Comparison of video player software

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This article is about video player software. For a comparison of audio player software, see Comparison of audio player software. For a comparison of hardware device type portable media players, see Comparison of portable media players.
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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 which can play video, even if it can also play audio files.

Contents

General [edit]

Name Author First public release date Stable version Cost Software license Based framework Written in
ALLPlayer ALLCinema Ltd. Partnership 00 Jan 1998 5.5 (April 27, 2013; 28 days ago (2013-04-27)) [±] Free Proprietary FFmpeg + original + DirectShow Object Pascal (Delphi)
Apprentice Video Pavel Koshevoy 03 Apr 2011 r407 and later Free MIT FFmpeg C++ (Qt)
Banshee Aaron Bockover 00 Aug 2005 2.6.1 (April 16, 2013; 39 days ago (2013-04-16)[1]) [±] Free MIT GStreamer C#
Creative MediaSource Creative Technology 00 Jan 2002 5.10.38 (December 22, 2006; 6 years ago (2006-12-22)) [±] Requires Creative product Proprietary ? ?
CorePlayer CoreCodec Inc. 00 Jan 2006 3.0.1 (September 9, 2011; 20 months ago (2011-09-09)) [±] US$19.95 Proprietary ? ?
CrystalPlayer Crystal Reality LLC 00 Oct 2002 1.99 (September 1, 2012; 8 months ago (2012-09-01)) [±] US$29.95 Proprietary FFmpeg ?
DSPlayer DSPlayer team 00 Jan 2002 0.999 Free Proprietary Object Pascal (Delphi), C++
FFplay FFmpeg project 06 Jun 2003[generalnotes 1] 1.2.1 (May 10, 2013; 15 days ago (2013-05-10)) [±] Free LGPL, part GPL FFmpeg C
GOM Player Gretech Corporation 07 Jan 2003 2.1.47.5133 (December 12, 2012; 5 months ago (2012-12-12)) [±] Free Proprietary FFmpeg ?
iTunes Apple Inc. 09 Jan 2001 11.0.3 (May 16, 2013; 9 days ago (2013-05-16)) [±][2] Free Proprietary QuickTime ?
iTVmediaPlayer BitMar Networks 22 Nov 2010 5.1 US$24.99 Proprietary .NET Framework C#
jetAudio (Basic) Cowon Systems 00 Jan 1997 8.0.17 May 4, 2012; 12 months ago (2012-05-04) Free Proprietary FFmpeg C++
jetAudio (Plus) Cowon Systems 00 Jan 1997 8.0.17 May 4, 2012; 12 months ago (2012-05-04) US$29.00 Proprietary FFmpeg C++
Kaffeine KDE 00 Jan 2003 1.2.2 (April 4, 2011; 2 years ago (2011-04-04)) [±] Free GPL xine C++
K-Multimedia Player YoungHuee Kang 01 Oct 2002 3.6.0.85 (10 April 2013; 45 days ago (2013-04-10)[3]) [±] Free Proprietary ? Object Pascal
Konqueror Media Player Koos Vriezen, Joonas Koivunen 00 Jan 2003 0.11.3d June 10, 2012; 11 months ago (2012-06-10) Free GPL MPlayer C++
JRiver Media Center JRiver, Inc. 00 Jul 2003 18.0.106 (January 3, 2013; 4 months ago (2013-01-03)) [±] US$49.98 Proprietary original C++, SSE/MMX assembly
Mac Blu-ray Player MacGo, Inc. 00 Jan 2011 2.7.1 November 30, 2012; 5 months ago (2012-11-30) US$59.95 Proprietary ? ?
Media Go Sony Creative Software Inc. 00 Jan 2009 2.2 August 1, 2012; 9 months ago (2012-08-01) Free Proprietary ? ?
Media Player Classic Gabest 29 May 2003 6.4.9.1 (December 10, 2008; 4 years ago (2008-12-10)) [±] Free GPL DirectShow C++
Media Player Classic Home Cinema Casimir666 29 Mar 2006 1.6.6 (March 17, 2013; 2 months ago (2013-03-17)) [±] Free GPL DirectShow C++
MediaPortal Team MediaPortal 00 Jan 2004 1.3.0 (March 13, 2013; 2 months ago (2013-03-13)) [±] Free GPL DirectShow C#, C++
MPlayer Árpád Gereöffy 00 Sep 2000 1.1.1 (May 5, 2013; 20 days ago (2013-05-05)) [±] Free GPL FFmpeg + original C
Mplayerxp Guru Kas aka Nickols_K 00 Jan 2002 0.7.1/06.01.2009 Free GPL FFmpeg + original C
Ogle Chalmers University of Technology 00 Jan 1999 0.9.2 (November 6, 2003; 9 years ago (2003-11-06)) [±] Free GPL ? C
Plex Plex, Inc. 21 May 2008 0.9.5.4 / 0.9.6.6 (server)July 31, 2012; 9 months ago (2012-07-31) Free Proprietary FFmpeg C++
PowerDVD Standard CyberLink 00 Jan 1996 13.0.16441 (March 29, 2013; 57 days ago (2013-03-29)[4][5]) [±]


US$49.95 Proprietary ? ?
PowerDVD Deluxe CyberLink 00 Jan 1996 13.0.16441 (March 29, 2013; 57 days ago (2013-03-29)[4][5]) [±]


US$69.95 Proprietary ? ?
PowerDVD Ultra CyberLink 00 Jan 1996 13.0.16441 (March 29, 2013; 57 days ago (2013-03-29)[4][5]) [±]


