The right media player can make a huge difference in how you view your favorite movies and television shows. There are dozens to choose from, but it can be hard to narrow down exactly which media player is the right choice.
While most players have basically the same features, there are subtle differences between the various options that heavily influence your experience.
We’ve taken a look at three of the mostpopular options—VLC, Quicktime, and Plex—to help you pick the right mediaplayer to give you the best overall experience. Let’s start with Quicktime.
Download VLC Media Player 3.0.7.1. Excellent multimedia player supporting next to all formats. VLC Media Player is an Open Source Multimedia Player licensed with GPL that allows you to view videos and listen to audios in practically any format. VLC Media Player can play any video or audio format, including. So, within the folder C: Qt libvlc-qt src examples there is a folder called demo-player, which I am going to use for the rest of this example.Opening this within QtCreator gives the following output as displayed in Figure 1. The demo-player project open in QtCreator 2.7.2 (Qt 5.1.0 32-bit).
QuickTime Player becomes the default optionfor a lot of users simply because it is bundled into the macOS, but even if youdon’t have the program by default there are a lot of reasons to consider it.
For starters, QuickTime Player can playiTunes files. VLC Media Playercannot play iTunes files due to their DRM encryption. If you’re a Mac userimmersed into their ecosystem, then you may lean toward an option that allowsyou to play iTunes purchases with ease. The downside, of course, is thatQuickTime Player is only available on Mac systems. Apple officially ceasedWindows support of the program in 2016.
QuickTime Player is the go-to option forvideos you recorded with your iPhone, but may not fare so well with downloadedvideos or more obscure file formats. Another downside is that QuickTime cannotplay .srt files, the most common subtitle format. If you like to have subtitleson while you watch, QuickTime might not be the best option.
QuickTime has an intuitive, easy-to-useinterface that makes it easy to navigate and find the media you’re looking for.You can also record and edit video with QuickTime, but it requires a QuickTimePro subscription—a fee of $29.99.
Pros:
Automatically included withmacOS
Works with iTunes files
Easy to use interface
Cons:
Not compatible with Windows
Doesn’t work with commonsubtitle files
Less breadth of compatibilitythan competitors
While QuickTime is the default mediaplayer, VLC is often the best option for a host of reasons. The main one isthat it supports a massive number of both audio and video file formats. Themedia player is also open-source and available on Windows, Mac, and Linux.
While no external codecs are necessary, VLC is compatible with an almost-silly number of plugins that allow you to expand functionality far beyond the basics. You can stream audio across your home network with ease through the use of sftp/ssh protocols.
VLC has keyboard shortcuts for nearly every function you can imagine. While not the most vital part of media player for most people, those that value convenience will enjoy the added flexibility this adds to the program.
The downside is that VLC doesn’t have the most attractive interface in the world. The color choices are bland with a late-90s style. All function, no grace. Of course, aesthetics aren’t the most important thing in the world, but VLC also doesn’t have the widest range of function as a music player.
The program lacks functionality when it comes to sorting your music. VLC is intended as a video player. While it can play audio, that isn’t its primary purpose, and that shows in the interface.
Pros:
Works with Mac, Windows, and Linux
Huge number of plug-ins
Streaming capabilities
Huge range of filecompatibility
Cons:
No music sorting capabilities
Bland user interface
Buckle up—Plex is a lot to talk about.While it is a media player, it’s more of a server than anything else. When youget Plex up and running, you can stream your media from your devices to almostany other device in your home with the right equipment. If you have a lot ofmusic and movies saved on your computer that you want to watch on the bigscreen, Plex is the place to go.
There are two versions of Plex: one free,one paid. The great thing about Plex is that the free version is already fullyfeatured. The paid version just adds in a few more benefits that may appeal tosmaller numbers of users, like virtual reality support and Sonos integration.For the vast majority of users, the free tier will be more than enough.
If Plex sounds too good to be true, it’s pretty close to it. That said, there are a few areas where it is more of a hassle than a benefit. You can set up your Plex server with ease, but trouble arises when you add media to it.
