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Sunday, May 16, 2021

2021 VLC Software Review

VLC, the hugely popular media player, is well known for its adaptable features. The portable media player is available for both desktop operating systems and mobile platforms. Highly appraised for the comprehensive format support, streaming ability, and extension via plugins, VLC can surely offer everything you expect from a media player. While VLC is widely adopted, there is always an alternative - Leawo Blu-ray player, if you want to try something new. VLC vs. Leawo Blu-ray player, which one suits you the best? Read on to learn more.

Part 1: Features of VLC
Part 2: Review of the VLC of Version 3.0.14(Latest Version)
Part 3: Best VLC Alternative - Leawo Blu-ray Player
Part 4: Comprehensive Comparison Between Leawo Blu-ray Player and VLC
Extension: FAQ of VLC

 

Part 1: Features of VLC

The free and open-source media player stands out of the crowd for some reasons. It’s a full-featured player that can satisfy all your needs in media playback, and an effective solution to media streaming and downloading. The player supports a great variety of audio and video compression methods and file formats. If you are new to VLC, Here are some key features you might want to know.

Supports excellent file format

This is the vast majority feature of VLC player; the file formats it covers are stunningly massive, ranging from the long-forgotten format to the next generation codecs and physical Blu-ray/DVD even streaming media over computer networks. VLC is a go-to app for all sorts of media formats and you don’t have to download any codecs to make it work. You can even play a ZIP file directly without extracting them individually. It simply plays everything.

 



Download and stream

VLC simply wraps up everything you want. As it is not only a media player but also a downloader and streaming program. For instance, you can always watch your favorite videos online first with VLC and decide whether you want to download it as a local file, which seems pretty convenient. That’s not just it, the player is also capable of DivX and MPEG streaming, you can simply download and play the video at the same time.

 

Adaptable and customizable 

VLC is an open-source cross-platform media player, it runs on all operating systems and platforms. Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, Unix, iOS, Android, etc., you don’t have to worry about compatibility anymore. VLC also allows you to add skins or create skins with the editor, making your own customized media player is as easy as breathing.

 

Possibility and plugin

VLC explores the solution and possibility of digital media playback to the next level. The player is similar to Google Chrome, which allows you to install as many plugins as you like. These plugins are quite useful as they can help you to further edit, manage and organize your media files.

 

Part 2: Review of the VLC of Version 3.0.14(Latest Version)

 

VLC player has been updated to version 3.0.14 on May 2021, which is the latest version so far. The update is no longer an auto-update and will require user action. VLC has come a long way since its debut more than 20 years ago, the player has evolved into a powerful program yet not flawless. Here is a simple review of the VLC player in terms of the advantages and disadvantages.

 



Pros: 

Supports a wide range of file formats without codec packs needed, including the latest codecs like HEVC, H.264, VP9, MPEG-4, MPEG-2 & VP8.

Support 4K ultra HD media playback.

Compatible with all the operating systems and platforms.

Highly customizable skins.

Expandable via plugins, and more to explore with media,

Connectivity to bigger screens like TV via video casting, like Chromecast, Amazon FireTV, Apple TV on Android and iOS.

Simple and straightforward interface, easy to use.

Hardware acceleration can reduce battery consumption effectively.

Simple to set up.

 

Cons:

The way to open and play files is not straightforward, you have to locate them from their respective folders.

VLC is designed for video playback, not for music. You can’t use it to manage the music library.

It’s not easy to find songs in your library.

There is no rating system and you can’t use tags.

It has problems with certain formats occasionally, such as M4P.

 

Part 3: Best VLC Alternative - Leawo Blu-ray Player

The VLC media player is free and portable, which seems to be the best solution for media playback. However, the player is not picture-perfect as it’s more of a video player that ignores the audio playback. It’s hard to manage and organize all your media in one place just like iTunes with VLC. The audio solution doesn’t develop hand in hand with video. So if you want to get a player as the best alternative to VLC, try Leawo Blu-ray Player, the most professional media playback solution in the world.


