aplay: "Hey kid... wanna listen to the sound the Linux kernel makes when you push it through the sound card?"

"Oh no, I can't play this modern video file using a codec that's literally been around for more than 10 years unless you pay me $0.99 for a codec pack..."

Every single time I forget to change it and I want to play an h265 file from my phone.

If something doesn't open in VLC, you can usually safely assume the file is corrupt lol

VLC represents what the internet could have been and what it should have been.

Wish we could start again with a new internet.

Windows Sound Recorder used to open literally anything - text documents, pdfs, images, executables, DLLs, and attempt to play them as audio. Photoshop files make especially interesting noises through it. I used to use it for samples. Got some great noisy stuff that way.

Windows media asks you to pay Microsoft for a decoding license if you try to play an HDR video.

I forgot that VLC wasn't standard. 😂 I looked at the other icon and thought "wait what's that?"

I still find it strange that windows media player classic consistently works better than every new media player they've introduced since. It seems like if you make OS's you cannot simultaneously make a good media player, eg. Quicktime/itunes/wmp/groove

To watch this new type of hvec media you need this free codec.

Wait did we say free i mean

There is a paid version next to the free one.

You can pay here, that other one is for retail and industry please dont use it, only use the paid one.

Your hardware doesn't support the free codec according to the error message we gave it. Hand over your money to install this identical approved one please.

I absolutely love VLC

Thanks for mentioning the name because I honestly didn't know what software the second icon was supposed to be.

Usually MPV first then VLC if I have some specific need, but that's me I guess.

VLC is so much better than the solution I was using before it. Windows Media Player Classic with the Mega Codec Pack downloaded from a super shady warez website.

VLC has always just worked. Never had to fuck with settings or download extra shit. Dealing with codecs and different formats was such a pain in the ass until VLC came along.

For real though. I have yet to find a file VLC can't play. I have some old 8-bit .au files that play perfect. It even supports really obscure proprietary codecs from 20 years ago.

If I'm not mistaken the people behind Videolan also did x264 which is a pretty major library used to encode h.264.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X264

It's a lesser known project from videolan but with a rather broad use online.

That's the logo for a multi-billion dollar corporation's built-in media player for their flagship OS? It looks like one of my side projects.

Not Media Player, but Windows Movie and TV Player plays video files clearer with better hue and color than any other player paid or open source, and I've tried them all. You can't adjust anything in it, if the subtitles are off you're fucked and gotta go back to VLC, but the look of the default video processing in the WMT app is hands down the best I've ever seen. I'd guess out of all the different types of codecs there are about .5% that aren't compatible with it, but it's my app of choice.

mpv: those files have some exotic image format, they're not videos. Here is your dia show with your custom upscaling shaders.

Had to install VLC last week because the Windows player didn't have the codec to play a video someone sent me from their smartphone. Seems like a pretty common use case to not have figured out..

Everything is a .wav, you just lack the frequency hearing range.

Back when /dev/dsp existed, you could pipe any data to it, and it'd treat it like PCM data. Wav files sounded like they were supposed to. Everything else sounded like... well, also like they're supposed to, i guess.

I find VLC has a hard time playing .GIF files

I miss the windows XP media player that had the visualizers for music and skins and shit.

VLC is okay..but it doesnt autopopulate my CD names and tracks.

I think WinXP was the last time i used the Win Media Player 😞