Actually adding content requires a naming folders and subfolders with specific titles, a task that quickly becomes tedious. If you make it through this process, you’ll be rewarded with a media library you can access from nearly anywhere.
Plex is available for both Mac and PC, butcan be streamed to almost any device including mobile phones. It also has Alexaintegration, so once a file is added to the Plex directory you can ask Alexa toplay it and it will appear.
Pros:
The free tier is fullyfunctional
Paid version is inexpensive
One of the best options for ahome media system
Alexa compatibility
Cons:
Complicated to add media
More features than arenecessary for the average user
It’s a tough choice, but our vote goes with VLC. It provides the most features and widest range of compatibility with audio and video formats. Plex is a close runner-up, but is just too complex and featured for the average user.
If you are a power user that wants to turn your computer into a multimedia mega-center, then Plex is a great choice. On the other hand, if you only need the bare minimum of functionality and you have a Mac, then the built-in QuickTime Player is a solid choice.
by Martin Brinkmann on July 24, 2019 in Security - Last Update: July 24, 2019 - 28 comments
Reports started to emerge on the Internet about a critical security vulnerability in the popular multimedia player VLC Media Player.
Update: VideoLAN confirmed that the issue was not a security issue in VLC Media Player. The engineers detected that the issue was caused by an older version of the third-party library called libebml that was included in older versions of Ubuntu. The researcher used that older version of Ubuntu apparently. End
Gizmodo's Sam Rutherford suggested that users uninstall VLC immediately and the tenor of other tech magazines and sites was identical for the most part. Sensationalist headlines and stories generate lots of pageviews and clicks, and that is likely the main reason why sites like to make use of those instead of focusing on headlines and articles that are not as sensationalist.
The bug report, filed under CVE-2019-13615, rates the issue as critical and states that it affects VLC Media Player 3.0.7.1 and previous versions of the media player.
All desktop versions of VLC Media Player, available for Windows, Linux and Mac OS X, are affected by the issue according to the description. An attacker could execute code remotely on affected devices if the vulnerability is exploited successfully according to the bug report.
The description of the issue is technical, but it provides valuable information about the vulnerability nevertheless:
VideoLAN VLC media player 3.0.7.1 has a heap-based buffer over-read in mkv::demux_sys_t::FreeUnused() in modules/demux/mkv/demux.cpp when called from mkv::Open in modules/demux/mkv/mkv.cpp.
The vulnerability can only be exploited if users open specifically prepared files using VLC Media Player. A sample media file that uses the mp4 format is attached to the bug track listing which appears to confirm this.
VLC engineers have ad difficulties reproducing the issue that was filed on the official bug tracking site four weeks ago.
Project lead Jean-Baptiste Kempf posted yesterday that he could not reproduce the bug as it did not crash VLC at all. Others, e.g. Rafael Rivera, could not reproduce the issue on several VLC Media Player builds as well.
VideoLAN went to Twitter to to shame the reporting organizations MITRE and CVE.
Hey @MITREcorp and @CVEnew , the fact that you NEVER ever contact us for VLC vulnerabilities for years before publishing is really not cool; but at least you could check your info or check yourself before sending 9.8 CVSS vulnerability publicly...
Oh, btw, this is not a VLC vulnerability...
The organizations did not inform VideoLAN about the vulnerability in advanced according to VideoLAN's post on Twitter.
What VLC Media Player users can do
The problems that engineers and researchers have to replicate the issue makes it quite the puzzling affair for users of the media player. Is VLC Media Player safe to use in the meantime because the issue is not as severe as initially suggested or not a vulnerability at all?
It may take a while before things get sorted out. Users could use a different media player in the meantime or trust VideoLAN's assessment of the issue. It is always a good idea to be careful when it comes to the execution of files on systems, especially when they come from the Internet and there from sources that cannot be trusted 100%.
Now You: What is your take on the whole issue? (via Deskmodder)
Confusion about a recently disclosed vulnerability in VLC Media Player
Description
Some tech sites suggested to uninstall VLC Media Player because of a critical vulnerability but VideoLAN could not even reproduce the issue.