US$99.95 Proprietary ? ?
QuickTime Basic Apple Inc. 02 Dec 1991 7.7.4 (May 22, 2013; 3 days ago (2013-05-22)) [±] Free Proprietary original Cocoa (on OS X)
QuickTime Pro Apple Inc. 02 Dec 1991 7.7.4 (May 22, 2013; 3 days ago (2013-05-22)) [±] US$29.95 Proprietary original Cocoa (on OS X)
Quintessential Player Paul Quinn 00 Jan 1997 5.0.121 (February 18, 2009; 4 years ago (2009-02-18)) [±] Free Proprietary ? ?
RealPlayer Basic RealNetworks 00 Jan 1995 Windows: 16.0.2.32 (May 15, 2013; 10 days ago (2013-05-15)) [±]

OS X: 12.0.1.1750 (September 7, 2012; 8 months ago (2012-09-07)[6]) [±]

Windows Mobile: 1.1 (July 30, 2009; 3 years ago (2009-07-30)[7]) [±]

Android: 0.0.1.0 (August 14, 2012; 9 months ago (2012-08-14)) [±]

 Free Proprietary ? ?
RealPlayer Plus RealNetworks 00 Jan 1995 Windows: 16.0.2.32 (May 15, 2013; 10 days ago (2013-05-15)) [±]

OS X: 12.0.1.1750 (September 7, 2012; 8 months ago (2012-09-07)[6]) [±]

Windows Mobile: 1.1 (July 30, 2009; 3 years ago (2009-07-30)[7]) [±]

Android: 0.0.1.0 (August 14, 2012; 9 months ago (2012-08-14)) [±]

 US$19.99 Proprietary ? ?
SMPlayer RVM 11 Dec 2006[generalnotes 2] 0.8 (April 2, 2012) Free GPL MPlayer C++
Songbird Tom Lord 08 Feb 2006 2.2.0, Build 2453 (February 4, 2013; 3 months ago (2013-02-04)) [±] Free GPL GStreamer, XULRunner C++
Splash Lite Mirillis 14 Sep 2009 1.7.1 (November 10, 2011; 18 months ago (2011-11-10)) [±] Free Proprietary ? ?
The Core Pocket Media Player Gabor Kovacs 00 Jul 2004 named "BetaPlayer" 0.71 (November 23, 2005; 7 years ago (2005-11-23)) [±] Free GPL FFmpeg + original C++
Totem Movie Player Totem Team 00 Jul 2002 3.8.2 (May 16, 2013; 9 days ago (2013-05-16)) [±][8] Free GPL GStreamer C
VLC VideoLAN 00 Feb 2000 2.0.6[9] (April 11, 2013; 44 days ago (2013-04-11)) [±] Free GPL, LGPL[10][11][12] FFmpeg + original C, C++
Winamp Lite, Full, Bundle Nullsoft 00 Jun 1997 5.6.3.3235 (June 28, 2012; 10 months ago (2012-06-28)) [±] Free Proprietary ? ?
Winamp Pro Nullsoft 00 Jun 1997 5.6.3.3235 (June 28, 2012; 10 months ago (2012-06-28)) [±] US$19.95 Proprietary ? ?
Windows Media Player Microsoft 00 Nov 1992 12.0.7601.17514 (July 22, 2009; 3 years ago (2009-07-22)) [±] Free Proprietary DirectShow C++ (COM)
WinDVD Gold Corel 00 Jan 1998 11.0.0.342 (October 16, 2011; 18 months ago (2011-10-16)[13]) [±] US$39.95 Proprietary ? ?
WinDVD Platinum Corel 00 Jan 1998 11.0.0.342 (October 16, 2011; 18 months ago (2011-10-16)[13]) [±] US$59.95 Proprietary ? ?
XBMC Team-XBMC 00 Oct 2003 12.0 (codename: "Frodo") (29 January 2013) [±] Free GPL FFmpeg C++
xine xine Team 15 Aug 2000 0.99.7 (June 9, 2012; 11 months ago (2012-06-09)) [±] Free GPL FFmpeg + original C
TotalMedia Theatre ArcSoft 15 Nov 2009 5.2.1.119 January 11, 2012; 16 months ago (2012-01-11) US$99.99 Proprietary original C++
Name Author First public release date Stable version Cost Software license Based framework Written in
  1. ^ Log of ffplay.c
  2. ^ "The SMPlayer Project / SMPlayer first anniversary". Smplayer.berlios.de. Retrieved 2009-12-16. 

Operating system requirement [edit]

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 Windows CE, Mobile Windows Phone Mac OS X iOS Android Linux BSD Unix Solaris Unix-like DOS BeOS, Haiku, ZETA OS/2
ALLPlayer Yes No No No No No No No No No No No No
Apprentice Video Yes No No Yes No No Yes Yes No No No No No
Banshee Yes No No Yes No No Yes Yes No No No No No
CorePlayer Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No
CrystalPlayer Yes No No No No No No No No No No No No
DSPlayer Yes No No No No No No No No No No No No
FFplay Yes No No Yes No No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
GOM Player Yes No No Yes No No No No No No No No No
iTunes Yes No No Included Included No No No No No No No No
iTVmediaPlayer Yes ? ? Yes No Yes No No No No No No No
jetAudio Yes No No No No Yes No No No No No No No
Kaffeine No No No No No No Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No
K-Multimedia Player Yes No No No No No No No No No No No No
KMPlayer Via Cygwin No No Via Fink No No Yes Yes No Yes No No No
JRiver Media Center Yes No No No No No No No No No No No No
Mac Blu-ray Player Yes No No Yes Yes No No No No No No No No
Media Go Yes No No No No Yes No No No No No No No
Media Player Classic Yes No No No No No No No No No No No No
Media Player Classic Home Cinema Yes No No No No No No No No No No No No
MediaPortal Yes No No No No No No No No No No No No
MPlayer Yes No No Yes No No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Mplayerxp Yes No No No No No Yes Yes No No No No No
Ogle No No No No No No Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No
Plex Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No No No No
QuickTime Yes No No Included Included No No No No No No No No
Quintessential Player Yes No No No No No No No No No No No No
RealPlayer Yes Yes No Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No
SMPlayer Yes No No No No No Yes Yes No No No No No
Songbird Yes No No Yes No Yes Official support dropped No Official support dropped No No No No
Totem Movie Player No No No No No No Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No
VLC Yes No No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes
Winamp Yes No No Beta version No Yes Last version is Winamp 3 No No No No No No
Windows Media Player Included Included Included Dropped (WMP9) No No No No Dropped (WMP6.3) No No No No
XBMC Yes Original Xbox only No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No No No
xine unmaintained No No WIP for 1.2 series No No Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No
TotalMedia Theatre Yes No No No No No No No No No No No No
Video player Windows Windows CE, Mobile Windows Phone Mac OS X iOS Android Linux BSD Unix Solaris Unix-like DOS BeOS, Haiku, ZETA OS/2



