For many, if not most, Windows users the world of media players begins and ends with Windows Media Player. Despite the ever increasing encroachment of digital rights management (DRM) and the bloat that is added to every release Windows Media Player is still the default media player for many users. Of course there are lots of other media players to choose from, some commercial, some proprietary but free and some are free and open source.

Of the latter VLC is definitely one that is worth investigation. VLC began life as a student project at the French École Centrale in Paris but has since expanded considerably and is an open source project supported by developers from over 20 countries.

Licensed under the GNU GPL, VLC is a cross-platform media player that supports numerous audio and video formats and can also function as a DVD player, streaming server and browser plug-in.

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