Leawo Blu-ray Player is a powerful media player that can satisfy all your needs, for both video and audio. Most importantly, it’s FREE! With Leawo Blu-ray Player, you can not only play Blu-ray disc, DVD, HD video(4K), audio, etc. but also BDAV movie folder and Blu-ray ISO image files. For more information on supported formats, you can check out the product page to learn more. If you are a fan of 3D movies, you can make your side-by-side 3D movies at home and then enjoy them via Leawo Blu-ray Player with the high video quality. The player is also the best player for 4K Blu-ray.  

 

Part 4: Comprehensive Comparison Between Leawo Blu-ray Player and VLC

VLC media player vs. Leawo Blu-ray player, what’s the difference, and which one suits you? Here is the comprehensive comparison between the two players if you want to learn more.

 

 

VLC Media Player

Leawo Blu-ray Player

Cost

Free

Free

Supported video format

All the formats

All the formats

Supported audio format

Common formats

Most common formats

Blu-ray disc player (Region-free)

Unencrypted only

DVD player(Region-free)

Unencrypted only

3D video player

×

Video resolution

UHD 4K, HD

UHD 4K, HD

Video quality

Good

Good

Audio quality

Good

Good

Media library

Good

Good

Download video

×

User interface

simple and straightforward

User-friendly

Convert video

×

Subtitles adjustment

Customized skin

Operating systems

All systems and platforms

Windows, Mac

 

VLC is one of the most popular media players and is quite useful when it comes to video playback, but it’s a bit inferior compared to the Leawo Blu-ray player regarding audio playback. The two players share pretty much the same performance, yet Leawo Blu-ray supports 3D video playback which is pretty awesome. Unlike VLC, the Leawo Blu-ray player doesn’t require a region-free Blu-ray/DVD regardless of the drive while VLC will need raw access to crack the encryption. If you are a fan of Blu-ray/DVD and want to avoid all sorts of complicated decryption, then the Leawo Blu-ray player is your best choice.

 

Extension: FAQ of VLC

If you still have questions regarding the VLC player, or you have encountered some often seen issues without a solution, here are a few frequently asked questions that might help.

 

1. I want to know if the VLC supports all the DVDs from different regions?

It depends on your DVD drive. You can test it to find out. While RPC1 drives always work regardless of the region, the newer RPC2 drives can be a bit tricky. These drives don’t allow raw access to the drive unless the firmware checks the region.

 

When it comes to VLC, it uses libdvdcss which requires raw access to the DVD drive so the encryption key can be cracked. You will have to avoid region protection if using VLC with an RPC2 drive.


2. The video is a bit choppy. How to solve it?

This normally happens when your system is too slow to decode pictures. It’s either because your CPU is not fast enough, or the subsystem is misconfigured/misdriven with Redhat Linux. If you want to improve speed, here are a few ways.

Turn on DMA for the DVD device. For windows, just go to the System > Hardware Manager > Advanced tab, then right-click on the DVD player and check the DMA checkbox.

Upgrade your video board to the latest driver.

Avoid running other applications when using the VLC player.

Disable frame dropping on VLC. It enables VLC not to decode some pictures to avoid overloading the CPU. Yet it might give rise to the choppy image. You can disable it in the video preference in VLC.

 

3. I want to watch videos with subtitles, but VLC doesn’t display them. What should I do?

Normally, VLC can auto-detect the subtitles files and display subtitles. When it doesn’t work, you can open it manually or change the subtitle encoding. You can display your subtitles with the methods below.

Preference > Input / Codecs > Other codecs > Subtitles, set the right subtitle text encoding.

Go to Preference > Video > Output modules; adjust Video output to a different one, like DirectX video output. Remember to enable the Advanced options here.

Disable the "YUV > RGB" checkbox in the DirectX video output. 

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