Comparison of video player software

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 that can play video, even if it can also play audio files.

General

Active players

{| class="sortable sort-under wikitable" style="font-size: smaller; text-align: center; width: auto"

! Name

! Author

! width=75|First public release

! Stable version

! width=50|Cost

! width=110|Software license

! Framework used

! Written in

! ALLPlayer

| ALLPlayer Group Ltd. Partnership

| FFmpeg + original + DirectShow

| Object Pascal (Delphi)

!Elmedia Player

|Electronic Team, Inc.

|2005

|8.24 (December 5, 2025)

|Free, PRO features $19.99

|Proprietary

|libmpv + FFmpeg + other

|Objective C

! Apprentice Video

| Pavel Koshevoy

| r407 and later

| FFmpeg

| C++ (Qt)

! DivX

| DivX, LLC

| 11.14 (December 11, 2025)

| C/C++ (Qt)

! FFplay

| FFmpeg project

| FFmpeg

| C

! GOM Player

| GOM & Company

| FFmpeg

! iTunes

| Apple Inc.

| QuickTime

! jetAudio (Basic)

| Cowon Systems

| 8.1.8.20800 ()

| FFmpeg

| C++

! jetAudio (Plus)

| Cowon Systems

| 8.1.8.20800 ()

| FFmpeg

| C++

! JRiver Media Center

| JRiver, Inc.

| original + DirectShow

| C++, SSE/MMX assembly

! K-Multimedia Player

| YoungHuee Kang

| DirectShow

| Object Pascal

! Mac Blu-ray Player

| Macgo Inc.

| 3.3.21 ()

! MediaPortal

| Team MediaPortal

| DirectShow

| C#, C++

! Media Player Classic Home Cinema

| Gabest

| FFmpeg + DirectShow

| C++

! Microsoft Movies & TV (formerly Xbox Video)

|Microsoft

!Microsoft Photos

|Microsoft

! MPlayer

| Árpád Gereöffy

| FFmpeg + original

| C

! mpv

| mpv Community

| FFmpeg

| C, Objective C, Lua

! Plex Media Player

| Plex, Inc.

| FFmpeg

| C++

! PotPlayer

| Kakao

| DirectShow

! PowerDVD Standard

| CyberLink

| DirectShow

! PowerDVD Pro

| CyberLink

| DirectShow

! PowerDVD Ultra

| CyberLink

| DirectShow

! QuickTime X

| Apple Inc.

| QuickTime

| Cocoa (on OS X)

! RealPlayer

| RealNetworks

| original

! SMPlayer

| Ricardo Villalba

| MPlayer

| C++ (Qt)

! GNOME Videos (formerly Totem)

| The GNOME Project

| GStreamer

| C

! Videostream

| Videostream Team

| 2.1.3.15

| Chrome + FFmpeg

| JavaScript, C++

! VLC

| VideoLAN

| libVLC + FFmpeg

| C, C++

! WinDVD Pro

| Corel

| DirectShow

! Kodi (formerly XBMC)

| Team-Kodi (formerly Team-XBMC)

| FFmpeg

| C++

! xine

| xine Team

| xine-lib + FFmpeg

| C

! sView

| Kirill Gavrilov

| 22.01 ()

| FFmpeg

| C++

! IPTVX

| IPTVX LLC

| 14.4.2 (tvOS), 5.4.2 (iOS)

| VLCKit

| Objective-C / Swift / Kotlin

|- class="sortbottom"

! Name

! Author

! First public release

! Stable version

! Cost

! Software license

! Framework used

! Written in

Inactive players

{| class="sortable sort-under wikitable" style="font-size: smaller; text-align: center; width: auto"

! Name

! Author

! width=75|First public release

! Stable version

! width=50|Cost

! width=110|Software license

! Framework used

! Written in

! Banshee

| Aaron Bockover

| 2005-02-17

| GStreamer

| C#

! CorePlayer

| CoreCodec Inc.

| 2006

! Creative MediaSource

| Creative Technology

| 2002

| DirectShow

! DSPlayer

| DSPlayer team

| 2002

| Object Pascal (Delphi), C++

! Media Player Classic

| Gabest

| May 29, 2003

| DirectShow

| C++

! Ogle

| Chalmers University of Technology

| 1999

| C

! Quintessential Player

| Paul Quinn

| 1997

! Songbird

| Tom Lord

| February 8, 2006

| GStreamer, XULRunner

| C++

! The Core Pocket Media Player

| Gabor Kovacs

| 2004 Jul as "BetaPlayer"

| FFmpeg + original

| C++

! TotalMedia Theatre

| ArcSoft

| November 15, 2009

| 6.7.1.199

| original

| C++

! QuickTime

| Apple Inc.

| 1991-12-02

| QuickTime

| Cocoa (on OS X)

! Winamp Lite, Full, Bundle

| Nullsoft

| Jun 1997

! Winamp Pro

| Nullsoft

| Jun 1997

! Windows Media Player

| Microsoft

| Nov 1992

| DirectShow

| C++ (COM)

|- class="sortbottom"

! Name

! Author

! First public release

! Stable version

! Cost

! Software license

! Framework used

! Written in

Operating system compatibility

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.

