As the line between online media and television blurs and fades, many of us are trying to get the most out of the many types of media files we've collected on our computers. Playing all the many media forms properly requires that you have the right media player and the right codecs. Having the right universal media player is the first step, because it can prevent you from having to hunt down a lot of codecs.
One of your best bets is the VLC media player, which is a very well-regarded, multiple platform player that does the basics and has a few more advanced capabilities as well. For example, you can control VLC from any PC in your house. Say you're using your laptop and you have a movie running on another computer. Send your laptop's browser to the media's IP address at port 80 and have full remote control access.
More pedestrian uses include playing YouTube videos. All you do is go to the VLC media menu and pick "Open Network Stream." There, paste in the address of a YouTube video and VLC will play the highest-quality version on its interface. This makes it really easy to skip through, have multiple monitors, or go to full-screen. Plus, you don't have to have a browser open to use it.
The VLC media player download also gives you an easy way to take clips from a video source (including DVDs). Go to the "View" menu and choose "Advanced Controls." Play back the video and hit the "record" button. It will make a recording of the current video in the MP4 format and put it in your Video directory.
You can also get a PortableApps version of the media player that only takes up 20MB and doesn't need to be installed. That way it can run off an external hard drive and take it with you.
If you have an iPad, you can get a version of the VLC player for it as well. This is really handy because Apple only allows you to play .mov, .mp4, and .m4v files and VLC handles these with no problem. It's a really quick way to start using your iPad to watch videos. Get the Downloads HD app and you can use it with the media player to watch movies without having to use your iTunes account. Just use the "Open in" command and pick the VLC media player from the stored file menu on Downloads HD.
In fact, this player's a great choice to load onto any Mac (or PC for that matter) because of the wide range of formats it can handle. It will also attempt to repair and play files that are too messed up to work with other video players.
Don't feel left out if you have an Android device, because a version of VLC is coming to the Android in early 2011. You can already get an app that lets you use your Android device as a remote controller for it, and the full media player is widely anticipated.
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