MPC-HC's biggest advantage is arguably just how lightweight it is. Not only is it small in terms of hard drive space, but its CPU and overall system resource use is incredibly small compared to other video players, VLC included.
Poland
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+5
The Best VLC Media Player AlternativesTop Media & Audio Players like VLC Media Player
VLC Media Player is described as 'Cross-platform, free media player supports multimedia files, DVDs, streaming, offers hardware acceleration, 4K, lossless audio, and more' and is a leading Media Player in the video & movies category. There are more than 100 alternatives to VLC Media Player for a variety of platforms, including Windows, Mac, Linux, Android and iPhone apps. The best VLC Media Player alternative is MPC-HC, which is both free and Open Source. Other great apps like VLC Media Player are MPV, PotPlayer, SMPlayer and MX Player.
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VLC Media Player alternatives are mainly Media Players, but if you're looking for Audio Players or Video Streaming Apps you can filter on that. Other popular filters include Linux, Android, iPhone, Windows, Mac, Free and MS-DOS + Free. These are just examples - use the filter bar below to find more specific alternatives to VLC Media Player.
Alternatives list
144 MPC-HC alternatives
119 MPV alternativesMPV is an MPlayer-based video player that is available on all major desktop operating systems. Linux users in particular cite MPV as one of the best alternatives to VLC. Its interface is extremely minimal, though with that comes extraordinary stability.
Cost / License
- Free
- Open Source
Application types
Platforms
- Mac
- Windows
- Linux
- Android
- BSD
- Snapcraft
- Flathub
- F-Droid
- Haiku
- Xfce
- Chocolatey
135 PotPlayer alternativesPotPlayer is a modular video player that also works with most video file formats by default. Many of our users also find that it starts up faster and performs better than VLC, while also including small quality of life features that can be useful in specific contexts (such as support for two subtitle tracks on the same video file in order to help learn a new language).
129 SMPlayer alternativesLike MPV, SMPlayer is based off of MPlayer, but unlike MPV, it's more focused on accessibility with its user interface. Out of the box, users cite SMPlayer as having the versatility and stability of MPV with the ease of use of players like VLC. It also supports add-ons such as a YouTube search.
Cost / License
- Free
- Open Source (GPL-2.0)
Application types
Platforms
- Mac
- Windows
- Linux
- BSD
- mpv
- Snapcraft
- PortableApps.com
- Haiku
- MPlayer
- Flathub
- Homebrew
+4
133 MX Player alternativesThough MX Player only supports Android devices, it is often cited as one of the platform's best video players. Featuring extensive customization options, an Android-optimized design, and plenty of supported video formats, MX Player is worth checking out on your Android phone or tablet if you're looking for a simple, optimized video player.
Cost / License
- Freemium
- Proprietary
Application types
Platforms
- Android
- Android Tablet
- Chrome OS
+5
50 IINA alternativesThough it's exclusive to macOS, IINA's users swear by it for being lightweight, efficient, and performative. Minor annoyances such as performance-based audio-video-subtitle desyncs that can be found on VLC are not a problem when using IINA. Additionally, its interface is neat clean, with clearly labelled settings. This ease of use combined with its excellent performance makes it an easy recommendation for macOS users looking for a media player.
159 KMPlayer alternativesKMPlayer is often praised for its interface, which has been described as more functional and user-friendly than VLC or Media Player Classic Home Cinema. Its playlist manager is more akin to WinAmp's than it is to VLC or other video players, which makes it desirable for those with vast multimedia catalogs. It also includes very granular customization options.
Cost / License
- Free
- Proprietary
Application types
Platforms
- Windows
- Android
- iPhone
- Android Tablet
- iPad
118 MPC-BE alternativesMPC-BE is another fork of Media Player Classic (specifically of the Home Cinema fork) with a focus on bug fixes and for automatically mounting ISO images. It is actively updated and performs really well for video playback. Users do not recommend it for music playback, as it lacks support for playlist looping and includes odd behaviors for shuffling media playback.
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132 Media Player Classic alternativesThough it's been discontinued and almost entirely superseded by successors like Media Player Classic Home Cinema, some users still swear by it as a sort of "old reliable" video player that can play most files people throw at it with no issue. However, it's been 10 years since its last release, so it's highly recommended to look at MPC-HC and other forks actively in development.
131 MPlayer alternativesMPlayer is a movie player which runs on many systems (see the documentation). It plays most MPEG/VOB, AVI, Ogg/OGM, VIVO, ASF/WMA/WMV, QT/MOV/MP4, RealMedia, Matroska, NUT, NuppelVideo, FLI, YUV4MPEG, FILM, RoQ, PVA files, supported by many native, XAnim, and Win32 DLL codecs.
Cost / License
- Free
- Open Source
Application types
Alerts
- Discontinued
Platforms
- Mac
- Windows
- Linux
- BSD
- AmigaOS
- Xfce
- MorphOS
- Haiku
62 Celluloid alternativesCelluloid (formerly GNOME MPV) is a simple GTK+ frontend for mpv. Celluloid interacts with mpv via the client API exported by libmpv, allowing access to mpv's powerful playback capabilities.
+1
132 GOM Player alternativesGOM Player is a freeware media player. Key strengths are the ability to play the majority of media files without the need to obtain a codec, and the ability to play some broken media files, both advantages over traditional players, like Windows Media Player.
Cost / License
- Freemium
- Proprietary
Application type
Alerts
- Bundleware
Platforms
- Mac
- Windows
- Android
- iPhone
- Android Tablet
- iPad
+9
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Very light-weight. With super easy interface and without any bugs.