Comparison of video player software explained

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.

General

Active players

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)
Apprentice Video	Pavel Koshevoy		r407 and later			FFmpeg	C++ (Qt)
DivX	DivX, LLC		11.0.1 (April 18, 2024)				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				^[1]	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
Name	Author	First public release	Stable version	Cost	Software license	Framework used	Written in

Inactive players

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)
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.

1. Web site: COPYING file mentioning exception added 8th Feb 2005 . Totem . May 6, 2009 . April 23, 2014 .

1. Web site: COPYING file mentioning exception added 8th Feb 2005 . Totem . May 6, 2009 . April 23, 2014 .

Features

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
ALLPlayer
Apprentice Video
DivX	(DLNA)		(limited)
GOM Player
iTunes		^[2]
jetAudio
JRiver Media Center
K-Multimedia Player				^[3]
Mac Blu-ray Player
Media Player Classic Home Cinema
MediaPortal
MPlayer
mpv
Plex Media Player
PotPlayer
PowerDVD
QuickTime Player	^[4]	^[5]
RealPlayer
SMPlayer
GNOME Videos (formerly Totem)
VLC										^[6]
Winamp								^[7]
Windows Media Player
Kodi (formerly XBMC)	^[8]
xine
sView							(WebUI)
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

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
Apprentice Video
Banshee
DivX
FFplay
GOM Player
iTunes
jetAudio
JRiver Media Center
K-Multimedia Player										^[9]
Mac Blu-ray Player
Media Player Classic Home Cinema
MediaPortal
MPlayer			^[10]
mpv
Plex Media Player
PotPlayer
PowerDVD
QuickTime Player				^[11]
RealPlayer
SMPlayer				^[12]
GNOME Videos (formerly Totem)
VLC											(from 2.2)
Winamp
Windows Media Player
WinDVD
Kodi (formerly XBMC)
xine
sView
Video player	Color controls	Time stretching	Pitch shifting	A-B repeat	Seek bar preview tooltip	Interactiveplaybackzoom	Audio resync	Subtitle resync	Chapter (DVD, mkv, mp4, ogm)	Bookmark (DVD, video, audio)	Auto resume (DVD, video, audio)	Shutdown on play complete

1. Web site: COPYING file mentioning exception added 8th Feb 2005 . Totem . May 6, 2009 . April 23, 2014 .
2. Plugin available.
3. Web site: gapless mp3 playback - The KMPlayer's Forums . Kmplayer.com . December 16, 2009 . https://web.archive.org/web/20110713170451/http://www.kmplayer.com/forums/showthread.php?t=138 . July 13, 2011 . dead .
4. Available with QuickTime Streaming Server.
5. Only the media creator can create skins.
6. anaglyph only
7. Via media library in "modern" skin
8. [Kodi (software)|Kodi/XBMC]
9. http://www.kmplayer.com/forums/showthread.php?t=9779 Bookmarks are limited to 20 files
10. 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
11. https://www.apple.com/quicktime/pro/ www.apple.com/quicktime/pro/
12. As of SVN 3349

Consumer video format ability

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	VP9	HEVC (H.265)
ALLPlayer
Apprentice Video
DivX
FFplay
GOM Player				^[13]		^[14]
iTunes		^[15]			^[16]		^[17]	^[18]
jetAudio
JRiver Media Center
K-Multimedia Player
Mac Blu-ray Player
Media Player Classic Home Cinema
MediaPortal
Microsoft Movies & TV
MPlayer
mpv
Plex Media Player
PotPlayer
QuickTime Player
RealPlayer
SMPlayer
GNOME Videos (formerly Totem)	^[19]
VLC
Winamp
Windows Media Player		^[20]	^[21]							^[22]
Kodi (formerly XBMC)
xine
sView
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)

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.

