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The following comparison of video players compares general and technical information for notable software media player programs.

For the purpose of this comparison, video players are defined as any media player which can play video, even if it can also play audio files.

General

Active players

Name	Author	First public release	Stable version	Cost	Software license	Based framework	Written in
ALLPlayer	ALLPlayer Group Ltd. Partnership	1998	8.9.2 (April 4, 2022; 2 years ago (2022-04-04)) [±]	Free	Proprietary	FFmpeg + original + DirectShow	Object Pascal (Delphi)
5KPlayer	DearMob,Inc.	2015	4.1.0 October 11, 2016; 8 years ago (2016-10-11)	Free	Proprietary	?	?
Apprentice Video	Pavel Koshevoy	2010-05-29	r407 and later	Free	MIT	FFmpeg	C++ (Qt)
FFplay	FFmpeg project	2000-12-20	Template:Latest stable software release/FFmpeg	Free	LGPL, part GPL	FFmpeg	C
GOM Player	Gretech Corporation	2003-01-07	Windows 2.3.71.5335 (November 19, 2021; 3 years ago (2021-11-19)) iOS 1.5.1 (February 26, 2020; 4 years ago (2020-02-26)) Android 1.6.1 (August 30, 2021; 3 years ago (2021-08-30)) [±]	Free	Proprietary	FFmpeg	?
iTunes	Apple Inc.	2001-01-09		Free	Proprietary	QuickTime	?
jetAudio Basic	Cowon Systems	1997	8.1.5 April 24, 2016; 8 years ago (2016-04-24)	Free	Proprietary	FFmpeg	C++
jetAudio Plus VX				US$29.00
JRiver Media Center	JRiver, Inc.	1998	28.0.63 (September 10, 2021; 3 years ago (2021-09-10)) [±]	US$49.98	Proprietary	original + DirectShow	C++, SSE/MMX assembly
KMPlayer	Pandora TV	2002-10-01	4.2.2.588 (3 December 2021; 3 years ago (2021-12-03)) [±]	Free	Proprietary	DirectShow	Object Pascal
Mac Blu-ray Player	Macgo Inc.	2011	2.11.1 December 26, 2014; 10 years ago (2014-12-26)	US$59.95	Proprietary	?	?
Media Go	Sony Network Entertainment International	2009-03-17	3.0a December 4, 2015; 9 years ago (2015-12-04)	Free	Proprietary	original + DirectShow + QuickTime (optional)	?
MPC-HC	MPC-HC Team	2003-05-30	2.3.8 (November 27, 2024; 35 days ago (2024-11-27)) [±]	Free	GPL	DirectShow + LAV Filters (FFmpeg)	C++
MediaPortal	Team MediaPortal	2004	2.4 (December 30, 2021; 3 years ago (2021-12-30)) [±]	Free	GPL	DirectShow	C#, C++
MPlayer	Árpád Gereöffy	2000-09	Template:Latest stable software release/MPlayer	Free	GPL	FFmpeg + original	C
mpv	mpv Community	2013-08-07	Template:Latest stable software release/mpv (media player)	Free	GPL, part LGPL	MPlayer	C, Objective C, Lua
