VLC Media Player
Open-source multimedia player
VLC Media Player is distributed by VideoLAN. The button opens videolan.org — we do not host or repackage this program.
About VLC Media Player
VLC plays essentially anything you point it at. Because it bundles its own demuxers and decoders instead of relying on system codecs, it opens files that other players refuse — partial downloads, unusual containers, damaged AVIs, DVDs and Blu-rays, raw streams — with no codec pack to install.
It is also a capable streaming tool: it can read HTTP, RTSP, RTMP, UDP and SRT input, transcode on the fly and act as a server. Subtitle handling, audio and video filters, frame-by-frame stepping and a scriptable command-line interface are all built in.
Free software under the GPL, developed by the non-profit VideoLAN project. No advertising, no bundled extras, no telemetry — and the licence allows third parties to host and redistribute it.
Key features
- Plays nearly every container and codec without extra codec packs
- Opens damaged and partially downloaded files
- DVD, Blu-ray, network stream and capture-device playback
- Streaming server and on-the-fly transcoding
- Audio and video filters, subtitle sync and frame stepping
- No advertising, no bundled software, no telemetry
Screenshots
Placeholder artwork from the development seed — not captures of the real program.
System requirements
Windows 7 or newer (32-bit and 64-bit) / macOS 10.13 or newer / Linux
1 GB RAM
About 150 MB of free disk space
No additional codecs required
Changelog
- v3.0.21Aug 7, 2026
Catalog entry updated for VLC Media Player 3.0.21. Official release notes are published by VideoLAN at https://www.videolan.org/vlc/.
- v3.0.20Apr 19, 2026
Previous version tracked by this catalog entry.
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