1. Web site: COPYING file mentioning exception added 8th Feb 2005 . Totem . May 6, 2009 . April 23, 2014 .
2. Plugin available.
3. Web site: gapless mp3 playback - The KMPlayer's Forums . Kmplayer.com . December 16, 2009 . https://web.archive.org/web/20110713170451/http://www.kmplayer.com/forums/showthread.php?t=138 . July 13, 2011 . dead .
4. Available with QuickTime Streaming Server.
5. Only the media creator can create skins.
6. anaglyph only
7. Via media library in "modern" skin
8. [Kodi (software)|Kodi/XBMC]
9. http://www.kmplayer.com/forums/showthread.php?t=9779 Bookmarks are limited to 20 files
10. 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
11. https://www.apple.com/quicktime/pro/ www.apple.com/quicktime/pro/
12. As of SVN 3349
13. The playing compatibility depends on the availability of DirectShow filters.
14. 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.
15. The playing compatibility depends on the availability of MPEG2 component for QuickTime.
16. The playing compatibility depends on the availability of WMV Player component for QuickTime.
17. 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.
18. On macOS, 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.
19. Available via Gstreamer plugin.
20. 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.
21. 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.
22. 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.
23. https://trac.ffmpeg.org/ticket/4447 Support MPEG-4 Studio Profile
24. https://trac.ffmpeg.org/ticket/2690 Red Cinema r3d files not supported
25. https://trac.ffmpeg.org/ticket/4364 Support for DNG (RAW)
26. Available via plugins that can be automatically downloaded during installation

Container format ability

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	WebM
ALLPlayer
Apprentice Video
DivX
FFplay
GOM Player
iTunes
jetAudio			^[27]
JRiver Media Center
K-Multimedia Player
Mac Blu-ray Player
Media Player Classic Home Cinema
MediaPortal
Microsoft Movies & TV (formerly Xbox Video)
MPlayer
mpv
Plex Media Player
PotPlayer
QuickTime Player
RealPlayer
GNOME Videos (formerly Totem)										^[28]
VLC
Winamp
Windows Media Player
Kodi (formerly XBMC)
xine
sView
Video player	AVI	ASF	QuickTime	Ogg	OGM	Matroska	MP4	NUT	FLV	WebM

Streaming support

Information about which protocols the players understand, for receiving streaming media content.

Video player	HTTP	HTTPS	HLS	DASH	HDS	Smooth	FTP	SFTP	RTSP RTSPU/RTSPT	MMS MMSU/MMST		Podcast	RDT/RealRTSP	RTP		DLNA
ALLPlayer
Amarok
Apprentice Video
DivX
FFplay		Yes^[29]		^[30]	^[31]			Yes^[32]
GOM Player
iTunes
jetAudio
JRiver Media Center
K-Multimedia Player
Media Player Classic Home Cinema
MediaPortal
MPlayer
mpv				^[33]
PotPlayer
QuickTime Player
RealPlayer
GNOME Videos (formerly Totem)
VLC															^[34]
Winamp
Windows Media Player										(WMP10)
Kodi (formerly XBMC)
xine
sView
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.

Electronic program guide format ability

Information about which Electronic program guide format the players viewable.

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.

Video player	Text													Bitmap
	SubRip (.srt)	SubStation Alpha (.ssa+.ass)	MicroDVD (.sub)	SAMI (.smi)	SubViewer (.sub)	RealText (.rt)	Text file (.txt)	Universal Subtitle Format (.usf)	Closed captioning	MPEG-4 Part 17	SCTE-27	TTML/SMPTE-TT	WebVTT (.vtt)	VobSub (.idx+.sub)	XSUB (.divx embedded subtitles)	DVD subtitles	DVB subtitles
ALLPlayer
Apprentice Video	^[35]
FFplay	Yes^[36]	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes		Yes	Yes	^[37]	^[38]
GOM Player		^[39]
iTunes
jetAudio
JRiver Media Center
K-Multimedia Player
Mac Blu-ray Player
Media Player Classic Home Cinema
MediaPortal
MPlayer
PotPlayer
QuickTime Player	^[40]
RealPlayer
GNOME Videos (formerly Totem)
VLC
Winamp	^[41]	^[42]	^[43]	^[44]			^[45]	^[46]						^[47]	^[48]
Windows Media Player	^[49]	^[50]	^[51]	^[52]			^[53]	^[54]						^[55]	^[56]
Kodi (formerly XBMC)
xine^[57]
sView
Video player	SubRip (.srt)	SubStation Alpha (.ssa+.ass)	MicroDVD (.sub)	SAMI (.smi)	SubViewer (.sub)	RealText (.rt)	Text file (.txt)	Universal Subtitle Format (.usf)	Closed captioning	MPEG-4 Part 17	SCTE-27	TTML/SMPTE-TT	WebVTT (.vtt)	VobSub (.idx+.sub)	XSUB (.divx embedded subtitles)	DVD subtitles	DVB subtitles

