yes? opening a picture with malware could infect your computer.

It would be a combination attack, so the virus would either target the correct media player or several of em.

here is a older vulnurability with vlc and avi file https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2021-25801

it is absolutely far less risky than downloading programs that run code, but it's not without any risk

edit: windows programs also lets files call home. Script Command in windows media player f.ex 🤷