Features [edit]

Video player Outbound streaming Skinnable Media database Gapless audio decoding Visualizer Remote controllable Intelligent playlists from database (based on criteria)
ALLPlayer Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes
Apprentice Video No No No Yes No only on OSX No
Banshee Yes Partial[featurenotes 1] Yes Yes In Development Yes Yes
CorePlayer Yes Yes No No No No Yes
DSPlayer No Yes No Yes Yes No No
FFplay ? No No ? Yes No No
GOM Player Yes Yes No No No Yes No
iTunes Yes Partial[14] Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
iTVmediaPlayer Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
jetAudio Partial[14] Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ?
Kaffeine Yes No No Yes Yes Yes No
K-Multimedia Player Yes Yes Yes No[featurenotes 2] Yes Yes No
Konqueror Media Player Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
JRiver Media Center Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Mac Blu-ray Player Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No
Media Go No No Yes No No No SensMe
Media Player Classic No No No No No Yes No
Media Player Classic Home Cinema ? No Yes Yes No Yes Yes
MediaPortal Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
MPlayer Yes Yes No No No Yes No
Mplayerxp Yes No Yes No No No No
Plex Yes Yes Yes No No Yes No
PowerDVD ? Yes No ? Yes ? No
QuickTime Partial[featurenotes 3] Partial[featurenotes 4] No Yes No Yes No
Quintessential Player Partial[14] Yes Yes Yes Yes ? ?
RealPlayer No Yes Yes No Yes ? Yes
SMPlayer ? Yes ? ? ? ? ?
Songbird No Yes Yes Yes No Yes[featurenotes 5] Yes
Totem Movie Player No No No No Yes No No
VLC Yes Yes yes, not Mac No Yes Yes No
Winamp Partial[14] Yes Yes Yes Yes Partial[14] Yes[featurenotes 6]
Windows Media Player Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
XBMC Yes[featurenotes 7] Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
xine No Yes No Yes Yes Yes No
Video playback Outbound streaming Skinnable Media database Gapless audio decoding Visualizer Remote controllable Intelligent playlists from database (based on criteria)

Extended features [edit]

Video player Color controls Time stretching Pitch shifting A-B repeat Audio resync Subtitle resync Chapter (DVD, mkv, mp4, ogm) Bookmark (DVD, video, audio) Auto resume (DVD, video, audio) Shutdown on play complete
ALLPlayer Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Apprentice Video No Yes No Yes No No Yes No No No
Banshee ? No No ? ? ? ? Yes ? ?
CorePlayer Yes Yes No Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes No
FFplay No No No No ? No No No No Yes
GOM Player Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
iTunes No Yes No No No No Yes Yes Yes No
iTVmediaPlayer No No No No No No No No No No
jetAudio Yes ? Yes Yes ? Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Kaffeine Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
K-Multimedia Player Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Some[featurenotes 8] Yes Yes
Konqueror Media Player Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Mac Blu-ray Player No No No No No No No No No No
Media Go No No No No No No No No No No
Media Player Classic Yes No No No Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes
Media Player Classic Home Cinema Yes No No No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
MediaPortal ? No No Yes ? Yes Yes Yes Yes No
MPlayer Yes Yes Yes[featurenotes 9] Yes[featurenotes 9] Yes Yes Partial No No Yes
Mplayerxp Yes Yes Yes[featurenotes 9] Yes[featurenotes 9] Yes Yes Partial No No Yes
Plex No Yes No No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
PowerDVD Yes Yes Yes Yes ? ? Yes Yes Yes No
QuickTime Yes Yes Yes Yes[featurenotes 10] ? ? Yes ? ? No
Quintessential Player ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
RealPlayer ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
SMPlayer Yes Yes Yes Yes[featurenotes 11] Yes Yes Partial No Yes Yes
Songbird ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Totem Movie Player Yes No No No No No Yes No Yes No
VLC Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes
Winamp No Yes Yes ? ? ? ? Yes ? ?
Windows Media Player Yes Yes No No No No DVD only No Partial[14] Partial[14]
WinDVD Yes Yes Yes Yes ? ? Yes No Yes ?
XBMC Yes No No No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
xine Yes Audio plugin No No Yes Yes Yes No No Yes
Video player Color controls Time stretching Pitch shifting A-B repeat Audio resync Subtitle resync Chapter (DVD, mkv, mp4, ogm) Bookmark (DVD, video, audio) Auto resume (DVD, video, audio) Shutdown on play complete
  1. ^ The user interface is a pluggable Mono Assembly
  2. ^ "gapless mp3 playback - The KMPlayer's Forums". Kmplayer.com. Retrieved 2009-12-16. 
  3. ^ Available with QuickTime Streaming Server.
  4. ^ Only the media creator can create skins.
  5. ^ Apple Remote ability, and dbus add-on for Linux
  6. ^ Via media library in "modern" skin
  7. ^ XBMC (XBoxMediaCenter) 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)
  8. ^ Bookmarks are limited to 20 files and are stored with absolute paths, which renders them inaccessible when files are moved
  9. ^ a b c d 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
  10. ^ www.apple.com/quicktime/pro/ - A-B repeat using Play Selection Only command
  11. ^ As of SVN 3349