Plex Media Player	Plex, Inc.	2008-05-21	Template:Latest stable software release/Plex	Free	GPL	FFmpeg	C++
PotPlayer	Kakao	?	1.7.22398 (December 16, 2024 (2024-12-16)) [±]	Free	Proprietary	DirectShow	?
PowerDVD Standard	CyberLink	1998	PowerDVD 23 (2024-03-07) [±]	US$59.95	Proprietary	DirectShow	?
PowerDVD Pro				US$79.95
PowerDVD Ultra				US$99.95
QuickTime X	Apple Inc.	2009-08-28	10.5 (August 31, 2018; 6 years ago (2018-08-31)) [±]	Free	Proprietary	QuickTime	Cocoa (on OS X)
RealPlayer	RealNetworks	1995-04	Windows: 24.0.1.306 (September 20, 2024; 3 months ago (2024-09-20)) [±] OS X: 12.0.1.1750 (September 7, 2012; 12 years ago (2012-09-07)) [±] Windows Mobile: 1.1 (July 30, 2009; 15 years ago (2009-07-30)) [±] Android: 1.52 (June 21, 2022; 2 years ago (2022-06-21)) [±]	Free	Proprietary	original + DirectShow	?
RealPlayer Plus				US$39.99
RealPlayer Premium				US$4.99/month
RealPlayer Unlimited				US$9.99/month
SMPlayer	Ricardo Villalba	2006-12-11	Template:Latest stable software release/SMPlayer	Free	GPL	MPlayer	C++ (Qt)
Splash	Mirillis	2009-09-14	2.0.1 January 27, 2016; 8 years ago (2016-01-27)	Free	Proprietary	?	?
GNOME Videos (formerly Totem)	The GNOME Project	2003-02	45.0 (20 September 2023; 15 months ago (2023-09-20)) [±]	Free	GPL + exception	GStreamer	C
Videostream	Videostream Team	2014-02	2.1.3.15	Free	Proprietary	Chrome + FFmpeg	JavaScript, C++
VLC	VideoLAN	2001-02-01	Windows, Linux, & macOS 3.0.21  / 5 June 2024; 6 months ago (5 June 2024) Android 3.5.4  / 6 July 2023; 17 months ago (6 July 2023) ChromeOS 1.7.3  / 23 December 2015; 9 years ago (23 December 2015) iOS, Apple TV 3.6.4  / 23 August 2024; 4 months ago (23 August 2024) Windows (UWP) 3.1.2 / 20 July 2018; 6 years ago (2018-07-20) Windows Phone 3.1.2 / 20 July 2018; 6 years ago (2018-07-20)	Free	GPL, LGPL	libVLC + FFmpeg	C, C++
WinDVD Pro	Corel	1998	WinDVD Pro 12 Service Pack 8 (April 28, 2021; 3 years ago (2021-04-28)) [±]	US$79.99	Proprietary	DirectShow	?
Kodi (formerly XBMC)	Team-Kodi (formerly Team-XBMC)	2002	19.3 (codename: "Matrix") (October 25, 2021; 3 years ago (2021-10-25)) [±]	Free	GPL	FFmpeg	C++
xine	xine Team	2000-08-15	0.99.14 (January 7, 2023; 23 months ago (2023-01-07)) [±]	Free	GPL	xine-lib + FFmpeg	C
Name	Author	First public release	Stable version	Cost	Software license	Based framework	Written in

