If you want to record the stream to your computer I suggest VLC. (This guide refers to VLC version 2.1.2 on Mac OS, but the Windows and Linux versions should.

Summary :

Sometimes, you may need VLC alternatives because of the annoying 'Rebuilding Font Cache' thing or others. This post lists different VLC alternatives for Windows/Mac. Choose the best VLC alternative 2019 depends on your actual situation.

Have you ever used VLC media player? This post is going to show you some excellent VLC alternatives for Windows/Linux/Mac. You can find a suitable VLC alternative 2019 to play video and audio files.

VLC is a free, open-source, portable, and cross-platform media player and streaming media server developed by the VideoLAN project. It is able to play incomplete, unfinished or damaged video, but it will drive you crazy sometimes.

For example, here is a true story.

I have been using VLC media player for a while and was pleased with it. Then I get a notice about an update, which I did. Now all I get is green lines over the movie. I have tried everything to solve the problem, installing the backup, uninstall and install, with no success. Everything worked great until this update. Does anybody have a solution to this? It is driving me crazy. Please help. Thank you.

In general, a VLC alternative can solve this problem easily. The below are some common problems you might encounter when using the VLC media player.

4 Reasons Why You Need a VLC Alternative

1. VLC is unable to play broken files.

Generally, VLC media player can play unfinished or damaged video. But, sometimes, it cannot play video file and tells you that the file is damaged. Actually, this file is just being downloaded.

2. VLC doesn’t support a few codes and file types.

VLC supports a lot of video and audio codes and formats, but it requires codec settings for a few formats. For many common people, it is a difficult job.

3. VLC crashes without warning.

Sometimes, VLC media player suddenly crashes when you watch some normal files, try to insert subtitle or make it full screen.

4. VLC media player will damage the speakers!

If you are using VLC media player and keep the volume loud for a long time, your speakers could be damaged. Sadly, some manufacturers like Dell say replacing the speakers will not be covered by the hardware warranty. Therefore, please keep the volume down while using VLC.

Now, it is time to look for VLC alternatives to play your video or audio files. No matter you have come across these problems or not, it is a good idea to prepare a suitable alternative to VLC.

You will find many people are searching for VLC alternatives on the Internet. Here, we list different alternatives to VLC media player for Windows/Mac/Linux. Read on and find out which one suits you best.

Part 1. VLC Alternatives 2019 for Windows

VLC is a free video editing software, you might need to look for a VLC alternative because of the unfriendly UI, “Rebuilding Font Cache” thing and other problems. Now, try the following alternatives to VLC media player for Windows.

No 1. Windows Movie Maker

There is no doubt that many people have probably heard of Windows Movie Maker, a video editing tool developed by Microsoft. It not only allows you to watch video, but also lets you edit this video simply, for instance, add text to video.

Related article: How to Add Text to Video in Windows Movie Maker (Step-by-Step Guide).

Now, some users might want to know where to get this tool since it was officially discontinued on January 10, 2017. Fortunately, you can get this Microsoft video editing tool by clicking the following button.

Cons

• It supports playing videos as well as pictures.
• It can edit your videos simply.
• It is able to share your videos on YouTube, Facebook, etc.

Related article: How to Use Movie Maker Step-by-step Guide for Beginners.

Pros

• Microsoft does not support it now.
• It cannot play music alone.

No 2. 5KPlayer

5KPlayer is a mixture of free (MKV) HD video player and music player. This real media player is compatible with Windows as well as Mac OS X. If your VLC crashes suddenly, you can try this alternative.

Pros

• It supports a lot of video formats, including MKV, M2TS, MPEG1/2, WMV/ASF, AVI, MOV, RM, OGV, FLV, MP4, H.264, M4V, WEBM.
• It can play 4K UHD videos without any glitches.
• It is able to play 1080p or 1080i high-definition videos under 10% CPU cost.
• It can play MP3 AAC APE FLAC music perfectly to activate your senses.
• It can download online videos from YouTube, Facebook, Vimeo, etc.

Cons

This alternative to VLC media player for Windows might be confusing for beginners.

No 3. Windows Media Player

Windows media player is another VLC alternative. It allows you to play video and audio files. Besides, it allows previewing images on personal computers running the Microsoft Windows operating system, as well as on Pocket PC and Windows Mobile-based devices.

Pros

• It provides a less cluttered user interface.
• It offers a better music library.
• It supports network sharing.
• It can access to online music services.

Cons

• It cannot handle 4K, 3D and 360-degree video.
• It doesn’t support for VR headsets.