Video format ability [edit]

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
ALLPlayer Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Apprentice Video Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ?
Banshee Yes[v 1] Yes[v 1] Yes[v 1] Yes[v 1] Yes[v 1] Yes[v 1] Yes[v 1] Yes[v 1] Yes[v 1] Yes[v 1]
CorePlayer Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes ?
DSPlayer Yes Partial[v 2] Partial[v 3] Partial[v 3] Yes Partial[v 4] Partial[v 3] Yes Partial[v 3] Partial[v 3]
FFplay Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
GOM Player Yes Partial[v 2] Yes Partial[v 3] Yes Partial[v 4] Partial[v 3] Yes Partial[v 3] Partial[v 3]
iTunes Yes Partial[v 5] Yes Yes Partial[v 6] No Partial[v 7] Partial[v 8] No Partial[v 8]
iTVmediaPlayer Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ?
jetAudio Yes Partial[v 2] Partial[v 3] Partial[v 3] Yes Partial[v 4] Partial[v 3] Yes Partial[v 3] Yes
JRiver Media Center Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Partial[v 3] Yes Partial[v 3] Partial[v 3]
K-Multimedia Player Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Konqueror Media Player Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Mac Blu-ray Player Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No
Media Player Classic Home Cinema Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
MediaPortal Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
MPlayer Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Mplayerxp Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No
Plex Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ?
QuickTime Yes Partial[v 5] Yes Yes Partial[v 6] No Partial[v 7] Partial[v 8] No Partial[v 8]
Quintessential Player Yes No No No Yes No No No No No
RealPlayer Yes Yes Partial[v 3] Partial[v 3] Yes Yes Partial[v 9] Yes Partial[v 3] Partial[v 3]
SMPlayer Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Songbird No No Partial[v 10] Partial[v 10] Partial[v 11] No Yes No No No
TotalMedia Theatre Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No Yes No No
Totem Movie Player Yes[v 1] Yes[v 1] Yes[v 1] Yes[v 1] Yes[v 1] Yes[v 1] Yes[v 1] Yes[v 1] Yes[v 1] Yes[v 1]
VLC Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Winamp Yes Partial[v 2] Partial[v 3] Partial[v 3] Yes Partial[v 4] Partial[v 3] Yes Partial[v 3] Yes
Windows Media Player Yes Yes[v 2] Yes[v 12] Yes[v 12] Yes Partial[v 4] Partial[v 3] Partial[v 3] Partial[v 3] Partial[v 13]
XBMC Yes Yes Yes Yes[v 14] Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
xine Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ? ?
Video player MPEG-1 MPEG-2 MPEG-4 Part 2 (ASP) MPEG-4 Part 10 H.264 (AVC) WMV RealVideo Theora Flash Dirac Snow
  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Available via Gstreamer plugin.
  2. ^ a b c d e 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.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa The playing compatibility depends on the availability of DirectShow filters.
  4. ^ a b c d e 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.
  5. ^ a b The playing compatibility depends on the availability of MPEG2 component for Quicktime.
  6. ^ a b The playing compatibility depends on the availability of WMV Player component for Quicktime.
  7. ^ a b 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.
  8. ^ a b c d On Macs, 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.
  9. ^ Plugin available.
  10. ^ a b This format is supported out-of-the-box on Mac OS X. On Windows, 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.
  11. ^ This format is supported when running the program in Microsoft Windows, but is not supported on Mac OS X.
  12. ^ a b 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.
  13. ^ 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.
  14. ^ XBMC running on Linux, Macintosh and Windows plays MPEG-4 ASP and H.264/MPEG-4 AVC. Because of the relatively 'slow' Intel Pentium III 733 MHz processor inside the Xbox, the Xbox version of XBMC is limited to decoding 480x576 resolution H.264 video encoded without CABAC and deblocking, or 352x288 resolution H.264 video encoded with CABAC and deblocking. As the FFmpeg-based codec is optimized further, XBMC on Xbox might be able to decode H.264 at 720x480 resolution on the Xbox hardware, but probably no higher than that.[citation needed]

Audio format ability [edit]

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 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ? Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Apprentice Video Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ? Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Banshee Yes[15] Yes[15] Yes[15] Yes[15] Yes[15] Yes[15] Yes[15] ? Yes[15] Yes[15] Yes[15] Yes[15] Yes[15]
CorePlayer Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes No ? Yes Yes No No Yes
DSPlayer Yes Yes No Yes No No Yes ? Yes Yes No No Yes
FFplay Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
GOM Player Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes ? No No No No No
iTunes Yes yes, no DRM No Partial[16] No Yes No ? No Partial[16] Yes No No
iTVmediaPlayer Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ? Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
jetAudio Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ? Yes Yes No No Yes
K-Multimedia Player Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ? Yes Yes Yes Partial[17] Yes
Konqueror Media Player Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ? Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
JRiver Media Center Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ? Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Mac Blu-ray Player Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Media Player Classic Yes Yes Yes Yes Partial[17] Yes Yes ? Partial[17] Yes Partial[17] Partial[17] Partial[17]
Media Player Classic Home Cinema Yes Yes Yes Yes Partial[17] Yes Yes ? Partial[17] Yes Partial[17] Partial[17] Yes
MediaPortal Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ? Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
MPlayer Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Mplayerxp Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ? Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Plex Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ? Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
QuickTime Yes Partial[18] No Partial[16] No Yes Partial[14] ? No Partial[16] Yes No No
Quintessential Player Yes Yes No Yes No Yes No ? Partial[14] Partial[14] No No Partial[14]
RealPlayer Yes Yes Yes Partial[14] No Yes No ? No No No No No
SMPlayer Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ? Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Songbird Yes Yes No Yes ? Yes ? ? No Yes ? ? ?
TotalMedia Theatre Yes Yes No Yes No Yes Yes ? Yes Yes ? No No
Totem Movie Player Yes[15] Yes[15] Yes[15] Yes[15] Yes[15] Yes[15] Yes[15] ? Yes[15] Yes[15] Yes[15] Yes[15] Yes[15]
VLC Yes Yes Partial[19] Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Winamp Yes Yes Partial[17] Yes Partial[20] Yes Partial[20] ? Partial[20] Yes Partial[20] Partial[20] Partial[20]
Windows Media Player Yes Yes Partial[17] Partial[17] Partial[17] Partial[17] Partial[17] ? Partial[17] Partial[17] Partial[17] Partial[17] Partial[17]
XBMC Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ? Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
xine Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ? No Yes Yes Yes Yes
Video player MP3 WMA RealAudio Vorbis Musepack AAC AC-3 Opus APE FLAC ALAC SHN WV


