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 that can play video, even if it can also play audio files.
General
Active players
Name AuthorFirst public release Stable versionCostSoftware license Framework used Written in ALLPlayer ALLPlayer Group Ltd. Partnership FFmpeg + original + DirectShow Object Pascal (Delphi)Elmedia PlayerElectronic Team, Inc.20058.24 (December 5, 2025)Free, PRO features $19.99Proprietarylibmpv + FFmpeg + otherObjective C Apprentice Video Pavel Koshevoy r407 and later FFmpeg C++ (Qt) DivX DivX, LLC 11.16 (September 30, 2026) C/C++ (Qt) FFplay FFmpeg project FFmpeg C GOM Player GOM & Company FFmpeg iTunes Apple Inc. QuickTime jetAudio (Basic) Cowon Systems 8.1.8.20800 () FFmpeg C++ jetAudio (Plus) Cowon Systems 8.1.8.20800 () FFmpeg C++ JRiver Media Center JRiver, Inc. original + DirectShow C++, SSE/MMX assembly K-Multimedia Player YoungHuee Kang DirectShow Object Pascal Mac Blu-ray Player Macgo Inc. 3.3.21 () MediaPortal Team MediaPortal DirectShow C#, C++ Media Player Classic Home Cinema Gabest FFmpeg + DirectShow C++ Microsoft Movies & TV (formerly Xbox Video)Microsoft Microsoft PhotosMicrosoft MPlayer Árpád Gereöffy FFmpeg + original C mpv mpv Community FFmpeg C, Objective C, Lua Plex Media Player Plex, Inc. FFmpeg C++ PotPlayer Kakao DirectShow PowerDVD Standard CyberLink DirectShow PowerDVD Pro CyberLink DirectShow PowerDVD Ultra CyberLink DirectShow QuickTime X Apple Inc. QuickTime Cocoa (on OS X) RealPlayer RealNetworks original SMPlayer Ricardo Villalba MPlayer C++ (Qt) GNOME Videos (formerly Totem) The GNOME Project GStreamer C Videostream Videostream Team 2.1.3.15 Chrome + FFmpeg JavaScript, C++ VLC VideoLAN libVLC + FFmpeg C, C++ WinDVD Pro Corel DirectShow Kodi (formerly XBMC) Team-Kodi (formerly Team-XBMC) FFmpeg C++ xine xine Team xine-lib + FFmpeg C sView Kirill Gavrilov 22.01 () FFmpeg C++ IPTVX IPTVX LLC 14.4.2 (tvOS), 5.4.2 (iOS) VLCKit Objective-C / Swift / Kotlin Name Author First public release Stable version Cost Software license Framework used Written in
Inactive players Name AuthorFirst public release Stable versionCostSoftware license Framework used Written in Banshee Aaron Bockover 2005-02-17 GStreamer C# CorePlayer CoreCodec Inc. 2006 Creative MediaSource Creative Technology 2002 DirectShow DSPlayer DSPlayer team 2002 Object Pascal (Delphi), C++ Media Player Classic Gabest May 29, 2003 DirectShow C++ Ogle Chalmers University of Technology 1999 C Quintessential Player Paul Quinn 1997 Songbird Tom Lord February 8, 2006 GStreamer, XULRunner C++ The Core Pocket Media Player Gabor Kovacs 2004 Jul as "BetaPlayer" FFmpeg + original C++ TotalMedia Theatre ArcSoft November 15, 2009 6.7.1.199 original C++ QuickTime Apple Inc. 1991-12-02 QuickTime Cocoa (on OS X) Winamp Lite, Full, Bundle Nullsoft Jun 1997 Winamp Pro Nullsoft Jun 1997 Windows Media Player Microsoft Nov 1992 DirectShow C++ (COM) Name Author First public release Stable version Cost Software license Framework used Written in
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.