{| class="wikitable sortable sort-under" style="font-size: smaller; text-align: center; width: auto; table-layout: fixed"

! style="width:12em" | Video player

! Windows

! macOS

! iOS

! Android

! Linux

! BSD Unix

! Solaris

! Unix-like

! DOS

! BeOS, Haiku, ZETA

! OS/2

! ALLPlayer

!Elmedia Player

|No

|Yes

|No

! Apprentice Video

! DivX

! GOM Player

!Microsoft Movies & TV (formerly Xbox Video)

! iTunes

! jetVideo

! JRiver Media Center

! K-Multimedia Player

! Mac Blu-ray Player

! Media Player Classic Home Cinema

! MediaPortal

! MPlayer

! mpv

! Plex Media Player

! PotPlayer

! QuickTime Player

! RealPlayer

! SMPlayer

! GNOME Videos (formerly Totem)

! Videostream

! VLC

! Winamp

! Windows Media Player

| (WMP9)

| (WMP6.3)

! Kodi (formerly XBMC)

! xine

! sView

|- class="sortbottom"

! Video player

! Windows

! macOS

! iOS

! Android

! Linux

! BSD Unix

! Solaris

! Unix-like

! DOS

! BeOS, Haiku, ZETA

! OS/2

! jetAudio

! Mac Blu-ray Player

! Media Player Classic Home Cinema

! MediaPortal

! MPlayer

! mpv

! Plex Media Player

! PotPlayer

! PowerDVD

! QuickTime Player

! RealPlayer

! SMPlayer

! GNOME Videos (formerly Totem)

! VLC

! Winamp

! Windows Media Player

! Kodi (formerly XBMC)

! xine

! sView

| (WebUI)

|- class="sortbottom"

! Video player

! Outbound streaming

! Skinnable

! Media database

! Gapless audio decoding

! Visualizer

!Audio equalizer

! Remote controllable

! Intelligent playlists from database (based on criteria)

! HDR video playback

! Stereoscopic 3D Playback

! 360-degree video playback

Extended features

{| class="wikitable sortable sort-under" style="font-size: smaller; text-align: center; width: auto; table-layout: fixed"

! style="width:12em" | Video player

! Color controls

! Time stretching

! Pitch shifting

! A-B repeat

! Seek bar preview tooltip

!Interactive playback zoom

! Audio resync

! Subtitle resync

! Chapter (DVD, mkv, mp4, ogm)

! Bookmark (DVD, video, audio)

! Auto resume (DVD, video, audio)

! Shutdown on play complete

! ALLPlayer

|Elmedia Player

|Yes

|No

|Yes

|No

|Yes

! Apprentice Video

! Banshee

! DivX

! FFplay

! GOM Player

! iTunes

! jetAudio

! JRiver Media Center

! K-Multimedia Player

! Mac Blu-ray Player

! Media Player Classic Home Cinema

! MediaPortal

! MPlayer

! RealPlayer

! SMPlayer

! GNOME Videos (formerly Totem)

! VLC

| (from 2.2)

! Winamp

! Windows Media Player

! Kodi (formerly XBMC)

! xine

! sView

|- class="sortbottom"

! Video player

! MPEG-1

! MPEG-2

! MPEG-4 Part 2 (ASP)

! MPEG-4 Part 10 H.264 (AVC)

! WMV

! RealVideo

! Theora

! Flash

! Dirac

! VP8

! VP9

! HEVC (H.265)

Production video format ability

{| class="wikitable sortable sort-under" style="font-size: smaller; text-align: center; width: auto; table-layout: fixed"

|- style="vertical-align:bottom;"

! Video player

! XAVC

! FFplay

! MPlayer

! VLC

Audio format ability

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.

{| class="wikitable sortable sort-under" style="font-size: smaller; text-align: center; width: auto; table-layout: fixed"

! rowspan="2" style="width: 12em" | Video player

! colspan="8" | Lossy compression

! colspan="5" | Lossless compression

! MP3

! WMA

! RealAudio

! Vorbis

! Musepack

! AAC

! AC-3

! Opus

! APE

! FLAC

! ALAC

! SHN

! WV

! ALLPlayer

|Elmedia Player

|Yes

|Yes (Supports the codec but not the MPC extension)

|Yes

|Yes (supports the codec, but not the .shn file extension)

|Yes (Supports the codec but not the WV extension)