Container format ability [edit]

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
ALLPlayer Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Apprentice Video Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
CorePlayer Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ? Yes
DSPlayer Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes No No
FFplay Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
GOM Player Yes Yes Yes Vorbis only Yes Yes Yes ? Yes
iTunes No[containernotes 1] Win: yes
Mac: file is parsable		 Yes Partial[16] No No Yes ? ?
iTVmediaPlayer Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
jetAudio Yes Yes Partial[21] Vorbis only Yes Yes Partial[17] ? ?
K-Multimedia Player Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Konqueror Media Player Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
JRiver Media Center Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ? Yes
Media Player Classic Yes Yes Yes Vorbis only Yes Yes Yes ? Yes
Mac Blu-ray Player Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ? Yes
Media Player Classic Home Cinema Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ? Yes
MediaPortal Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
MPlayer Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Mplayerxp Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Plex Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ? Yes
QuickTime Yes Partial[18] Yes Partial[16] No Yes[22] Yes ? Yes[22]
Quintessential Player Yes Yes ? Yes ? ? ? ? ?
RealPlayer Yes Yes Yes Partial[14] Partial[14] No Yes ? ?
Songbird Yes No Yes[21] Yes No No Yes ? ?
TotalMedia Theatre Yes Yes Yes Yes No Partial Yes No Yes
Totem Movie Player Yes[15] Yes[15] Yes[15] Yes[15] Yes[15] Yes[15] Yes[15] ? Yes[15]
VLC Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Winamp Yes Yes Partial[21] Vorbis only Partial[17] Partial[17] Yes ? ?
Windows Media Player Yes Yes WMP12 Yes[21] Partial[17] Partial[17] Partial[17] WMP12 Yes[17] ? Yes
XBMC Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
xine Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ? Yes
Video player AVI ASF QuickTime Ogg OGM Matroska MP4 NUT FLV
  1. ^ A hack allows playback.

Scalable, composite and emulation format abilities [edit]

Video player Flash RealPix QuickTime Video Effects in mov HTML+TIME(+VML) Silverlight SMIL/smi SVG MIDI(smf) MIDI(kar) MIDI(xmf) MIDI(rmi) MIDI(xmi) NSF SPC PSF
ALLPlayer ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Apprentice Video No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No
CorePlayer ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
FFplay Partial No No No No No No No No No No No No No No
GOM Player ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
iTunes ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
iTVmediaPlayer Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
jetAudio ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
K-Multimedia Player Yes ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Konqueror Media Player ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
JRiver Media Center ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Mac Blu-ray Player ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Media Player Classic Partial ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Media Player Classic Home Cinema Yes No No No No No No Partial[23] Partial[23] Partial[23] Partial[23] Partial[23] No No No
MediaPortal Yes ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
MPlayer Partial ? ? ? ? Partial ? Yes (via xmms-plugins) ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Mplayerxp Partial ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
QuickTime ? ? Yes ? ? Yes ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Quintessential Player ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
RealPlayer ? Yes ? ? ? Yes ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Songbird ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
TotalMedia Theatre Yes ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Totem Movie Player Partial ? ? ? ? ? ? Yes ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
VLC Yes ? ? ? ? ? ? Yes ? ? ? ? Yes Yes ?
Winamp ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Yes (plugin) Yes (plugin) Yes (plugin)
Windows Media Player ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
XBMC Partial No No No No No No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
xine ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Video player Flash RealPix QuickTime Video Effects in mov HTML+TIME(+VML) Silverlight SMIL/smi SVG MIDI(smf) MIDI(kar) MIDI(xmf) MIDI(rmi) MIDI(xmi) NSF SPC PSF


Protocol abilities [edit]

Information about which internet protocols the players understand, for receiving streaming media content. Footnotes lead to information about abilities of future versions of the players or plugins that provide such abilities.

General protocols [edit]

Video player HTTP HTTPS HLS FTP RTSP (RTSPU, RTSPT) MMS (MMSU, MMST) RTMP Netstream (mpst://) Podcasting PeerCast RDT TCP UDP SCTP Gopher SFTP NFS SMB/CIFS PNA (pnm://, pna://) RTP


