3

So, put everything else asside. Forget the interface, the extra functions, the speed, or whatnot.

Which of these two media players supports the largest number of video codecs right out of the box? In other words, which one plays the largest variety of video formats without the need to install extra stuff?

VLC or Mplayer?

Malabarba
  • 8,998

4 Answers4

4

People can get very touchy about their media players, so I'm not gonna pick sides here.

I'll let you do the comparison :)

VLC's supported codecs - Check the left side for links, audio and video are on separate pages

MPlayer's supported codecs - all on one page

2

I'm not sure...

I wold use VLC personally, but a friend of mine told me that he found Mencoder bundled with Mplayer, although, he claims it's undocumented that it comes with the player.

Moshe
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2

both projects use 'ffmpeg' to cover most codecs, 'mplayer' do support some more (until they are part of 'ffmpeg'). so, 'mplayer' supports more codecs, 'vlc' has the more idiot-proof ui.

akira
  • 63,447
0

I hate to say it, but you're asking the wrong question. The right question is: which of these players can play the actual codec(s) that I need.

For instance, "Which can play RealVideo?" has a specific answer. (MPlayer with the win32 codecs, on Intel.)

CarlF
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