VLC v2.0.4 Review

Admit it, you love watching movies. In spite of your busy schedules, one way or another most of us will squeeze in a quick hour or two. We stay hunched over our Macs eager to begin the movie we\’ve been aching to catch over the weekend after a hectic work week. Alas, things do not always go as planned, especially when that movie just won\’t play for you.  The main culprit?  Proprietary file types the world over.  You then ask yourself: \”Man, can\’t they all just agree on one?\”  The short answer? No.

Ever wondered if there was an app out there which could play pretty much any video format you throw at it? The answer my friends is a resounding yes in the form of VLC Media Player.

VLC is a very portable media player as it comes with its own iOS release as well (which would rightfully merit a separate review) and it can also play various audio formats to boot.  A few of the file types it can play include MPEG-4, DivX, MP3, OGG as well as DVD, MKV, MOV, Xvid, AVI.
The clincher?  Believe it or not, it can sometimes even play broken or incomplete files!  Really, no kidding!

One thing I love about this app is the fact that you can just about double the default volume on your media files thereby assisting weaker speakers or the one built in on your Mac once it\’s already been set to its maximum output.

It even has its very own equalizer which you can customize on the fly according to your own discerning taste in sound or simply set it to any amongst the myriad of default choices available.  You could also configure it to display a playlist of the various media files you\’d like for it to play in the order you\’d like them to and can also set files to repeat play for those tunes you just can\’t get enough of.

The newest release of VLC also allows for a frame by frame advancement in video play, as well as minute speed adjustments which provides for slower or faster playbacks.  It also allows users to stream youtube videos over VLC bans the clutter of online ads that tend to populate the screen when played from the site itself.

All in all, VLC being open-source in nature affords it to rather evolve ever so quickly with quality fixes on offer more often than not.  If say you just got a new Mac out of the box and were thinking of the first free application you\’d like to install on it, there would be no need to go with anything else.  Get VLC… while it\’s free!

MacReview.com Verdict:

Without question, I\’m giving this app it\’s much deserved 5-five star rating.  Few come close to it in both form and function and really, it is just that good.  Need I say more?  If it were me, I would simply sum this review in three words my friend: Get. It. Now.