, or skins. You probably know about these already. I’m talking about VLC add-ons. Unlike other hidden VLC features, these can actually change how you consume media for good. Related How to Watch Plex in VLC (and Why It’s Worth Doing) As if I really needed another reason to love VLC. VLC’s add-ons bring features you’ll want to use Give VLC an upgrade Screenshot by Pankil Shah — No attribution required Much like your browser, VLC supports third-party extensions, and they do exactly what you’re thinking. They add new features, automate repetitive tasks, tweak the UI, and smooth out small VLC annoyances. Head to Tools > Plugins and extensions and click the Find more addons online button. You’ll see all the available add-ons, and you can …

You’re using VLC wrong if you’ve never opened this menu

VLC is secretly the most powerful media tool on your PC — and you’ve barely scratched the surface

Published by skeptic

VLC media player is a name synonymous with most PC users — after all, it is the best free media player without ads or unnecessary clutter. You get support for practically every media format there is with an easy-to-use interface. VLC doesn’t look like it does anything over-the-top; it just packs every functionality you’d want from a media player. However, VLC is much more than a media player, and for the past decade or so, I had only been scratching the surface. In fact, it is a full-fledged media kit, and ever since I found out, all my media work is done with a single program, so I no longer need a barrage of other applications. Related I ditched VLC and finally got high-quality HDR playback without any lag HDR finally works — no thanks to VLC. VLC lets you stream online videos without ever opening a browser Chrome has been open less and less lately Shaheer Khan/MUO Streaming over the browser sucks — the ads and high CPU resource usage with the browser overhead …

He made your free video player run smoothly. Now he’s doing that for robots.

He made your free video player run smoothly. Now he’s doing that for robots.

Published by skeptic

You’ve probably used VLC Media Player, the free video player with the orange traffic-cone icon — it’s been downloaded more than 6 billion times. But according to its lead developer, Jean-Baptiste Kempf, robots will soon be almost as ubiquitous as his open source video software. Convinced that “hundreds of millions of robots and drones” will be roaming the streets in a few years, this French serial entrepreneur and open-source legend has been building Kyber, an infrastructure layer for controlling remote devices in real time. Its core software is an SDK that synchronizes video, audio, sensor data, and control inputs with minimal latency. This lines up well with the rise of physical AI, and it’s part of why the Paris-based startup was able to raise a $5 million round led by Lightspeed, which has also backed Anthropic and Mistral AI. “Physical AI is only as good as the underlying systems running it,” the American VC firm wrote in a LinkedIn post announcing its investment. Kyber’s potential applications go well beyond AI, though. Kempf told TechCrunch the …

I skipped VLC and found an open-source player that chews through 4K

I skipped VLC and found an open-source player that chews through 4K

Published by skeptic

VLC and the stock Windows players were built for a different era, and they show that the moment you throw something genuinely heavy at them. Instead, there are plenty of alternatives that don’t get enough attention. The most popular choices only sound good in theory, but you may like MPV more than VLC because it works better than you’d think. Related I ditched VLC and finally got high-quality HDR playback without any lag HDR finally works — no thanks to VLC. Get MPV, not VLC There’s no installer wizard and no media library Jorge Aguilar / MakeUseOf VLC was built around network streaming first, so it prioritizes staying connected over decoding perfectly. Feed it a demanding local file, and you could start seeing gray blocks, green flashes, and corrupted frames whenever the software decides to skip ahead rather than keep up. Windows Media Player isn’t much better, and it is definitely a built-in app you should replace. It’s the default, but it has far too many buffering pauses and has almost no flexibility with modern …

I ditched VLC and finally got high-quality HDR playback without any lag

I ditched VLC and finally got high-quality HDR playback without any lag

Published by skeptic

VLC is clearly the best media player out there, with tons of features and support for 100s of media formats. So when I got my 4K HDR monitor, I naturally tried to play the few 4K HDR movies in my collection, and it was, honestly, meh. The colors looked washed out, the HDR tone mapping was all over the place, and there were noticeable micro-stutters. I’d already dialed in the HDR settings on Windows 11, so I knew my display wasn’t the problem. My attempts at tweaking VLC’s settings were futile. So I went looking for an alternative and found mpv, a free, open-source media player. Since then, the only thing that bothers me is the laptop fans spinning up, because pushing 4K HDR is genuinely demanding work. Everything else VLC got wrong, mpv quietly fixed. Related This lightweight Android video player is better than VLC Next Player is a snappy, ad-free alternative. What’s the mpv player? A tiny, no-frills player you install yourself image credit – self captured (Tashreef Shareef) – No Attribution Required …

