What makes the Video Player applications different? What is the difference between VLC, QuickTimePlayer and others
In: Technology
Mainly two things seperate different video players: the way they look and interact with you (the user interface) aswell as which types of video can be played.
The user interface of a video program allows for control of the program. Some programs like VLC offers the user more options and control so they can fulfill the needs of both advanced users aswell as those with simpler needs. It is more flexible but not all users need this flexibility.
Another major difference lies in the ability to play different types of video. To play a video on your computer, your video player needs to understand the video. While some video files can be understood by just about any video player, some are made differently and needs a video player with special abilities. These video players have the ability to understand uncommon types of video and can play it for you just fine.
Different interface which gives you different looks/locations of buttons.
Different tools (one may give you hotkeys to skip forward/back 1,5,10,30 seconds, slow down the speed, etc.)
There are multiple formats for videos, one may not play all of them.
Some are free, some aren’t. Some have open source code (so you can edit it to your liking if you’re savvy) some don’t.
Some have a more responsive development team and identify/patch bugs in a more timely manner.
Features (playlists, subtitles, audio effects, video effects, bookmarks and so on), format support (which videos you can play) and user interface (how it looks).
Currently, the best ones are probably PotPlayer and VLC.
It’s a bit like the difference between say, different coffee shops – Starbucks, Tully’s, Costa, etc. at the end of the day they all do basically the same thing – serve you coffee – but there are small differences in the way they do it which may lead to one person preferring a particular chain, while someone else prefers another. So ultimately it mostly comes down to preference. I’m a VLC guy, myself.
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