1. Web site: COPYING file mentioning exception added 8th Feb 2005 . Totem . May 6, 2009 . April 23, 2014 .
2. Plugin available.
3. Web site: gapless mp3 playback - The KMPlayer's Forums . Kmplayer.com . December 16, 2009 . https://web.archive.org/web/20110713170451/http://www.kmplayer.com/forums/showthread.php?t=138 . July 13, 2011 . dead .
4. Available with QuickTime Streaming Server.
5. Only the media creator can create skins.
6. anaglyph only
7. Via media library in "modern" skin
8. [Kodi (software)|Kodi/XBMC]
9. http://www.kmplayer.com/forums/showthread.php?t=9779 Bookmarks are limited to 20 files
10. 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
11. https://www.apple.com/quicktime/pro/ www.apple.com/quicktime/pro/
12. As of SVN 3349
13. The playing compatibility depends on the availability of DirectShow filters.
14. 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.
15. The playing compatibility depends on the availability of MPEG2 component for QuickTime.
16. The playing compatibility depends on the availability of WMV Player component for QuickTime.
17. 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.
18. On macOS, 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.
19. Available via Gstreamer plugin.
20. 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.
21. 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.
22. 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.
23. https://trac.ffmpeg.org/ticket/4447 Support MPEG-4 Studio Profile
24. https://trac.ffmpeg.org/ticket/2690 Red Cinema r3d files not supported
25. https://trac.ffmpeg.org/ticket/4364 Support for DNG (RAW)
26. Available via plugins that can be automatically downloaded during installation
27. 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.
28. http://www.webmproject.org/tools/#gstreamer-plug-ins As of Gstreamer 1.0, WebM related support is included in gstreamer-plugins-good
29. only if FFmpeg was built with OpenSSL, GnuTLS, Secure Transport or SChannel.
30. https://ffmpeg.org/ffmpeg-formats.html#dash-1 Since FFmpeg 3.4
31. https://ffmpeg.org/pipermail/ffmpeg-devel/2016-October/201100.html FFmpeg-devel - PATCH - add hds demuxer
32. only if FFmpeg was built with OpenSSH.
33. With FFmpeg or youtube-dl
34. https://www.videolan.org/developers/vlc-branch/NEWS NEWS
35. Subtitles stored separately from the media file are not supported.
36. only if FFmpeg was built with libass and 'subtitles' video filter.
37. https://trac.ffmpeg.org/ticket/4439
    1. 4439 (Support SCTE-27 / Digicipher II (DCII) subtitles)
38. https://trac.ffmpeg.org/ticket/4859
    1. 4859 (TTML subtitles)
39. 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 DirectVobSub as external subtitle filter instead of the built-in one.
40. The open source Perian plug-in adds the ability to use many video formats and video codecs to QuickTime. It also adds the ability to use SubRip and SubStation Alpha subtitles.
41. For Windows, the ability to use many subtitle formats can be added by installing DirectVobSub or ffdshow.
42. For Windows, the ability to use many subtitle formats can be added by installing DirectVobSub or ffdshow.
43. For Windows, the ability to use many subtitle formats can be added by installing DirectVobSub or ffdshow.
44. For Windows, the ability to use many subtitle formats can be added by installing DirectVobSub or ffdshow.
45. For Windows, the ability to use many subtitle formats can be added by installing DirectVobSub or ffdshow.
46. For Windows, the ability to use many subtitle formats can be added by installing DirectVobSub or ffdshow.
47. For Windows, the ability to use many subtitle formats can be added by installing DirectVobSub or ffdshow.
48. For Windows, the ability to use many subtitle formats can be added by installing DirectVobSub or ffdshow.
49. For Windows, the ability to use many subtitle formats can be added by installing DirectVobSub or ffdshow.
50. For Windows, the ability to use many subtitle formats can be added by installing DirectVobSub or ffdshow.
51. For Windows, the ability to use many subtitle formats can be added by installing DirectVobSub or ffdshow.
52. For Windows, the ability to use many subtitle formats can be added by installing DirectVobSub or ffdshow.
53. For Windows, the ability to use many subtitle formats can be added by installing DirectVobSub or ffdshow.
54. For Windows, the ability to use many subtitle formats can be added by installing DirectVobSub or ffdshow.
55. For Windows, the ability to use many subtitle formats can be added by installing DirectVobSub or ffdshow.
56. For Windows, the ability to use many subtitle formats can be added by installing DirectVobSub or ffdshow.
57. Web site: FAQ Kaffeine - KDE Media Player. October 2, 2009. Kaffeine FAQ.

