Explore 25+ Mac apps like VLC Media Player, all suggested and ranked by the AlternativeTo user community. VLC Media Player VLC is a free and open source cross-platform multimedia player and framework. Winamp is a media player for Windows and OS X developed by Justin Frankel and Dmitry Boldyrev by their company Nullsoft, which they later.
VideoLAN, maker of the popular VLC Media Player for various desktop and mobile operating systems, plan to release VLC 3.0 final to the public soon. The new version of the multimedia player is already on the official FTP server. The company released a total of nine release candidate builds before that and used these builds to fix various issues before the final release. VLC 3.0.0 features under-the-hood changes mostly. The player supports Chromecast, new audio and video formats including HDR, HTTP 2.0, reworked core components with improvements, ISO over network play and a lot more. VLC Media Player 3.0 You can update an existing copy of VLC Media Player on desktop machines, or install the new version without transferring any existing customizations to the new version.
VLC 3.0's interface looks more or less identical to previous versions. VideoLAN marked it as a LTS, Long Term Service release for several systems. The organization notes that VLC 3.0.x will be the last working releases for Windows XP and Vista, and the matching Windows server variants, for Mac OS 10.7, 10.8 and 10.9, for iOS 7 and 8, and for Android 2.x, 3.x, 4.0.x and 4.1.x.
The 3.0 branch of VLC has new requirements:. Windows XP: release should work for the most part, but it has limitations. Windows Vista: requires platform upgrade. Linux: requires Kernel newer than 2.6.26.
Mac OS X: needs version 10.7 or newer. VLC 3.0.0 changes VLC 3.0.0 includes lots of changes compared to the last stable version 2.2.8. Here is a short list of important changes in the new media player release:.
Core: network browsing for SMB, FTP, SFTP, NFS and other file systems supported. Core: support for keystores to fetch and store passwords securely. Core: auto-detection of external audio tracks. Core: support for HDMI passtrhgouh for HD audo codecs such as E-AC3, TrueHD or DTS-HD. Core: support for Chromecast and other output renderers, and Chromecast output module. Core: support for 12bits corec and extended colorspaces (HDR). Core: portable version of Windows build supported.
Core: start videos paused on first frame. Core: support for 360 video and audio.
Core: support for ambisonic audio and more than eight audio channels. Access: adaptive streaming improements, e.g.
MPEG-DASH rewrite, support for HDS. Access: support for decompression and extraction through libarchive (tar, zip, rar). Access: HTTP 2.0 support. Access: cookie handling improvements.
Access: DVB-T2 support on Windows BDA. Access: new WASAPI audio capture module. Access: Blu-Ray open ISO over network, support for BD-J, and DVD ISO over network.
Hardware Decoder: supports HEVC decoding and Direct3D 11 decoding on Windows. Hardware Decoder: supports HECV hardware decoding, MPEG-2, VC1/WMV3 on Android. Hardware Decoder: support for VP9 and WMV3 decoding.
Hardware Decoder: new hardware accelerated decoder for OS X and iOS. Decoders: support for experimental AV1 video, ARIB STD-B24 subtitles, experimental Daala video. Decoders: support TDSC, Canopus HQX, Cineform, SpeedHQ, Pixlet, QDMC and FMVC codecs. Decoders: extended MicroDVD support. Demuxer: MP4 demuxer rework with support for additional formats. Demuxer: TS demuxer rework. Demuxer: Support HD-DVD.evo (H.264, VC-1, MPEG-2, PCM, AC-3, E-AC3, MLP, DTS).
Demuxer: MKV improvements. Video output: support for HDR10 in Direct3D 11 with Windows 10 Fall Creators Update. Side note: The new VLC 3.0 fixed long-standing WMV playback issues that I experienced when using VLC. It would not play some WMV files correctly, and I had to use Windows Media Player for these files. This seems to have been fixed in VLC 3.0. Closing Words VLC Media Player 3.0 is a major upgrade of the player, the first in years, that corrects several issues, especially in regards to compatibility and functionality, that were not addressed in minor release upgrades.
Is it enough to regain the dominance that VLC Media Player had years ago? (thanks Appster) Now You: Which media player do you use, and why? Related articles. They do move functionality that is less used and put them into extensions.