ALLPlayer ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Amarok Yes ? ? ? Yes Yes ? ? Yes ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Apprentice Video Yes No Partial No Yes Yes Yes No No No No Yes Yes No Yes No No No No Yes
Banshee Yes ? ? ? Yes No ? ? Yes ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
CorePlayer Yes ? ? ? Yes No ? ? Yes ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
DSPlayer No ? ? ? No No ? ? No ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
FFplay Yes No ? No Yes Yes Yes No No No No Yes Yes No Yes No No No No Yes
GOM Player Yes ? ? ? No Yes ? ? No ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
iTunes Yes ? ? ? Yes No ? ? Yes ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
iTVmediaPlayer Yes Yes ? Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
jetAudio Yes ? ? ? No ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
K-Multimedia Player Yes ? ? ? Yes Yes ? ? No ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Konqueror Media Player ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
JRiver Media Center Yes ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Yes ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Mac Blu-ray Player ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Media Player Classic Yes ? ? ? No Yes ? ? No ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Media Player Classic Home Cinema Yes ? ? ? No Yes ? ? No ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
MediaPortal Yes Yes ? Yes ? Yes ? ? ? ? ? Yes Yes ? ? ? ? ? ? Yes
MPlayer Yes ? ? Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes No ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Yes (optional) ? Yes
Mplayerxp Yes No ? Yes No Yes No No No No No No Yes No No No ? No Yes Yes
Quod Libet Yes ? ? ? Yes ? ? ? Yes ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
QuickTime Yes ? ? ? Yes No ? ? Yes ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Quintessential Player Yes ? ? ? Yes Yes ? ? Yes ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
RealPlayer Yes ? ? ? Yes Yes ? ? Yes ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Yes ?
Songbird Yes ? ? ? ? No ? ? Yes ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Totem Movie Player Yes ? ? ? Yes Yes ? ? No ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
VLC Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes No No Yes Yes No No Yes No Yes No Yes
Winamp Yes ? ? ? No Yes ? ? Yes ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Windows Media Player Yes ? ? ? Yes Dropped
(WMP10)		 ? ? Yes ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
XBMC Yes Yes ? Yes Yes Yes Yes ? Yes ? ? Yes Yes ? ? Yes Yes Yes ? Yes
xine Yes ? ? ? Yes Yes ? ? No ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
XMMS Yes ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Video player HTTP HTTPS HLS FTP RTSP (RTSPU, RTSPT) MMS (MMSU, MMST) RTMP Netstream (mpst://) Podcasting PeerCast RDT TCP UDP SCTP Gopher SFTP NFS SMB/CIFS PNA (pnm://, pna://) RTP

Other [edit]

Video player DAAP DMAP DPAP EsounD protocol PulseAudio Simple protocol PulseAudio Native protocol DLNA Home TV Streaming Protocol (HTSP)
ALLPlayer ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Amarok Yes ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Apprentice Video No No No No No No No No
Banshee ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
CorePlayer ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
FFplay No No No No No No No ?
GOM Player ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
iTunes Yes ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
iTVmediaPlayer ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
jetAudio ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
K-Multimedia Player ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Konqueror Media Player ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
JRiver Media Center ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Mac Blu-ray Player ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Media Player Classic ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Media Player Classic Home Cinema ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
MediaPortal ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
MPlayer ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Mplayerxp No No No No No No ? ?
Quod Libet ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
QuickTime ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Quintessential Player ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
RealPlayer ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Songbird ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Totem Movie Player ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
VLC ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Winamp ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Windows Media Player ? ? ? ? ? ? Yes ?
XBMC Yes ? ? ? Yes Yes Yes Yes
xine ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
XMMS ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Video player DAAP DMAP DPAP EsounD protocol PulseAudio Simple protocol PulseAudio Native protocol DLNA Home TV Streaming Protocol (HTSP)

Playlist format ability [edit]

Information about which playlist formats the players understand.

Video player asx/wax/wvx m3u/m3u8 pls xspf ram/rmm sdp rpl xpl bdmv mpcpl wmx
ALLPlayer No Yes Yes ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Apprentice Video No No No No No No No No No No No
CorePlayer ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
DSPlayer Yes Yes Yes No ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
FFplay No No No No No No No No ? ? ?
GOM Player ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
iTunes No No No No ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
iTVmediaPlayer ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
jetAudio ? Yes Yes ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
K-Multimedia Player Yes Yes Yes ? Yes ? ? ? ? ? ?
Konqueror Media Player ? Yes No Yes ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
JRiver Media Center Yes Yes Yes ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Mac Blu-ray Player ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Media Player Classic ? Yes Yes ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Media Player Classic Home Cinema Yes Yes Yes No No No No No Yes Yes Yes
MediaPortal ? Yes Yes ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
MPlayer Yes Yes Yes No ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Mplayerxp Yes Yes Yes No No No No No ? ? ?
QuickTime ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Quintessential Player Yes Yes Yes ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Yes
RealPlayer Yes Yes Yes ? Yes Yes Yes Yes ? ? ?
Songbird Yes ? No ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Totem Movie Player Yes ? Yes Yes ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
VLC Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ? ? Yes ? ?
Winamp Yes Yes Yes Yes ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Windows Media Player Yes Yes No ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
XBMC ? Yes Yes ? ? ? ? ? Yes ? ?
xine ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Video player asx/wax/wvx m3u/m3u8 pls xspf ram/rmm sdp rpl xpl bdmv mpcpl wmx

Subtitle ability [edit]

Information about what subtitle formats the players understand. Footnotes lead to information about abilities of future versions of the players or filters that provide such abilities.