No 4. Photos App

Exceeded the size limit on your mailbox. If you are running Windows 10, you have another great VLC alternative 2019 – Photo app. This Windows 10 hidden media player not only can play video but also can play images. Besides, it can help to trim video.

Related Article: How to Cut Video Easily and Quickly (The Definitive Guide).

Pros

• It can play videos quickly.
• It has a simple, touch-friendly interface.
• It also supports browsing photo, and is able to create albums automatically.
• It has cool video editing effects.

Cons

• It cannot tag faces.
• It doesn’t support panorama stitching and selective focus.

No 5. KMPlayer

KM player can play video as well as audio in Windows. This alternative to VLC supports almost any format that Windows can play including AVI, ASF, WMV, AVS, FLV, MKV, and many more. With the VLC alternative, you can slow down or increase playback speed, select parts of a video as favorites.

Pros

• It supports many audio and video formats.
• It supports 3D and VR and setting related to that.
• It has extensive subtitle management.
• It can capture audio and video.

Cons

Advertisement (There are no hidden or misleading clauses while installing, but we will be asked whether we want to install Avast Antivirus after installing.)

After learning these different VLC alternatives for Windows, you can take a look of the below wonderful video tool.

No 6. MiniTool Movie Maker

MiniTool Movie Maker, free and simple video tool, lets you review videos, and pictures. Besides, it also lets you create videos and slideshow easily and quickly. For instance, I usually use this simple and free tool to create Facebook Slideshow.

Pros

• It supports a lot of video format including WMV, MP4, AVI, MOV, F4V, MKV, GIF, MP3, and so on.
• It offers wizard-like interfaces. This tool can help you create a movie without requiring professional knowledge and skill.
• It offers movie as well as trailer templates. You are able to easily create cool movies or Hollywood-style movie trailers.
• It allows you to make video with pictures easily and quickly.
• It offers some filters to help you change the color, style, or tone in minutes.
• It offers plenty of useful transition effects to make the presentation, slideshow or movie good looking and impressive.
• It not only can split large video into small parts but also can trim video to remove the unwanted frames from the start or end of a clip. More details can be found in How to Trim Video Easily (Step-by-Step Guide with Pictures).

Cons

It only supports Windows OSs, now.

Part 2. VLC Alternative Mac

Mac users can try the following alternatives when the VLC media player isn’t working.

No 1. QuickTime Player

QuickTime player, the best VLC alternative Mac, is the most familiar media players for Mac users. As the default movie player as Mac, QuickTime player is capable of supporting various formats of videos, music, images, and other media files.

• QuickTime player enables you to set playback from 1/2x to 3x the normal speed.
• This alternative to VLC is capable of watching videos from hard drive and internet.
• This VLC alternative Mac allows you to screen recording your Mac, edit movies and extract audio from a video. However, you need to purchase the QuickTime Pro license key to unlock the recording, editing and extracting features.

No 2. MPlayerX Media Player

MPlayerX, a free and open source media player, is another VLC alternative.

• It can handle any media format in the world without extra plug-ins or codec packages as it is armed by FFmpeg and MPlayer.
• It provides you the easiest way to control the playback as it will follow your gestures.
• It can automatically and seamlessly detect and convert the encoding method of the subtitle file.

No 3. Movist

Movist, a free, simple yet powerful player for Mac, supports QuickTime, FFmpeg as well as subtitles.

• It is easy to use.
• It owns a beautiful and convenient user interface.
• It is available to adjust aspect ratios and configure keyboard shortcuts.

Unfortunately, this VLC alternative Mac doesn't support Apple remote.

Part 3. VLC Alternative Linux

Let’s start with a true example from my best friend.

I've used VLC in Linux for years. But lately, it's been choking and dying for no discernible reasons and attempts to troubleshoot have failed. Are there any other comparable alternatives for media players out there at the moment?

Now, my friend can try the following VLC alternative Linux.

No 1. Bomi Player

The best VLC alternative Linux, Bomi player (known as CM Player), works well on Linux and provides GUI features.

• This easy-to-use VLC alternative Linux provides some powerful features which you will find in the context menu.
• It supports audio file and subtitle at all.
• It allows browsing your old playlist because it generally saves all your playback record.

No 2. SMPlayer

SMPlayer supports for all the default formats as like as other media players.

• This VLC alternative Linux allows you to play YouTube video directly from this player because of its built-in codec.
• This VLC alternative 2019 loads the subtitle of a movie from the internet. And, it saves your all settings when you play video.
• This alternative to VLC is fully resume supported video player.

Your Choice

The above video editing tools are good alternatives to VLC media player. You can choose a suitable one to play your videos.

