5 Best VLC Alternatives

It is an undoubted fact that VLC — a free, open source multipurpose media player that is sophisticated enough — is a superb media player one could have in his or her PC. Despite being free, some features such as the ad-free interface, support for various media formats, media streaming etc make VLC the favourite choice of both common & advanced PC users.

Nevertheless, some of you might be looking for a few effective VLC alternatives as well. Reasons for doing so can be simple enough: you may think that VLC is not lightweight enough; or, you may not like design & UI; or at least, you might be looking for a different experience than that VLC offers — who doesn’t like a change!

In this post, we have compiled best media players to form a list of top 5 VLC Alternatives! We have considered several factors such as simplicity of UI, support for media formats etc while creating this list and we hope it helps.

1. KM Player

KM Player would be a good VLC alternative when you are looking for a bit more enhanced software for your PC. One of the major reasons that made KM Player popular is its support for a wide range of formats, such as MKV, OGG, 3GP and FLV etc. And, in general, those who have tried KM Player have somewhat been forced to stick onto the player, as KM Player offers a lot, for both common and advanced movie freaks. Well, it’s not only about movies, but KM Player can be a good audio player too — just like VLC. In that case, the library-based management of KM Player will come in handy, since you will be able to arrange your movies and music by creating libraries and playlists.

It’s a number of features to boast about when it comes to playback section. KM Player supports 3D Movies, though it does not consume that much system resources and you can even turn non-3D movies into 3D ones, if you have a 3D glass with you. Another feature that I personally love in KM Player is the in-built subtitle editor that is simple enough. KM Player also offers A-B Repeat feature, playback speed control etc, as well. In short, if you need a sophisticated VLC alternative for Windows PC, you can count KM Player in.

  • Price: Free
  • Availability: Windows only; apps are available for Android & iOS

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2. GOM Media Player

GOM Media Player comes straight from GOM Lab, a developer of media-based software! GOM Media Player is a full-fledged VLC alternative that can support a wide range of media formats, including video and audio. It is needless to say GOM Media Player is popular among movie freaks, and it has sufficient features for basic movie watching as well as advanced tasks as well. For instance, as far as a normal user is concerned, GOM Player will play almost every kind of media file smoothly; even if there’s a requirement of codec download, the player will help you do it, by means of its integrated codec finder. As of now, GOM Media Player offers in-built support for AVI, MKV, FLV, MOV and almost every common media format.

Talking of advanced features, GOM Media Player offers a lot: while the audio capture feature lets you get audio part of a video in MP3 format, video effects and playback speed control will be useful as far as the movie experience is an integral part of your concern. And, when it comes to customization section, you can download different skins as well as logos. Considering all these, we can say that GOM Player would be impressive VLC alternative if you prefer simple-looking media player with enhanced features.

  • Price: Free
  • Availability: Windows Only (Windows 8.1, 8, 7, XP SP2 or higher)

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3. MPC-HC

Media Player Classic – Home Cinema is yet another software you can depend upon when you are fed up of VLC! MPC – HC can be called a combination of wide support and minimalistic design. Despite the simple UI may make you think otherwise, MPC-HC offers almost every feature that you can find in the new-generation media players, like its native support for Matroska, VCD, DVD playback and built-in codec that lets you play MP2, 3GP, AC3, DTS Audio etc. And, if you ask users of MPC – HC, they will give you a truly positive opinion, as this lightweight media player is too efficient, especially when it comes to handling media files that are labelled ‘heavy’.

Another factor that attracts users to Media Player Classic, and thus making it one of the notable VLC alternatives, is a number of extensions and plugins available for the tool! Using these tools, you will be able to extend features as well as productivity of MPC – HC, regardless of your system configuration. Yes, we forgot, MPC-HC has truly minimal system requirement, letting you run the tool in any Windows PC. So, it’s your choice on what you need —minimal design with powerful features or just looks! If you prefer the former, just go with Media Player Classic – Home Cinema.

  • Price: Free
  • Availability: Windows Only

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4. DivX Player

DivX Player is not just a mere media player that plays your media files, but offers a lot more than that! DivX Player can be made to extend to a level that you would be able to stream video to DLNA-compatible devices! And, if you are looking for a VLC alternative because you think VLC isn’t that good when it comes to handling High-Quality files, it would be best to choose DivX Player. It is so, because DivX Player offers dedicated support for 4K Ultra HD Video as a part of HEVC playback that accompanies DivX Player. Yet, it has to be noted that there are optimizations made for proper handling of popular media formats like MKV, MP4 and AVI.

Coming to the Media Playback section of DivX, there’s more to be praised! While its FF/RW Feature lets you navigate through chapters, thus enabling you watch favorite scenes easily, media library will come in handy when you like to organize media content for easy accessibility. Also, there is advanced audio feature as well as Resume-Play. If we are to give consideration to all these, DivX Player will be a good VLC Alternative, especially if you prefer High-Quality! It’s to be noted that DivX download bundle contains DivX Player, Converter and Media Server.

  • Price: Free
  • Availability: Windows only

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5. RealPlayer Cloud

RealPlayer Cloud is actually a VLC Player alternative with a twist! Rather than watching your videos in PC, you will be able to share these videos into your Cloud space, which can be further accessed from a variety of devices. Talking of playback, RealPlayer Cloud lets you stream the content to your HDTV or some big screen using corresponding apps or Chromecast. And, there are options to catch up with the trends and to bookmark the content you want.

On top of all these, RealPlayer Cloud has set up things in a quite simplified way that there is nothing to do with video upload and sync, but it all happens in background, letting you sit back and relax. In short, considering the wide range of support for devices & platforms, RealPlayer Cloud, it is indeed a great VLC alternative that makes sense. Also, you can have a premium plans if you prefer 365 GB storage space to keep your videos.

  • Price: Free; premium plan starts from $4.99 a month
  • Availability: Windows, Mac, Android, iOS, Kindle, Windows 8

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SEE ALSO: 10 Best Video Players For Windows

So, here we end our list of top five VLC Media Player alternatives! We hope you’d be happy to know that all the VLC alternatives are free, or at least have a free version.

comment Comments 4
  • scott says:

    The quality of this piece – not very high. I wonder if you could tell us which of these players supports DTS-HD MA, which actually decode it and which and by what means can it supply an amp an undecoded signal? How useful is to know that a player plays 8K considering there is virtually nothing commercially available to watch? Similar questions on HDR support and quality.

    As for VLC, I use it on Linux and Windows and it has definitely lost a lot of it’s shine and you sum this up with – it’s the most popular. No mention that it no longer is the best player, I think by several metrics. If you are going to do a review, look at what work is done when reviewing a piece of PC hardware by many sites.

  • johny depp says:

    divx player is worst, dont download

  • mocikun says:

    Thanks for the information. I used Brorsoft 8K Player which is much powerful!

  • Mudassir Iqbal says:

    Wow nice list of players i really like the last one Real Player thanks Abhijith N Arjunan

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