! Apprentice Video

! DivX

! FFplay

! GOM Player

! iTunes

! VLC

! Winamp

| Yes

! GOM Player

! iTunes

! jetAudio

! JRiver Media Center

! K-Multimedia Player

! Media Player Classic Home Cinema

! MediaPortal

! MPlayer

! mpv

! PotPlayer

! QuickTime Player

! RealPlayer

! GNOME Videos (formerly Totem)

! Winamp

! Windows Media Player

| (WMP10)

! Kodi (formerly XBMC)

! xine

! sView

|- class="sortbottom"

! Video player

! HTTP

! HTTPS

! HLS

! DASH

! HDS

! Smooth

! FTP

! SFTP

! RTSP

! MMS

! RTMP

! Podcast

! RDT/RealRTSP

! RTP

! DAAP

! DLNA

Playlist format ability

Information about which playlist formats the players understand.

{| class="wikitable sortable sort-under" style="font-size: smaller; text-align: center; width: auto; table-layout: fixed"

! Video player

! asx/wax/wvx

! m3u/m3u8

! pls

! xspf

! ram/rmm

! sdp

! rpl

! xpl

! bdmv

! wmx

! ALLPlayer

|Elmedia Player

|No

|Yes

|No

|Partial (Please note in the footnote that the navigation is not working)

|No

! Apprentice Video

! DivX

! FFplay

! GOM Player

! ASX support

! iTunes

! jetAudio

! JRiver Media Center

! K-Multimedia Player

! Mac Blu-ray Player

! Media Player Classic Home Cinema

! MediaPortal

! MPlayer

! mpv

! PotPlayer

! QuickTime Player

! RealPlayer

! GNOME Videos (formerly Totem)

! VLC

! Winamp

! Windows Media Player

! Kodi (formerly XBMC)

! xine

! sView

|- class="sortbottom"

! Video player

! asx/wax/wvx

! m3u/m3u8

! pls

! xspf

! ram/rmm

! sdp

! rpl

! xpl

! bdmv

! wmx

Electronic program guide format ability

Information about which Electronic program guide format the players viewable.

{| class="wikitable sortable sort-under" style="font-size: smaller; text-align: center; width: auto; table-layout: fixed"

! Video player

! PSI EIT

! PSIP

! XMLTV

! ALLPlayer

|Elmedia Player

|No

! Apprentice Video

! FFplay

! DivX

! GOM Player

! iTunes

! jetAudio

! JRiver Media Center

! K-Multimedia Player

! Mac Blu-ray Player

! Media Player Classic Home Cinema

! MediaPortal

! MPlayer

! mpv

! PotPlayer

! QuickTime Player

! RealPlayer

! GNOME Videos (formerly Totem)

! VLC

! Winamp

! Windows Media Player

! Kodi (formerly XBMC)

! xine

! sView

|- class="sortbottom"

! Video player

! PSI EIT

! PSIP

! XMLTV

Subtitle ability

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.

{| class="wikitable" style="font-size: smaller; text-align: center; width: auto; table-layout: fixed"

! rowspan="2" style="width:12em" | Video player

! colspan="13" | Text

! colspan="4" | Bitmap

! SubRip (.srt)

! SubStation Alpha (.ssa+.ass)

! MicroDVD (.sub)

! SAMI (.smi)

! SubViewer (.sub)

! RealText (.rt)

! Text file (.txt)

! Universal Subtitle Format (.usf)

! Closed captioning

! WebVTT (.vtt)

! VobSub (.idx+.sub)

! XSUB (.divx embedded subtitles)

! DVD subtitles

! DVB subtitles

! ALLPlayer

|Elmedia Player

|Yes

|No

|Yes

|No

|Yes

! Apprentice Video

|

| Yes

|

! GOM Player

|

! iTunes

! jetAudio

|

! Windows Media Player

|

! Kodi (formerly XBMC)

! xine

|

|

|

|

|

|

|

! GOM Player

! iTunes

! jetAudio

! JRiver Media Center

! K-Multimedia Player

! Mac Blu-ray Player

! Media Player Classic Home Cinema

! MediaPortal

! MPlayer

! PotPlayer

! QuickTime Player

! RealPlayer

! GNOME Videos (formerly Totem)

! VLC

! Winamp

! sView

|- class="sortbottom"

! Video player

! ID3v1

! ID3v2

! APEv2 tag

! Vorbis comment

! AMF

! ASF metadata

! MOV metadata

! Cue sheet

! CD-Text

| GOM Player

| iTunes

| jetAudio

| JRiver Media Center

| K-Multimedia Player

| Media Player Classic Home Cinema

| MediaPortal

| MPlayer

| PotPlayer

| PowerDVD

|Yes, limited

| QuickTime Player

| RealPlayer

| GNOME Videos (formerly Totem)

| VLC

| Winamp

| Windows Media Player

| Kodi (formerly XBMC)