Video player Bitmap Text Bitmap Text
VobSub (.idx+.sub) SubStation Alpha (.ssa+.ass) SubRip (.srt) SAMI (.smi) RealText (.rt) MicroDVD (.sub) SubViewer (.sub) Text file[stnotes 1] (.txt) PowerDivx (.psb) Universal Subtitle Format (.usf) Structured Subtitle Format (.ssf) XSUB (.divx embedded subtitles) DVB subtitles DVD subtitles PGS (.sup) Closed captioning
ALLPlayer Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No Yes Yes ? ? ? ?
Apprentice Video Yes[stnotes 2] Yes[stnotes 2] Yes[stnotes 2] No No No No No No No No Yes Yes Yes Yes[stnotes 2] No
CorePlayer No No No No No No No No No No No No ? ? ? ?
FFplay No No No No No No No No No No No Yes Yes Yes Yes No
GOM Player Yes Partial[stnotes 3] Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No No No No ? ? ? ?
iTunes No No No No No No No No No No No No ? ? ? ?
iTVmediaPlayer Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
jetAudio Yes Partial[stnotes 3] Yes No No Yes ? No Yes Yes No No ? Yes ? Yes
K-Multimedia Player Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes[17] ? ? ? ?
Konqueror Media Player Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
JRiver Media Center Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ? ?
JRiver Media Center Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ? ?
JRiver Media Center Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ? ?
Mac Blu-ray Player ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Media Player Classic Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes[23] Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes[17] ? ? ? ?
Media Player Classic Home Cinema Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ?
MediaPortal Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
MPlayer Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No No Yes Yes Yes Yes
Mplayerxp Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No No ? ? ? ?
QuickTime No Yes[22] Yes[22] No No No No No No No No No ? ? ? ?
Quintessential Player No No No No No No No No No No No No ? ? ? ?
RealPlayer Yes[14] No Yes[14] Yes Yes Yes[14] ? Yes[14] No No No No ? ? ? ?
TotalMedia Theatre Yes Yes Yes No No Yes No No No No No No ? Yes ? ?
Totem Movie Player Yes Partial[stnotes 3] Yes No No ? ? ? No No No No ? ? ? ?
VLC Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Winamp Yes[stnotes 4] Yes[stnotes 4] Yes[stnotes 4] Yes[stnotes 4] No Yes[stnotes 4] No Yes[stnotes 4] Yes[stnotes 4] Yes[stnotes 4] Yes[stnotes 4] Yes[17] ? ? ? ?
Windows Media Player Yes[stnotes 4] Yes[stnotes 4] Yes[stnotes 4] Yes[stnotes 4] No Yes[stnotes 4] No Yes[stnotes 4] Yes[stnotes 4] Yes[stnotes 4] Yes[stnotes 4] Yes[17] ? ? ? ?
XBMC Yes Partial[stnotes 3] Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No[stnotes 5] No[stnotes 5] No[stnotes 5] Yes Yes Yes Yes No[stnotes 5]
xine[stnotes 6] Yes Partial[stnotes 3] Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes No No No No ? ? ? ?
Video player VobSub (.idx+.sub) SubStation Alpha (.ssa+.ass) SubRip (.srt) Sami (.smi) RealText (.rt) MicroDVD (.sub) SubViewer (.sub) TXT (.txt) PowerDivx (.psb) Universal Subtitle Format (.usf) Structured Subtitle Format (.ssf) XSUB (.divx embedded subtitles) DVB subtitles DVD subtitles PGS (.sup) Closed captioning
  1. ^ This player can open files with the extension .txt, but those could contain any script language. So there is no guarantee it will play it.
  2. ^ a b c d Subtitles stored separately from the media file are not supported.
  3. ^ a b c d e This player understands some of the formatting data from SSA/ASS (at most coloring but no positioning, animation, typesetting etc.), but some players could understand the rest of it by using VSFilter as external subtitle filter instead of the built-in one.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r For Windows, the ability to use many subtitle formats can be added by installing VSFilter or ffdshow.
  5. ^ a b c d XBMC (formerly XBox Media Center) uses the subtitle library and source code from MPlayer, so if or when MPlayer can display these subtitles, then XBMC will soon be able to do so.
  6. ^ "FAQ | Kaffeine - KDE Media Player". Kaffeine FAQ. Retrieved 2009-10-02. 

Metadata ability [edit]

Information about what metadata, or tagging, formats the players understand. Most other containers have their own metadata format and the players usually use them. Footnotes lead to information about abilities of future versions of the players or plugins that provide such abilities.

Video player ID3v1 ID3v2 APEv2 tag Vorbis comment AMF ASF metadata MOV metadata Cue sheet CD-Text
ALLPlayer Yes Yes No No ? ? ? No No
Apprentice Video Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No
Cog Yes Yes Yes Yes ? ? ? Yes ?
CorePlayer Yes Yes Yes Yes ? ? ? Yes ?
DSPlayer Yes Yes No No ? ? ? No No
FFplay Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No
GOM Player No No No No ? ? ? ? ?
iTunes Yes Yes No ? ? ? Yes ? Yes
iTVmediaPlayer Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
jetAudio Yes Yes Yes Yes ? ? ? Partial[metadatanotes 1] ?
K-Multimedia Player Yes Yes Yes Yes ? ? ? Yes Yes
Konqueror Media Player ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
JRiver Media Center Yes Yes Yes Yes ? ? ? Yes Yes
Mac Blu-ray Player ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Media Player Classic Yes No ? Partial ? ? ? ? ?
Media Player Classic Home Cinema Yes Yes ? Partial ? ? ? ? ?
MediaPortal Yes Yes Yes ? ? ? ? ? ?
MPlayer Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Partial[metadatanotes 2] ?
Mplayerxp Yes Yes No Yes ? ? ? No No
QuickTime Yes ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Quintessential Player Yes Yes ? Yes ? ? ? ? ?
RealPlayer Yes Yes ? No ? ? ? Yes
Songbird Yes Yes ? ? ? ? ? No ?
Totem Movie Player Yes Yes Yes Yes ? ? ? ? ?
VLC Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Partial Yes
Winamp Yes Yes Partial[metadatanotes 3] Yes ? ? ? Partial[14] Yes
Windows Media Player Yes Partial[metadatanotes 4] ? Partial[14] ? Yes ? No Partial[14]
XBMC Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No Yes Partial
xine Yes Partial[metadatanotes 5] ? Yes ? ? ? ? ?
Video player ID3v1 ID3v2 APEv2 tag Vorbis comment AMF ASF metadata MOV metadata Cue sheet CD-Text
  1. ^ Supports via plugin available in COWON Forums
  2. ^ MPlayer can read .cue files with cue:// type URL, but has problems, see Talk:Cue sheet (computing)#mplayer have more faults
  3. ^ Winamp relies on the tagging of its decoder. Replacing the standard decoder with an APEv2 capable one is possible.
  4. ^ ID3 V2.4 not supported (even on Windows Media Player 12).
  5. ^ Displays basic ID3v1 / ID3v2 / Ogg Vorbis tags

Optical media ability [edit]

Information about what kinds of optical discs the players can play. Footnotes lead to information about abilities of future versions of the players or plugins that provide such abilities. Playback of Super Audio CD is not possible for any media player, because no suitable hardware exists. All media players capable of audio CD playback will also play the Redbook core of any HDCD disc, providing no sound-quality benefits over standard audio CDs.

