Home Cinema is the better choice for everyday users, aiming to remain as lightweight as possible while supporting the latest standards and video formats. Available on Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS, and Android.Customize appearance with the VLC Skin Editor.Hardware acceleration for fast GPU playback.Supports online streaming with most mainstream protocols.Supports playback from files, discs, external devices, webcams.Supports most media codecs out of the box.Summary of benefits and notable features: Considering it's been in active development since 2001, it's safe to say that VLC won't be going anywhere anytime soon.įor all of this, VLC keeps its spot on our list of best Windows software. No need to download, install, and fiddle with codecs.Īll in all, we understand why VLC ranks as one of the most popular GitHub projects to date. It can stream video URLs in real-time, and it can play all standard media types, including CDs, DVDs, and most popular video formats like MP4, AVI, and MKV. But if you hate tinkering and just want a media player that's free and works right out of the box, VLC is the answer.