Video player Windows macOS iOS Android Linux BSD Unix Solaris Unix-like DOS BeOS, Haiku, ZETA OS/2 ALLPlayer Elmedia PlayerNoYesNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNo Apprentice Video DivX GOM Player Microsoft Movies & TV (formerly Xbox Video) iTunes jetVideo JRiver Media Center K-Multimedia Player Mac Blu-ray Player Media Player Classic Home Cinema MediaPortal MPlayer mpv Plex Media Player PotPlayer QuickTime Player RealPlayer SMPlayer GNOME Videos (formerly Totem) Videostream VLC Winamp Windows Media Player (WMP9) (WMP6.3) Kodi (formerly XBMC) xine sView Video player Windows macOS iOS Android Linux BSD Unix Solaris Unix-like DOS BeOS, Haiku, ZETA OS/2
Features Video player Outbound streaming Skinnable Media database Gapless audio decoding Visualizer Audio equalizer Remote controllable Intelligent playlists from database (based on criteria) HDR video playback Stereoscopic 3D Playback 360-degree video playback ALLPlayer Elmedia PlayerYesNoNoNoYesYesYesNoNoNoNo Apprentice Video DivX (DLNA) (limited) GOM Player iTunes Plugin available. jetAudio JRiver Media Center K-Multimedia Player Mac Blu-ray Player Media Player Classic Home Cinema MediaPortal MPlayer mpv Plex Media Player PotPlayer PowerDVD QuickTime Player Available with QuickTime Streaming Server. Only the media creator can create skins. RealPlayer SMPlayer GNOME Videos (formerly Totem) VLC anaglyph only Winamp Via media library in "modern" skin Windows Media Player Kodi (formerly XBMC) 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) xine sView (WebUI) Video player Outbound streaming Skinnable Media database Gapless audio decoding VisualizerAudio equalizer Remote controllable Intelligent playlists from database (based on criteria) HDR video playback Stereoscopic 3D Playback 360-degree video playback
Extended features Video player Color controls Time stretching Pitch shifting A-B repeat Seek bar preview tooltipInteractive playback zoom Audio resync Subtitle resync Chapter (DVD, mkv, mp4, ogm) Bookmark (DVD, video, audio) Auto resume (DVD, video, audio) Shutdown on play complete ALLPlayer Elmedia PlayerYesYesNoYesYesNoYesYesYesYesYesYes Apprentice Video Banshee DivX FFplay GOM Player iTunes jetAudio JRiver Media Center K-Multimedia Player Bookmarks are limited to 20 files and are stored with absolute paths, which renders them inaccessible when files are moved Mac Blu-ray Player Media Player Classic Home Cinema MediaPortal MPlayer 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 mpv Plex Media Player PotPlayer PowerDVD QuickTime Player www.apple.com/quicktime/pro/ - A-B repeat using Play Selection Only command RealPlayer SMPlayer As of SVN 3349 GNOME Videos (formerly Totem) VLC (from 2.2) Winamp Windows Media Player WinDVD Kodi (formerly XBMC) xine sView Video player Color controls Time stretching Pitch shifting A-B repeat Seek bar preview tooltip Interactive playback zoom Audio resync Subtitle resync Chapter (DVD, mkv, mp4, ogm) Bookmark (DVD, video, audio) Auto resume (DVD, video, audio) Shutdown on play complete
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.
Video player MPEG-1 MPEG-2 MPEG-4 Part 2 (ASP) MPEG-4 Part 10 H.264 (AVC) WMV RealVideo Theora Flash Dirac VP8 VP9 HEVC (H.265) Essential Video Coding (EVC/MPEG-5 Part 1) AV1 Versatile Video Coding (VVC/H.266) AV2 ALLPlayer Elmedia Player Partial (Supported on Intel Macs and partially on Apple Silicon via Rosetta) (supports the codec but not the DRC extension) Apprentice Video DivX FFmpeg FFplay GOM Player The playing compatibility depends on the availability of DirectShow filters. 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. iTunes The playing compatibility depends on the availability of MPEG2 component for QuickTime. The playing compatibility depends on the availability of WMV Player component for QuickTime. 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. On macOS, 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. jetAudio JRiver Media Center K-Multimedia Player Mac Blu-ray Player Media Player Classic Home Cinema MediaPortal Microsoft Movies & TV MPlayer mpv Plex Media Player PotPlayer QuickTime Player RealPlayer SMPlayer GNOME Videos (formerly Totem) Available via Gstreamer plugin. VLC Winamp Windows Media Player 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. 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. 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. Kodi (formerly XBMC) xine sView Video player MPEG-1 MPEG-2 MPEG-4 Part 2 (ASP) MPEG-4 Part 10 H.264 (AVC) WMV RealVideo Theora Flash Dirac VP8 VP9 HEVC (H.265) EVC/MPEG-5 Part 1 AV1 VVC (H.266) AV2
Production video format ability
Video player XAVC FFplay Support MPEG-4 Studio Profile FFmpeg Project Red Cinema r3d files not supported FFmpeg Project Support for DNG (RAW) FFmpeg Project MPlayer VLC
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.
Video player Lossy compression Lossless compression MP3 WMA RealAudio Vorbis Musepack AAC AC-3 Opus APE FLAC ALAC SHN WV ALLPlayer Elmedia PlayerYesYesYesYesYes (Supports the codec but not the MPC extension)YesYesYesYesYesYesYes (supports the codec, but not the .shn file extension)Yes (Supports the codec but not the WV extension) Apprentice Video DivX FFplay GOM Player iTunes jetAudio JRiver Media Center K-Multimedia Player Mac Blu-ray Player Media Player Classic Home Cinema MediaPortal MPlayer mpv Plex Media Player PotPlayer QuickTime Player RealPlayer SMPlayer GNOME Videos (formerly Totem) VLC Winamp Available via plugins that can be automatically downloaded during installation Windows Media Player Kodi (formerly XBMC) xine sView Video player MP3 WMA RealAudio Vorbis Musepack AAC AC-3 Opus APE FLAC ALAC SHN WV
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.
Video player AVI ASF QuickTime Ogg OGM Matroska MP4 NUT FLV WebM ALLPlayer Elmedia PlayerYesYesYesYesYesYesYesYesYesYes Apprentice Video DivX FFplay GOM Player iTunes jetAudio 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. JRiver Media Center K-Multimedia Player Mac Blu-ray Player Media Player Classic Home Cinema MediaPortal Microsoft Movies & TV (formerly Xbox Video) MPlayer mpv Plex Media Player PotPlayer QuickTime Player RealPlayer GNOME Videos (formerly Totem) http://www.webmproject.org/tools/#gstreamer-plug-ins As of Gstreamer 1.0, WebM related support is included in gstreamer-plugins-good VLC Winamp Windows Media Player Kodi (formerly XBMC) xine sView Video player AVI ASF QuickTime Ogg OGM Matroska MP4 NUT FLV WebM
Streaming support Information about which protocols the players understand, for receiving streaming media content.