Metadata ability

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
Apprentice Video
FFplay	^[58]	^[59]	^[60]		^[61]
GOM Player
iTunes
jetAudio								^[62]
JRiver Media Center
K-Multimedia Player
Mac Blu-ray Player
Media Player Classic Home Cinema
MediaPortal
MPlayer								^[63]
PotPlayer
QuickTime Player
RealPlayer
GNOME Videos (formerly Totem)
VLC
Winamp			^[64]
Windows Media Player		^[65]
Kodi (formerly XBMC)
xine		^[66]
sView
Video player	ID3v1	ID3v2	APEv2 tag	Vorbis comment	AMF	ASF metadata	MOV metadata	Cue sheet	CD-Text

1. Web site: COPYING file mentioning exception added 8th Feb 2005 . Totem . May 6, 2009 . April 23, 2014 .
2. Plugin available.
3. Web site: gapless mp3 playback - The KMPlayer's Forums . Kmplayer.com . December 16, 2009 . https://web.archive.org/web/20110713170451/http://www.kmplayer.com/forums/showthread.php?t=138 . July 13, 2011 . dead .
4. Available with QuickTime Streaming Server.
5. Only the media creator can create skins.
6. anaglyph only
7. Via media library in "modern" skin
8. [Kodi (software)|Kodi/XBMC]
9. http://www.kmplayer.com/forums/showthread.php?t=9779 Bookmarks are limited to 20 files
10. 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
11. https://www.apple.com/quicktime/pro/ www.apple.com/quicktime/pro/
12. As of SVN 3349
13. The playing compatibility depends on the availability of DirectShow filters.
14. 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.
15. The playing compatibility depends on the availability of MPEG2 component for QuickTime.
16. The playing compatibility depends on the availability of WMV Player component for QuickTime.
17. 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.
18. On macOS, 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.
19. Available via Gstreamer plugin.
20. 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.
21. 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.
22. 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.
23. https://trac.ffmpeg.org/ticket/4447 Support MPEG-4 Studio Profile
24. https://trac.ffmpeg.org/ticket/2690 Red Cinema r3d files not supported
25. https://trac.ffmpeg.org/ticket/4364 Support for DNG (RAW)
26. Available via plugins that can be automatically downloaded during installation
27. 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.
28. http://www.webmproject.org/tools/#gstreamer-plug-ins As of Gstreamer 1.0, WebM related support is included in gstreamer-plugins-good
29. only if FFmpeg was built with OpenSSL, GnuTLS, Secure Transport or SChannel.
30. https://ffmpeg.org/ffmpeg-formats.html#dash-1 Since FFmpeg 3.4
31. https://ffmpeg.org/pipermail/ffmpeg-devel/2016-October/201100.html FFmpeg-devel - PATCH - add hds demuxer
32. only if FFmpeg was built with OpenSSH.
33. With FFmpeg or youtube-dl
34. https://www.videolan.org/developers/vlc-branch/NEWS NEWS
35. Subtitles stored separately from the media file are not supported.
36. only if FFmpeg was built with libass and 'subtitles' video filter.
37. https://trac.ffmpeg.org/ticket/4439
    1. 4439 (Support SCTE-27 / Digicipher II (DCII) subtitles)
38. https://trac.ffmpeg.org/ticket/4859
    1. 4859 (TTML subtitles)
39. 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 DirectVobSub as external subtitle filter instead of the built-in one.
40. The open source Perian plug-in adds the ability to use many video formats and video codecs to QuickTime. It also adds the ability to use SubRip and SubStation Alpha subtitles.
41. For Windows, the ability to use many subtitle formats can be added by installing DirectVobSub or ffdshow.
42. For Windows, the ability to use many subtitle formats can be added by installing DirectVobSub or ffdshow.
43. For Windows, the ability to use many subtitle formats can be added by installing DirectVobSub or ffdshow.
44. For Windows, the ability to use many subtitle formats can be added by installing DirectVobSub or ffdshow.
45. For Windows, the ability to use many subtitle formats can be added by installing DirectVobSub or ffdshow.
46. For Windows, the ability to use many subtitle formats can be added by installing DirectVobSub or ffdshow.
47. For Windows, the ability to use many subtitle formats can be added by installing DirectVobSub or ffdshow.
48. For Windows, the ability to use many subtitle formats can be added by installing DirectVobSub or ffdshow.
49. For Windows, the ability to use many subtitle formats can be added by installing DirectVobSub or ffdshow.
50. For Windows, the ability to use many subtitle formats can be added by installing DirectVobSub or ffdshow.
51. For Windows, the ability to use many subtitle formats can be added by installing DirectVobSub or ffdshow.
52. For Windows, the ability to use many subtitle formats can be added by installing DirectVobSub or ffdshow.
53. For Windows, the ability to use many subtitle formats can be added by installing DirectVobSub or ffdshow.
54. For Windows, the ability to use many subtitle formats can be added by installing DirectVobSub or ffdshow.
55. For Windows, the ability to use many subtitle formats can be added by installing DirectVobSub or ffdshow.
56. For Windows, the ability to use many subtitle formats can be added by installing DirectVobSub or ffdshow.
57. Web site: FAQ Kaffeine - KDE Media Player. October 2, 2009. Kaffeine FAQ.
58. https://www.ffmpeg.org/doxygen/3.1/id3v1_8h.html id3v1.h File Reference
59. https://www.ffmpeg.org/doxygen/3.1/id3v2_8h.html id3v2.h File Reference
60. https://www.ffmpeg.org/doxygen/3.1/apetag_8h.html apetag.h File Reference
61. https://www.ffmpeg.org/doxygen/3.1/rtmppkt_8h.html rtmppkt.h File Reference
62. Supports via plugin available in Cowon Forums
63. MPlayer can read .cue files with cue:// type URL, but has problems, see
64. Winamp relies on the tagging of its decoder. Replacing the standard decoder with an APEv2 capable one is possible.
65. ID3 V2.4 not supported (even on Windows Media Player 12).
66. Displays basic ID3v1 / ID3v2 / Ogg Vorbis tags

