VLC media player
Free, open-source, cross-platform media player from VideoLAN that plays most audio and video formats.
HN commenters recommend VLC as a free, go-to player for everyday media playback1234 and for watching IPTV and internet radio streams.5678 The most common complaint is a clunky interface,91011 with some also reporting playback glitches on Linux and heavy battery drain on iPhone.121314
Why people recommend it
General playback · 3
Recommended as the default player for most people, and one that plays nearly any valid video file.
“I recommend VLC for most people”
“VLC still rules the day for general media playback”
Show 1 more
“VLC starts so quickly, and can read any remotely valid video file.”
Streams and radio · 3
Plays free IPTV streams and internet radio, including long lists of saved stations.
“You can watch them through most media players like VLC without having to download anything shady.”
“you can watch them in VLC through CTRL+N”
Show 1 more
“build up a list of hundreds of net radio stations in VLC”
Cross-platform · 3
Runs on desktop, mobile, Android TV and Apple TV.
“VLC works on both desktop and mobile.”
“My 10 year old iPhone 7 can play 1080p AV1 video in software for more than 200 minutes with VLC.”
Show 1 more
“VLC for Android, Android TV and ChromeOS, "Network browsing for distant filesystems”
Free essential · 3
Listed among the free apps people install first on new machines.
“put as many free software as I can (Firefox, Thunderbird, LibreOffice, VLC, Gimp...)”
“VLC (https://www.videolan.org/)”
Show 1 more
“Ones I actually use.”
Network shares · 2
Plays files directly from SMB and other network shares with little setup.
“I currently just use VLC with a SMB share. Works quite well”
“VLC for Android, Android TV and ChromeOS, "Network browsing for distant filesystems”
Codec support · 3
Decodes AV1 in software well, even on an old iPhone 7, and plays standard MKVs.
“My 10 year old iPhone 7 can play 1080p AV1 video in software for more than 200 minutes with VLC.”
“Try it with VLC.”
Show 1 more
“I currently just use VLC with a SMB share. Works quite well”
Caveats and dissent
Clunky UX · 3
Some find the interface clunky and prefer alternatives such as MPC-HC or IINA.
“I use VLC, which everyone swears is perfect for this but it's actually super clunky.”
“dislike the VLC UX”
Show 1 more
“Now it adds those videos to a media library for some reason. I never want this and I never found a way to turn it off.”
Forced media library · 1
One user says it adds played videos to a media library and found no way to turn this off.
“Now it adds those videos to a media library for some reason. I never want this and I never found a way to turn it off.”
Linux glitches · 2
Users report UI lockups under XWayland and video tearing and lag on Ubuntu.
“VLC can cause the UI to lock up because of some XWayland nonsense”
“VLC sucks on the MacPro4,1 in Ubuntu (skipping around tears the video, leaving it to lag badly)”
iPhone battery · 1
On iPhone it keeps the screen on during external-display playback and drains battery faster.
“Others (VLC, HBO) leave the screen on and burn battery at 2x-3x the rate”
Frame stepping · 1
It cannot seek back one frame, unlike MPC and mpv.
“why you can't seek 1 frame back”
Share browsing · 1
Browsing an SMB share in VLC was confusing for one family, who switched to Jellyfin.
“For awhile I was VLC off a ram SMB share but that was confusing even to me sometimes.”
Often compared with
4 moved from VLC media player to mpvMPC-HC7 comments mention both
1 moved from MPC-HC to VLC media player
1 moved from VLC media player to MPC-HC
2 moved from VLC media player to Haruna
1 moved from VLC media player to IINA
Who recommends it in their own words
Threads where it came up
- What You Need to Know Before Touching a Video File 13 mentions
- VLC's Jean-Baptiste Kempf Receives the European SFS Award 2025 7 mentions
- Ask HN: How to go back to listening to MP3s? 4 mentions
- State of the Fin 2026-01-06 – Jellyfin 3 mentions
- Yt-dlp: External JavaScript runtime now required for full YouTube support 3 mentions
- Using an old Android phone as a music player 2 mentions
Also written as VLC media player, VLC Media Player. Data: vlc-media-player.json. Quotes are verbatim; the verdict and theme labels are written by a model from these comments, and every clause links to its sources.
All comments 41
“that’s why VLC can’t play blu-rays”
“I use VLC, which everyone swears is perfect for this but it's actually super clunky.”
“no software installed except for VLC”
“VLC to play downloaded videos”
“I use it regularly in say, VLC”
“Others (VLC, HBO) leave the screen on and burn battery at 2x-3x the rate”
“put as many free software as I can (Firefox, Thunderbird, LibreOffice, VLC, Gimp...)”
“you can watch your scope with VLC or your OS's built-in camera app”
“I just use VLC but I just play long sets”
“I just use VLC”
“Only offline files via VLC.”
“You can watch them through most media players like VLC without having to download anything shady.”
There was no oversight. The EU told Apple the CTC did not comply with the law. Apple's new scheme still seems bad but I don't think this is the end of it. https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_24_3433
“presumably you'd mainly want to use VLC for wider range of supported codecs”
“VLC can cause the UI to lock up because of some XWayland nonsense”
“I would never use an app that used VLC for playback.”
“My SO uses it to view movies with VLC and TV via TVHeadend.”
“you have to use VLC to play it”
“direct with, say, VLC”
“VLC sucks on the MacPro4,1 in Ubuntu (skipping around tears the video, leaving it to lag badly)”
“vlc 'https://lsn.lv/bbcradio.m3u8”
“VLC still rules the day for general media playback”
“Ones I actually use.”
“VLC (https://www.videolan.org/)”
“dislike the VLC UX”
“I recommend VLC for most people”
“Now it adds those videos to a media library for some reason. I never want this and I never found a way to turn it off.”
“There's an easy fix for that if you use a player like VLC that has an audio compressor”
“can play 1080p AV1 video in software for over 200 minutes with VLC”
“MPClassic or VLC worked fine”
“My 10 year old iPhone 7 can play 1080p AV1 video in software for more than 200 minutes with VLC.”
“I used to stream movies from my desktop over the local network with VLC and the main issue I faced was that I could never get the subtitles to work.”
“VLC can do this, but not as simply as I used to be able to”
“I use VLC for my music.”
Kavita (note: I'm the developer), FMD2, qBittorrent, VLC, Firefox
“VLC starts so quickly, and can read any remotely valid video file.”
“If I use VLC (for example) on AppleTV to play something from my network using SMB or DLNA”
“build up a list of hundreds of net radio stations in VLC”
“Using VLC 3.7.2 (which uses dav1d for decoding AV1)”
“Try it with VLC.”
“you can watch them in VLC through CTRL+N”