Inactive players

Operating system compatibility

This section lists the operating systems on which the player works. There may be multiple versions of a player, each one for a given operating system.

Features

Extended features

1. "gapless mp3 playback - The KMPlayer's Forums". Kmplayer.com. Retrieved 2009-12-16.
2. Available with QuickTime Streaming Server.
3. Only the media creator can create skins.
4. anaglyph only
5. Via media library in "modern" skin
6. Kodi/XBMC has a built-in UPnP AV MediaServer, FTP-server (based on FileZilla), and a web server (however the web-server is mainly designed for remote control and not for streaming, but it can be used for streaming with some small modifications any user can make)
7. Bookmarks are limited to 20 files and are stored with absolute paths, which renders them inaccessible when files are moved
8. ^ Pitch-shifting and AB-Repeat are not included in Mplayer's interactive keyboard controls, but can be set up via command line parameters. Mplayer manual
9. www.apple.com/quicktime/pro/ - A-B repeat using Play Selection Only command
10. As of SVN 3349

Consumer Video format ability

Information about what video formats the players understand. Footnotes lead to information about abilities of future versions of the players or plugins/filters that provide such abilities.

1. ^ Plugin available.
2. ^ This format is supported out-of-the-box in Windows 7 and later. In Windows Vista and earlier, the playing compatibility depends on the availability of DirectShow filters.
3. ^ The playing compatibility depends on the availability of DirectShow filters.
4. ^ The playing compatibility depends on the availability of MPEG2 component for Quicktime.
5. ^ The playing compatibility depends on the availability of WMV Player component for Quicktime.
6. ^ 3rd party plugins are available. The Xiph QuickTime Components allow any QuickTime application to parse Ogg files and play Vorbis, FLAC (Doesn't work with FLAC containers), Speex, and Theora.
7. ^ On Macs, 3rd party plugins are available. The Perian QuickTime components for Mac OS X 10.4.7+ allow any QuickTime application to play a wide variety of formats.
8. ^ Cite error: The named reference viaGstreamer was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
9. ^ This format is supported out-of-the-box in Windows Media Player 12 and later (which requires Windows 7 or later). In Windows Media Player 11 and earlier, the playing compatibility depends on the availability of DirectShow filters.
10. The playing compatibility depends on the availability of DirectShow filters, or in the case of Windows Media Player 12 and above, there is also the option of using Microsoft Media Foundation components, which have the added bonus of adding WebM support through the HTML5 <video> element to Internet Explorer 9 or later.

Production Video format ability

Audio format ability

Information about what audio formats the players understand. Footnotes lead to information about abilities of future versions of the players or plugins/filters that provide such abilities.

Container format ability

Information about what container formats the players understand. Footnotes lead to information about abilities of future versions of the players or filters that provide such abilities.

Streaming support

Information about which internet protocols the players understand, for receiving streaming media content.

Playlist format ability

Information about which playlist formats the players understand.

Electronic program guide format ability

Information about which Electronic program guide format the players viewable.

Subtitle ability

Information about what subtitle formats the players understand. Footnotes lead to information about abilities of future versions of the players or filters that provide such abilities.

1. ^ Subtitles stored separately from the media file are not supported.
2. ^ only if FFmpeg was built with libass and 'subtitles' video filter.
3. ^ This player understands some of the formatting data from SSA/ASS (at most coloring but no positioning, animation, typesetting etc.), but some players could understand the rest of it by using DirectVobSub as external subtitle filter instead of the built-in one.
4. ^ For Windows, the ability to use many subtitle formats can be added by installing DirectVobSub or ffdshow.
5. "FAQ | Kaffeine - KDE Media Player". Kaffeine FAQ. Retrieved 2009-10-02.

Metadata ability

Information about what metadata, or tagging, formats the players understand. Most other containers have their own metadata format and the players usually use them. Footnotes lead to information about abilities of future versions of the players or plugins that provide such abilities.

1. Supports via plugin available in Cowon Forums
2. MPlayer can read .cue files with cue:// type URL, but has problems, see Talk:Cue sheet (computing)#mplayer have more faults
3. Winamp relies on the tagging of its decoder. Replacing the standard decoder with an APEv2 capable one is possible.
4. ID3 V2.4 not supported (even on Windows Media Player 12).
5. Displays basic ID3v1 / ID3v2 / Ogg Vorbis tags

Optical media ability

Information about what kinds of optical discs the players can play. Footnotes lead to information about abilities of future versions of the players or plugins that provide such abilities. Playback of Super Audio CD is not possible for any media player, because no suitable hardware exists. All media players capable of audio CD playback will also play the Redbook core of any HDCD disc, providing no sound-quality benefits over standard audio CDs.

1. A built-in hdcd audio filter is available but needs to manually enable via commandline option.
2. See this thread on team-mediaportal.com
3. See VCD and SVCD players on The X Lab
4. DVD Audio files are playable in VLC 1.1
5. See VLC playback Features at videolan.org.
6. HD-DVD .evo (H.264, VC-1, MPEG-2, PCM, AC-3, E-AC3, MLP, DTS) from version 3.0.0
7. ^ VCD menu and SVCD menus are not supported nor displayed.