Optical media ability

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	Super Audio CD (SACD)	Video CD (VCD)	SVCD	DVD	Blu-ray Disc	HD DVD	UHD BD
ALLPlayer
Apprentice Video
FFplay			^[67]
GOM Player
iTunes
jetAudio
JRiver Media Center
K-Multimedia Player
Media Player Classic Home Cinema
MediaPortal								^[68]
MPlayer
PotPlayer
PowerDVD										Yes, limited
QuickTime Player						^[69]
RealPlayer
GNOME Videos (formerly Totem)
VLC		^[70]				^[71]		^[72]	^[73]
Winamp
Windows Media Player
Kodi (formerly XBMC)					^[74]
xine
WinDVD
sView
Video player	CD	DVD-Audio	HDCD	Super Audio CD (SACD)	Video CD (VCD)	SVCD	DVD	Blu-ray Disc	HD DVD

1. Web site: COPYING file mentioning exception added 8th Feb 2005 . Totem . May 6, 2009 . April 23, 2014 .
2. Plugin available.
3. Web site: gapless mp3 playback - The KMPlayer's Forums . Kmplayer.com . December 16, 2009 . https://web.archive.org/web/20110713170451/http://www.kmplayer.com/forums/showthread.php?t=138 . July 13, 2011 . dead .
4. Available with QuickTime Streaming Server.
5. Only the media creator can create skins.
6. anaglyph only
7. Via media library in "modern" skin
8. [Kodi (software)|Kodi/XBMC]
9. http://www.kmplayer.com/forums/showthread.php?t=9779 Bookmarks are limited to 20 files
10. 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
11. https://www.apple.com/quicktime/pro/ www.apple.com/quicktime/pro/
12. As of SVN 3349
13. The playing compatibility depends on the availability of DirectShow filters.
14. 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.
15. The playing compatibility depends on the availability of MPEG2 component for QuickTime.
16. The playing compatibility depends on the availability of WMV Player component for QuickTime.
17. 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.
18. On macOS, 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.
19. Available via Gstreamer plugin.
20. 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.
21. 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.
22. 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.
23. https://trac.ffmpeg.org/ticket/4447 Support MPEG-4 Studio Profile
24. https://trac.ffmpeg.org/ticket/2690 Red Cinema r3d files not supported
25. https://trac.ffmpeg.org/ticket/4364 Support for DNG (RAW)
26. Available via plugins that can be automatically downloaded during installation
27. 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.
28. http://www.webmproject.org/tools/#gstreamer-plug-ins As of Gstreamer 1.0, WebM related support is included in gstreamer-plugins-good
29. only if FFmpeg was built with OpenSSL, GnuTLS, Secure Transport or SChannel.
30. https://ffmpeg.org/ffmpeg-formats.html#dash-1 Since FFmpeg 3.4
31. https://ffmpeg.org/pipermail/ffmpeg-devel/2016-October/201100.html FFmpeg-devel - PATCH - add hds demuxer
32. only if FFmpeg was built with OpenSSH.
33. With FFmpeg or youtube-dl
34. https://www.videolan.org/developers/vlc-branch/NEWS NEWS
35. Subtitles stored separately from the media file are not supported.
36. only if FFmpeg was built with libass and 'subtitles' video filter.
37. https://trac.ffmpeg.org/ticket/4439
    1. 4439 (Support SCTE-27 / Digicipher II (DCII) subtitles)
38. https://trac.ffmpeg.org/ticket/4859
    1. 4859 (TTML subtitles)
39. 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 DirectVobSub as external subtitle filter instead of the built-in one.
40. The open source Perian plug-in adds the ability to use many video formats and video codecs to QuickTime. It also adds the ability to use SubRip and SubStation Alpha subtitles.