Which VLC alternatives do you like to choose? Let us know by leaving comments.

Should you have any other good suggestions about VLC alternatives, please share them with us. Thanks in advance!

VLC Alternatives FAQ

1. PotPlayer
2. KMPlayer
3. Media Player Classic – Home Cinema
4. ACG Player
5. GOM Media Player
6. DivX Player
7. Kodi
8. Plex
9. 5KPlayer
10. MediaMonkey

1. VLC Player
2. PotPlayer
3. Media Player Classic – Home Cinema

It is likely that you have heard and used for playing streaming videos. But it is more likely that you are fooled by its name — VLC media player is by no means a one-trick pony. Instead, it is a feature-packed powerful tool which is not only capable of playing streaming videos but also able to download videos from all the popular websites, like YouTube.Today, you are going to learn about how to download video with VLC on Mac/Windows and solve a series of problems involved when using it all in one passage. CONTENTS. 1. 2.

3.VLC's Hidden Feature — Download Video from InternetIn fact, there are two methods to download videos with VLC. Here I will introduce the easier one. Please follow the steps below with VLC downloading a YouTube video as an example.Step 1. Fire up VLCAfter installing VLC media player to your Windows or Mac, fire it up.Step 2. Copy the Video URL from YouTubeGo for the video on YouTube and copy the link from the browser’s address bar above the page.Step 3.

Paste the Video URL into VLC and Start PlayingOn Windows:Click on 'Media' 'Open Network Stream' in VLC main interface.Then under the Network tab on the pop-up window, you should then enter the YouTube video URL that you have copied from YouTube. Press the 'Play' button to start playing the video.On Mac:Click on 'File' 'Open Network', enter the YouTube video URL and click 'Open'.Step 4. Get and Copy Codec Information of the YouTube VideoOn Windows:Hit 'Tools' 'Codec Information' to copy the full URL besides the 'Location' title. This is the direct URL of the YouTube video.On Mac:Select the YouTube video in VLC, hit 'Window' 'Media Information'. You are looking for the 'Location' input box.Step 5. Enter the URL into Address Bar and Download the YouTube VideoOpen a web browser page and paste the copied Location URL into the address bar before hitting 'Enter' on your keyboard.

More clicks of 'Save' button might be needed after that, which depends on the video link and the setting of your browser.Problems Tackled in YouTube Downloading Using VLCNow, have you learned about how to download YouTube videos using VLC yet? Don't worry if you encounter some problems when in practice. The first thing you need to do is to repeat the above steps more carefully in order to rule out the possibility of not following the right procedures. If that problem does continue to exist, you might need to read the second part of the passage. We have listed some common problems involved in saving video from websites with VLC and given out our solutions.Problem 1:'Sadly this didn't work for me. It downloaded the video but instead of getting a playable video I get a file called 'file' in my download folder.' Solution A: Put an extension to the file name when it gives you 'Enter file name', like '.mp4' or '.avi'.Solution B: Use a video converter to convert the file into '.mp4'.Problem 2:'I could download some YouTube videos with VLC while others didn't work.'

Solution: Check if the video is tagged 'Age-restricted video (based on Community Guidelines)'. If that is the case, the video will NOT download using the established method due to YouTube policies. There is no way of getting rid of it. So try VLC alternatives.An Alternative to VLC for Downloading Web Video Including YouTubeThe built-in download feature of VLC cannot go without drawbacks since it is not an expert in video download. Indeed, some videos are highly protected by their website program and prevented from grabbing by VLC. To solve such a problem, I suggest you to try some online tools to download videos from popular websites for offline viewing.is one of the best free online downloaders on the internet for grabbing YouTube videos. Aside from YouTube, it claims to support Facebook, Instagram, Dailymotion, Vimeo, SoundCloud, etc.

In almost all browsers and all operating systems including Mac/Windows/Android/iOS. With a clean and intuitive interface, VideoSolo Online Video Downloader is very easy to use within just several clicks.

Follow the 3 steps to grab videos from the Internet easily with VideoSolo Online Video Downloader.Step 1. Go to the page containing your loved video and copy the video link from the address bar above.Step 2. Head to the homepage and paste the video link into the search box. Press the 'Download' button to the right of the box to interpret the video.Step 3. After deciding on the output format and quality, hit the corresponding 'Download' button to the right hand. Then the browser immediately pops up a download dialog; if not, click the menu button 'Download' on the pop-up window, or right-click the mouse and select 'Save as'.Hope the above information can settle your problems when downloading videos with VLC on your Mac or Windows. If you are not so satisfied with VLC’s inherent download function, your best bet is to try, which is quite easy and efficient to use.