View source for VLC media player

'''VLC media player''' (commonly known as '''VLC''') is a portable, [[Free and open-source software|free and open-source]], [[cross-platform]] [[Media player (software)|media player]] and [[streaming media server]] written by the VideoLAN project.

== Supports many formats ==

VLC media player supports many audio and video compression methods and file formats, including DVD-Video, video CD and streaming protocols.

== Streaming, transcoding ==

It is able to stream media over computer networks and to transcode multimedia files.

== Libraries included ==

The default distribution of VLC includes a large number of free decoding and encoding [[Library (computing)|libraries]], avoiding the need for finding/calibrating proprietary plugins.

== Codecs, protocols ==

The libavcodec library from the FFmpeg project provides many of VLC's codecs, but the player mainly uses its own muxers, and demuxers. It also has its own protocol implementations.

== libdvdcss DVD decryption library ==

VLC gained distinction as the first player to support playback of encrypted DVDs on [[Linux]] and [[OS X]] by using the [[libdvdcss]] DVD decryption library.

== Playlists ==

VLC can create, save, and load playlists.  

Playlists are [[Text file|text files]] with the extension <code>.xspf</code>, containing [[XML]].

See [[Configuration file]].

== See also ==

* [[Configuration file]]
* [[Free and open-source software]]
* [[Media player (software)]] 
* [[Streaming media server]]

== External links == 

* [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VLC_media_player VLC media player] @ Wikipedia
* [https://wiki.videolan.org/Documentation:Playlist/ Documentation:Playlist]


[[Category:Audio]]
[[Category:Computer programs]]
[[Category:Media]]
[[Category:Software]]
[[Category:Video]]