41. For Windows, the ability to use many subtitle formats can be added by installing DirectVobSub or ffdshow.
42. For Windows, the ability to use many subtitle formats can be added by installing DirectVobSub or ffdshow.
43. For Windows, the ability to use many subtitle formats can be added by installing DirectVobSub or ffdshow.
44. For Windows, the ability to use many subtitle formats can be added by installing DirectVobSub or ffdshow.
45. For Windows, the ability to use many subtitle formats can be added by installing DirectVobSub or ffdshow.
46. For Windows, the ability to use many subtitle formats can be added by installing DirectVobSub or ffdshow.
47. For Windows, the ability to use many subtitle formats can be added by installing DirectVobSub or ffdshow.
48. For Windows, the ability to use many subtitle formats can be added by installing DirectVobSub or ffdshow.
49. For Windows, the ability to use many subtitle formats can be added by installing DirectVobSub or ffdshow.
50. For Windows, the ability to use many subtitle formats can be added by installing DirectVobSub or ffdshow.
51. For Windows, the ability to use many subtitle formats can be added by installing DirectVobSub or ffdshow.
52. For Windows, the ability to use many subtitle formats can be added by installing DirectVobSub or ffdshow.
53. For Windows, the ability to use many subtitle formats can be added by installing DirectVobSub or ffdshow.
54. For Windows, the ability to use many subtitle formats can be added by installing DirectVobSub or ffdshow.
55. For Windows, the ability to use many subtitle formats can be added by installing DirectVobSub or ffdshow.
56. For Windows, the ability to use many subtitle formats can be added by installing DirectVobSub or ffdshow.
57. Web site: FAQ Kaffeine - KDE Media Player. October 2, 2009. Kaffeine FAQ.
58. https://www.ffmpeg.org/doxygen/3.1/id3v1_8h.html id3v1.h File Reference
59. https://www.ffmpeg.org/doxygen/3.1/id3v2_8h.html id3v2.h File Reference
60. https://www.ffmpeg.org/doxygen/3.1/apetag_8h.html apetag.h File Reference
61. https://www.ffmpeg.org/doxygen/3.1/rtmppkt_8h.html rtmppkt.h File Reference
62. Supports via plugin available in Cowon Forums
63. MPlayer can read .cue files with cue:// type URL, but has problems, see
64. Winamp relies on the tagging of its decoder. Replacing the standard decoder with an APEv2 capable one is possible.
65. ID3 V2.4 not supported (even on Windows Media Player 12).
66. Displays basic ID3v1 / ID3v2 / Ogg Vorbis tags
67. A built-in hdcd audio filter is available but needs to manually enable via commandline option.
68. Non-commercial BDs supported through plug-in, see this thread on team-mediaportal.com
69. See VCD and SVCD players on The X Lab
70. DVD Audio files are playable in VLC 1.1
71. See VLC playback Features at videolan.org.
72. Web site: VLC 'Hack' for Encrypted Blu-ray Playback Capability. Ganesh T. S. August 19, 2016.
73. HD-DVD .evo (H.264, VC-1, MPEG-2, PCM, AC-3, E-AC3, MLP, DTS) from version 3.0.0
74. VCD menu and SVCD menus are not supported nor displayed.

See also

• List of codecs
• Open source codecs and containers
• Comparison of video codecs
• Comparison of audio coding formats
• Comparison of video container formats
• Subtitles
• Comparison of portable media players
• Comparison of video codecs
• Comparison of DVR software packages

Related lists on other projects

• Open Source Toolset - short sections on Audio editing and Video editing
• Software - short lists of Ogg audio and video editors
• Help:Converting video - tools for manipulating audio and video