See also

• List of codecs
• Open source codecs and containers
• Comparison of video codecs
• Comparison of audio coding formats
• Comparison of container formats
• Subtitle (captioning)
• Comparison of portable media players
• Comparison of video encoders
• Comparison of PVR software packages

References

1. "Windows Desktop". web site. 2019-04-16. Retrieved 2019-04-16.
2. "Apple on the App Store". iTunes Store. 2019-03-05. Retrieved 2019-03-05.
3. "GOM Player". Google Play Store. 2019-03-14. Retrieved 2019-03-14.
4. "KMPlayer Multimedia Player". Retrieved 2022-02-17.
5. Supported File Formats. Sony Network Entertainment International
6. http://service.real.com/realplayer/security/09072012_player/en/
7. "RealPlayer 1.1". Ewandoo. Retrieved 20 February 2015.
8. ^ RealPlayer with RealTimes - Plans. RealNetworks
9. "Introducing GNOME 45". 20 September 2023. Retrieved 21 September 2023.
10. "COPYING file mentioning exception added 8th Feb 2005". Totem. 2009-05-06. Retrieved 2014-04-23.
11. "3.0.21". 5 June 2024. Retrieved 6 June 2024.
12. "3.5.4". 6 July 2023. Retrieved 31 October 2023.
13. "VLC - Chrome Web Store". 23 December 2015. Retrieved 4 April 2022.
14. https://apps.apple.com/us/app/vlc-media-player/id650377962. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
15. "Official Download of VLC media player for Windows Store - VideoLAN". www.videolan.org. VideoLAN. 20 July 2018. Retrieved 7 August 2018.
16. "Get VLC - Microsoft Store". www.microsoft.com. VideoLAN. 20 July 2018. Retrieved 7 August 2018.
17. "Official Download of VLC media player for Windows Phone - VideoLAN". www.videolan.org. VideoLAN. 20 July 2018. Retrieved 7 August 2018.
18. Corel WinDVD Home
19. Corel WinDVD Pro Updates
20. "Kodi "Matrix" 19.3 Release". Retrieved 17 February 2022.
21. "October 10, 2012". banshee.fm. October 3, 2012. Retrieved October 10, 2012.
22. "CoreAVC Changelog". www.corecodec.com. Archived from the original on 2 January 2017. Retrieved 17 December 2020.
23. "About the security content of QuickTime 7.7.9".
24. "Apple - Support - QuickTime - Downloads".
25. "Winamp : Supported versions : Latest supported version". Winamp Forums. December 22, 2022. Retrieved January 15, 2023.
26. "Winamp : Supported versions : Latest supported version". Winamp Forums. December 22, 2022. Retrieved January 15, 2023.
27. "Windows Media Player". Microsoft Apps. Retrieved 2024-12-05.
28. ^ The playing compatibility depends on the availability of RealMedia filters. There is a distribution known as Real Alternative which bundles the needed RealPlayer components without the need to install the corresponding player.
29. Support MPEG-4 Studio Profile FFmpeg Project
30. Red Cinema r3d files not supported FFmpeg Project
31. Support for DNG (RAW) FFmpeg Project
32. ^ Available via plugins that can be automatically downloaded during installation
33. ^ The playing compatibility depends on the availability of QuickTime filters. There is a distribution known as QuickTime Alternative which bundles the needed QuickTime components without the need to install the corresponding player.
34. ^ The open source Perian plug-in adds the ability to use many video formats and video codecs to QuickTime. It also adds the ability to use SubRip and SubStation Alpha subtitles.
35. http://www.webmproject.org/tools/#gstreamer-plug-ins As of Gstreamer 1.0, WebM related support is included in gstreamer-plugins-good
36. only if FFmpeg was built with OpenSSL, GnuTLS, Secure Transport or SChannel.
37. only if FFmpeg was built with OpenSSH.
38. With youtube-dl
39. #4439 (Support SCTE-27 / Digicipher II (DCII) subtitles) FFmpeg Project
40. #4859 (TTML subtitles) FFmpeg Project
41. S, Ganesh T. "VLC 'Hack' for Encrypted Blu-ray Playback Capability". Retrieved 19 August 2016.

1. ^ Cite error: The named reference xiphqt was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
2. ^ Cite error: The named reference dsfilter was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
3. ^ Cite error: The named reference qtimeWMVP was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
4. ^ Cite error: The named reference plugin group=v was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
5. ^ Cite error: The named reference viaGstreamer was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

Related lists on other projects

• m:Open Source Toolset - short sections on Audio editing and Video editing
• Software - short lists of Ogg audio and video editors
• Help:Converting video - tools for manipulating audio and video

• Media players
• Software comparisons
• ITunes