A good music player is essential for any computer and it is very important that you manage to find a program that comes with an accessible interface and has all the necessary features. If we are talking about players that work for Windows, VLC and Windows Media Player have been user favourite for years. They each have their advantages and disadvantages, and it can be hard to choose between these two.
In these two we will try to present both the pros and the cons of each product so you will know exactly what these two have to offer and you will be able to make a choice.
VLC advantages
If you are looking at VLC, then you should know that there are a number of pros. First of all, its users appreciate the fact that the interface is very simple, without lacking important features. This means that you will have all the tools that you need, but they are also easy to use. Another advantage is the fact that software is able to create and connect to a video stream.
Additionally, you can use VLC by using mostly keyboard commands. Each function comes with a keyboard shortcut, and the best part is that all shortcuts are customizable, which means that you can change them however you want. There are also plenty of other adjustable settings that can be customised according to your own wishes.
With VLC you won’t need any codec installation to read videos and music. It supports a wide range of encodings, and it can play almost everything, from BluRay, .avi and .mov. The software also has a good compatibility with OS X.
Another pro for VLC is the fact that it has a built-in audio equalizer that allows you to boost the sound without distorting it too much.
VLC disadvantages
One of the cons of VLC is the fact that it was designed to be a video player, which means that it wasn’t created for music and you cannot use to manage the music library. This means that VLC can be used to play files directly from a folder, but you might not like it that you don’t have any rating system and you cannot use tags either. Your music gallery cannot be managed and it is hard to find songs in your library.
Additionally, you cannot customise the program too much when it comes to interface. This means that you are stuck with a black and white look. There are also some minors issues that can make the VLC experience less pleasant. For example, every time you open VLC the window won’t have the previous width and it won’t open in the same place where it was before it was previously closed.
Also, VLC has some problems with certain formats, such as .m4p. This format works just fine with other programs such as iTunes.
Windows Media Player advantages
Windows Media Player is ideal for music because it comes with its very own music visualization. If you are not content with this, you can also download other visualizations from the Internet. You don’t need a third party application in order to play music since Windows Media Player is bundled with Microsoft Windows.
Windows Media Player disadvantages
One thing that could represent a major weakness for Windows Media Player is the fact that this program is no longer updated. It hasn’t received any new versions ever since Windows 7 was released. Windows Media Player 12 is the latest version of Windows Media Player and it was released back in July 2009. This version is still bundled in Windows 8 versions and above.