You’re using VLC wrong if you’ve never opened this menu

I didn’t know VLC could do this, and now I’ve ditched 6 other apps

Published by skeptic

I have confidently recommended VLC to people. And that’s with the energy of someone who really knows what they are talking about. “Just use VLC,” I would say, as if that settled the matter. What I failed to mention, because I had no idea, was that I had been using roughly 50 percent of what the application could actually do. I was the equivalent of someone who owns a cooker and only ever uses it to boil rice. So for many years, I kept boiling my metaphorical rice and calling myself experienced. Every time a media task came up that VLC couldn’t handle with a double-click, I downloaded something else, added another app to my menu bar, and kept piling them on. You know, I didn’t need any of them. Related How to Trim Videos Using VLC VLC is a useful tool for watching videos, and you can also use the program to trim clips. OBS Studio, it’s been a pleasure VLC can record whatever it is currently playing — whether that is a local …

VLC does things I didn’t know a media player could do — I’ve been using it wrong for years

VLC does things I didn’t know a media player could do — I’ve been using it wrong for years

Published by skeptic

I’ve been using VLC as my default media player for as long as I can remember. Mostly because it plays anything you throw at it, and this was the whole pitch as far as I was concerned. Then, I used it to extract audio from a concert video on my computer, which subsequently led me to explore what else was buried in those VLC menus. Turns out, quite a lot. What’s more, these features aren’t limited to just making video playback better, and other adjacent stuff. VLC has a video converter and audio extractor hiding in plain sight You may not use them all that much, but they’re there when you need them Most of us download separate apps for video conversion or extracting audio from a video. Well, there’s no need to do that if you already have VLC installed. The Convert / Save feature in VLC lets you convert videos to a number of different formats or extract audio from the video. You can use it to convert some niche video format into …

I thought VLC was peak until I found this cleaner alternative

I thought VLC was peak until I found this cleaner alternative

Published by skeptic

I have been using VLC for so long that I forgot it was even a choice. A few weeks ago, though, I was watching a film late at night and, for whatever reason, I looked at the screen a bit more critically, and all I could see were buttons everywhere. Playback controls, equalizer icons, and a menu bar stretching across the top. Even though you can customize the look and layout of VLC Media Player to hide parts of it, none of it helped me watch the movie; it was just there, demanding attention. That small, slightly irrational irritation sent me down a bit of a rabbit hole. I’d found MPV earlier and stuck with it for its minimalism, but along the way, I stumbled upon Glucose Media Player. I wasn’t expecting much, but after a few minutes, it became obvious this wasn’t just another VLC alternative. It felt noticeably cleaner. OS Windows Developer(s) Vincent L Price model Free (open-source) Glucose Media Player is a lightweight Windows video player with a clean interface and support …

VLC is still great, but I stopped using it the day I found this free media player for Mac

VLC is still great, but I stopped using it the day I found this free media player for Mac

Published by skeptic

VLC media player was one of the first apps I installed when I shifted from Windows to macOS in 2017. I knew better than to rely on the built-in QuickTime Player. Over the following years, it was my go-to option for video and audio playback on Mac. It has handled quite a few things well, including compatibility, speed, and performance. Recently, however, some aspects have prevented the app from fully integrating with the modern macOS experience. Fortunately, it was also at that time that I came across a free, open-source media player for Mac. It has been so great that I haven’t had to go back to VLC in at least a few years. VLC does work decently on Mac But it leaves a lot to be desired There’s no denying that VLC media player is one of the best free options out there, and it packs many useful features. It was a trusted option for me on Windows and briefly on macOS, too. However, I had to look for other options due to several …

I thought VLC was irreplaceable but this media player changed my mind

I thought VLC was irreplaceable but this media player changed my mind

Published by skeptic

VLC has long been considered the gold standard of media players. It can handle just about every format, is open-source, and offers plenty of useful features. For most people, there’s almost no reason to look for an alternative. However, after repeatedly seeing a few folks praise PotPlayer across Reddit threads and other corners of the internet, curiosity finally got the better of me. I decided to give it a spin, fully expecting to uninstall it after a few minutes. But instead, it ended up replacing VLC for me. OS Windows Price model Free PotPlayer is a free media player app for Windows that supports most media formats, looks modern, and offers plenty of useful features. PotPlayer looks great and is endlessly customizable Looks modern, feels personal One of the first things you’ll notice when opening PotPlayer is how modern it looks compared to VLC. The overall interface is clean and minimal. Unlike VLC, it doesn’t have a traditional top menu bar. Instead, you need to click the tiny arrow in the top left corner or …