For those who has limited RAM and want to play videos, on their average machine, Windows Media Player (WMP) is not that great an option.
The WMP, no matter what version has a tendency to hog a lot of memory and then there is also all those plug-ins. That is why, IMO the VLC Media Player is a great alternative which started as a cross platform client for the Videolan open sourced video streaming server solution. Now it has evolved into a great media player which plays almost all formats of videos available for a number of operating systems in addition to OSX, such as Linux, Windoze and BSD.
Some of the videos covered by VLC include MPEG2, MPEG1, MPEG4 (Xvid, Divx, 3ivx and libavcodec codecs), DV25 (25Mb Digital Video) and even to a limited extent those Microsoft WMV files. One great thing about the player is the simpler interface without frills .Of course unlike other players, this Open Source baby rarely hogs memory space and is perfect for those who has RAM up to 256.The VLC also plays any type of DVDs so you don’t have to buy a specific codec or a player to enjoy DVD playback on your PC or Notebook. Thus in a nutshell, the VLC Player is a must have no matter what kind of PC you have. It provides great picture quality and plays every kind of video (well almost).
And the best part? It’s totally free. So Windows, beat that !
VLC Media Player site
Sourced By Tanya Palta. Edited by Colbert Low
Comment Preview