Need a media player that will handle virtually any form of media that you can throw at it? Look no further than the VLC Media Player, a simply incredible bit of freeware. The best part about VLC Media Player – it won’t suck resources like Windows Media Player and bog your system down. Check out just some of the great features of this excellent program.

Play Just About Anything

VLC Media Player comes loaded with codecs to just about every video and audio format imaginable. The only things that I could find that I couldn’t handle were files encrypted with special DRM, like old iTunes files and some WMA files. All of the standard video formats are there: MPEG, AVI, DIVX, WMV and h.264.You can switch from format to format and it won’t hiccup at all. It will even play your DVDs and act as a TV tuner. One thing that it can’t do yet is play Blu-Ray discs because it cannot decrypt them. It will even output audio and video in proper formats so that you can use them in a home theater PC setup.

Audio files such as mp3s, AAC files, WAVs and even OGG files all play without problems. I love the fact that I can compile a playlist of mp3s, AACs from iTunes and OGG rips of my favorite cds, and all play perfectly, one right after the other. It has a robust equalizer that allows you to fine tune the sound to your liking, making up for even the worst computer speakers.

Built in Converter and Streaming

I love the fact that the VLC Media Player will convert files for me. I can use it to change files formats, such as FLV to something that I can use on my iPhone. You can also work to compress files to make sure that they fit on your mobile devices. It will rip CDs and convert mp3s to other formats as well.

Interestingly, you can even use VLC Media Player to stream media from one computer to another over a LAN. You could watch a DVD using VLC Media Player while it is playing in the drive of another machine. It acts a lot like screensharing, but it only sends the audio and video from the program, not your entire screen. This helps keep the audio and video at a high bitrate.

Check out the VLC Media Player today – you can’t go wrong. It’s even available for Macs and Linux.