In v1.1.0 “Removal or rewrite of dozens of modules, code simplification and tens of thousands of lines of code removed Some functionalities that are less used are now moved to extensions” Removing code is part of good software development otherwise you have massive bloat. Proper software has various codebase metrics consistently observed, such as the obvious # of lines of code but many other aspects that tend to grow out of hand if left unchecked, with the natural tendency of software to get added features endlessly while having to keep backwards compatibility. Now You: Which media player do you use, and why? —– Casual Choice: Media Player Classic-Black Edition (MPC-BE) —– Plus: Lightweight package Plus: Videos sound better Minus: Cannot display 2 sets of subtitles simultaneously Minus: Whenever I pause & restart MP4 videos, the resulting videos show glitchy green or multi-coloured bars.
Stopping & replaying these videos from the start has no effect, & the only workaround is to exit & relaunch MPC-BE. This behaviour is present in every version I’d tried, & I have never encountered this in other video players so far. —– Top Choice: Pot Player —– Plus: Many advanced features Plus: Moderately lightweight package Plus: Can display 2 sets of subtitles at the bottom — instead of showing one set at the top & the other set at the bottom. Plus: Regardless of window size, subtitles get auto-shifted upwards when seekbar becomes visible — instead of getting covered by seekbar. Plus: Easily plays every video file that fail to play in other popular video players such as MPC-BE, Media Player Classic-Home Edition (MPC-HC), VLC Player, & SMPlayer (using either mpv or MPlayer as engine).
Minus: Ugly-looking white-on-yellow application icon & less user-friendly GUI in versions released since May 2017. Requires icon & GUI “patching” (ie. Manually reverting to old blue icon & old default skin) during every version upgrade.
VLC 3.0.0 definitely was not ready for public release. It was never that great for playing DVDs, but something has broken badly in this version. DVDs randomly skip or drop audio entirely, the aspect ratio isn’t automatically detected (meaning older 4:3 stuff is stretched unless you manually set the ratio, something 2.2.8 did correctly), and worst of all DVD menus are glitched and don’t work correctly or sometimes at all.
I’ll still use VLC for watching Twitch via Streamlink Twitch GUI and some other things, but MPC-HC is what I’ll be using for any DVD playback I do from now on. It works flawlessly, unlike VLC. I downloaded the official release today, but IMO VLC 3.0.0 definitely was not and is still not ready for public release. It was never that great for playing DVDs, but something has broken badly in this version. DVDs randomly skip or drop audio entirely, the aspect ratio isn’t automatically detected (meaning older 4:3 stuff is stretched unless you manually set the ratio, something 2.2.8 did correctly), and worst of all DVD menus are glitched and don’t work correctly or sometimes at all. I’ll still use VLC for watching Twitch via Streamlink Twitch GUI and some other things, but MPC-HC is what I’ll be using for any DVD playback I do from now on. It works flawlessly, unlike VLC.
VLC Media Player for Mac is a powerful and efficient app for playing all kinds of media in multiple formats right on your Mac. With this app in place, you can just download and watch what you want, without having to worry about formats, compatibility, and conversions. Pros Versatile and free: VLC Media Player is completely free, and it allows you to play media in a wide variety of formats, many of which would not otherwise be immediately compatible with Mac.
In this way, it eliminates the need to convert files before you can play them back and lets you get right down to the fun part. Advanced features: While most users will probably only use this app to watch media, it does offer a few nice advanced features that more experienced users will enjoy. For instance, there are several basic editing tools that allow you to adjust various file properties to enhance your viewing experience.
Cons Unwelcoming interface: VLC Media Player's interface may be a bit intimidating to inexperienced users, as it's quite bare bones and utilitarian. And while it's easy enough to figure out how to access basic features, finding the more advanced tools can take some determined poking around. Bottom Line VLC Media Player is a great free way to access a variety of media files directly on your Mac, with no conversions required. It could stand a bit of a facelift, but overall, it's a convenient app to have at your disposal.
And since it's free, there's no reason not to try it out to see if it will work for you. Full Specifications General Publisher Publisher web site Release Date January 14, 2019 Date Added January 14, 2019 Version 3.0.6 Category Category Subcategory Operating Systems Operating Systems Mac Additional Requirements. macOS Mojave. macOS High Sierra. macOS Sierra. OS X El Capitan.
OS X Yosemite. OS X Mavericks.
OS X Mountain Lion. OS X Lion. OS X Snow Leopard Download Information File Size 48.69MB File Name vlc-3.0.6.dmg Popularity Total Downloads 6,789,842 Downloads Last Week 3,296 Pricing License Model Free Limitations Not available Price Free.