Audio Video
Video player CD DVD-Audio HDCD VCD SVCD DVD BD HD DVD
ALLPlayer Yes ? ? ? No Yes ? ?
Apprentice Video No No No No No No No No
CorePlayer No No No No No No No ?
DSPlayer Yes Yes No ? ? ? ? ?
FFplay No No No No No No No No
GOM Player Yes No No Yes Yes Yes No ?
iTunes Yes No No No No No No No
iTVmediaPlayer No No No No No No No No
jetAudio Yes No No Yes Yes Yes No No
K-Multimedia Player Yes No No Yes Yes Yes No No
Konqueror Media Player ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
JRiver Media Center Yes No No Yes Yes Yes Yes ?
Mac Blu-ray Player Yes No No No No Yes Yes No
Media Player Classic Yes No No Yes Yes Yes No No
Media Player Classic Home Cinema Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No
MediaPortal Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes[optical 1] ?
MPlayer Yes No No Yes Yes Yes No No
Mplayerxp Yes No No Yes Yes Yes ? ?
Ogle No No No No No Yes No ?
PowerDVD Yes
QuickTime Yes No No Yes Yes No No No
Quintessential Player Yes No No No No No No No
RealPlayer Yes No No Yes Yes Yes No No
Songbird No[optical 2] No No ? ? ? ? ?
TotalMedia Theatre Yes Yes No Yes No Yes Yes Yes
Totem Movie Player Yes No No Yes Yes Yes No No
VLC Yes Yes[optical 3] No Yes Partial[optical 4] Yes Commercial BDs unsupported[24] No
Winamp Yes No Yes No No No No No
Windows Media Player Yes No Yes Yes No Yes No ?
XBMC Yes No No Partial[optical 5] Partial[optical 5] Yes Commercial BDs unsupported No
xine Yes No No Yes Yes Yes No No
Video player CD DVD-Audio HDCD VCD SVCD DVD BD HD DVD
  1. ^ See this thread on team-mediaportal.com
  2. ^ See this thread on Getsatisfaction.com
  3. ^ DVD Audio files are playable in VLC 1.1
  4. ^ Handling still frames and switching between different video formats is problematic.
  5. ^ a b VCD menu nd SVCD menus are not supported nor displayed.

See also [edit]

Portal icon Free software portal

References [edit]

  1. ^ "October 10, 2012". http://banshee.fm. October 3, 2012. Retrieved October 10, 2012. 
  2. ^ "iTunes 11.0.3". Apple Inc. 2013-05-16. Retrieved 2013-05-13. 
  3. ^ "[2013/04/10] KMPlayer 3.6 Release (Build NO. 3.6.0.85)". 2013-04-10. Retrieved 2013-04-10. 
  4. ^ http://www.cyberlink.com/downloads/support/powerdvd/patches_en_US.html PowerDVD Patches & Support
  5. ^ http://forum.cyberlink.com/forum/posts/list/27748.page PowerDVD 13 - what's new
  6. ^ http://service.real.com/realplayer/security/09072012_player/en/
  7. ^ "RealPlayer 1.1". Softpedia. SoftNews NET SRL. Retrieved 21 August 2011. 
  8. ^ Peters, Frederic (2013-05-16), "GNOME 3.8.2 Release", gnome-announce mailing list, retrieved 2013-05-17 
  9. ^ VLC reaches 2.0.6 – release notes on official homepage
  10. ^ "Press Release on libVLC relicensing to LGPL". VideoLAN. 2011-12-21. Retrieved 2013-01-22. 
  11. ^ "Press Release on modules relicensing to LGPL". VideoLAN. 2011-12-21. Retrieved 2013-01-22. 
  12. ^ "Left wondering why VLC relicensed some code to LGPL". Free Software Foundation. 2012-11-29. Retrieved 2013-02-04. 
  13. ^ http://www.corel.com/corel/pages/index.jsp?pgid=800161&ppid=3500025 Patches & Updates for WinDVD Pro 11 by Corel Corporation
  14. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Plugin available.
  15. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac ad ae af Available via Gstreamer plugin.
  16. ^ a b c d e f 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.
  17. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac ad ae af The playing compatibility depends on the availability of DirectShow filters.
  18. ^ a b The playing compatibility depends on the availability of WMV Player component for Quicktime.
  19. ^ VLC supported audio formats
  20. ^ a b c d e f Available via plugins that can be automatically downloaded during installation
  21. ^ a b c d 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.
  22. ^ a b c d The open source Perian plug-in adds the ability to use many video formats and codecs to QuickTime. It also adds the ability to use SubRip and SubStation Alpha subtitles.
  23. ^ a b c d e f 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.
  24. ^ anandtech - VLC 'Hack' for Encrypted Blu-ray Playback Capability

Notes [edit]

Related lists on other projects [edit]
Windows
OS X
Linux
Cross-platform
  • Plex (Android, iOS, Linux, OS X, Windows, Windows Phone, Raspberry Pi)
  • SageTV (Linux, OS X, Windows)
  • XBMC (Android, Apple TV, iOS, Linux, MeeGo, OS X, Raspberry Pi, Windows, Xbox)
Set-top boxes/
Digital media receivers
Related hardware
System manufacturers
Related articles
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