I was recently searching for the codec to play a movie that is in Matroska (.mkv) format. I found one that makes it possible to view the .mkv file. I installed it, but it did not work for me. I might have installed it wrong or it does not support the latest Windows Media Player. Suddenly, VLC Player came into my mind and within few clicks, I landed onto the features list and thank god, VLC plays the .mkv files.
What is VLC?
VLC Player is an open source cross-platform media player, which supports “n” number of audio and video formats. No need to download any codec. Just install it and it starts playing almost all except .rm (Real Media) files. Website states that VLC will support Real Media files in the next version, 0.9.0.
Another good thing about VLC is support for skins. With the use of skins, you can make VLC look like your Media Player 11 or old light blue Media Player just by adding respective skins to the skins’ folder in VLC’s installation folder. Browse the skins repository for a good number of interesting and nice skins.
It is an open source application and you are free to download, use and redistribute. It is currently available for Windows, Mac OS X, BeOS, Debian GNU/Linux, Ubuntu, Mandriva, Fedora, SUSE, Red Hat, Slackware, and many more.
VLC’s Homepage | VLC Skins | Supported video and audio list
