Comparison of video player software

The following comparison of video players compares general and technical information for notable software media player programs.
For the purpose of this comparison, video players are defined as any media player that can play video, even if it can also play audio files.

General

Active players

Name	Author	First public release	Stable version	Cost	Software license	Framework used	Written in
ALLPlayer	ALLPlayer Group Ltd. Partnership					FFmpeg + original + DirectShow	Object Pascal
Apprentice Video	Pavel Koshevoy		r407 and later			FFmpeg	C++
DivX	DivX, LLC		11.14				C/C++
FFplay	FFmpeg project					FFmpeg	C
GOM Player	GOM & Company					FFmpeg
iTunes	Apple Inc.					QuickTime
jetAudio	Cowon Systems		8.1.8.20800			FFmpeg	C++
jetAudio	Cowon Systems		8.1.8.20800			FFmpeg	C++
JRiver Media Center	JRiver, Inc.					original + DirectShow	C++, SSE/MMX assembly
K-Multimedia Player	YoungHuee Kang					DirectShow	Object Pascal
Mac Blu-ray Player	Macgo Inc.		3.3.21
MediaPortal	Team MediaPortal					DirectShow	C#, C++
Media Player Classic Home Cinema	Gabest					FFmpeg + DirectShow	C++
Microsoft Movies & TV	Microsoft
Microsoft Photos	Microsoft
MPlayer	Árpád Gereöffy					FFmpeg + original	C
mpv	mpv Community					FFmpeg	C, Objective C, Lua
Plex Media Player	Plex, Inc.					FFmpeg	C++
PotPlayer	Kakao					DirectShow
PowerDVD Standard	CyberLink					DirectShow
PowerDVD Pro	CyberLink					DirectShow
PowerDVD Ultra	CyberLink					DirectShow
QuickTime X	Apple Inc.					QuickTime	Cocoa
RealPlayer	RealNetworks					original
SMPlayer	Ricardo Villalba					MPlayer	C++
GNOME Videos	The GNOME Project					GStreamer	C
Videostream	Videostream Team		2.1.3.15			Chrome + FFmpeg	JavaScript, C++
VLC	VideoLAN					libVLC + FFmpeg	C, C++
WinDVD Pro	Corel					DirectShow
Kodi	Team-Kodi					FFmpeg	C++
xine	xine Team					xine-lib + FFmpeg	C
sView	Kirill Gavrilov		22.01			FFmpeg	C++
IPTVX	IPTVX LLC		14.4.2, 5.4.2			VLCKit	Objective-C / Swift / Kotlin
Name	Author	First public release	Stable version	Cost	Software license	Framework used	Written in

Operating system compatibility

This section lists the operating systems on which the player works. There may be multiple versions of a player, each one for a given operating system.

Video player	Windows	macOS	iOS	Android	Linux	BSD Unix	Solaris	Unix-like	DOS	BeOS, Haiku, ZETA	OS/2
ALLPlayer
Apprentice Video
DivX
GOM Player
Microsoft Movies & TV
iTunes
jetVideo
JRiver Media Center
K-Multimedia Player
Mac Blu-ray Player
Media Player Classic Home Cinema
MediaPortal
MPlayer
mpv
Plex Media Player
PotPlayer
QuickTime Player
RealPlayer
SMPlayer
GNOME Videos
Videostream
VLC
Winamp
Windows Media Player
Kodi
xine
sView
Video player	Windows	macOS	iOS	Android	Linux	BSD Unix	Solaris	Unix-like	DOS	BeOS, Haiku, ZETA	OS/2

Consumer video format ability

Information about what video formats the players understand. Footnotes lead to information about abilities of future versions of the players or plugins/filters that provide such abilities.

Video player

MPEG-4 Part 10 H.264

Media Player Classic Home Cinema

MediaPortal

Microsoft Movies & TV

QuickTime Player

Video player

MPEG-1

MPEG-2

MPEG-4 Part 2

MPEG-4 Part 10 H.264

WMV

RealVideo

Theora

Flash

Dirac

VP8

VP9

HEVC

Production video format ability

Video player

Audio format ability

Information about what audio formats the players understand. Footnotes lead to information about abilities of future versions of the players or plugins/filters that provide such abilities.

Container format ability

Information about what container formats the players understand. Footnotes lead to information about abilities of future versions of the players or filters that provide such abilities.

Video player	AVI	ASF	QuickTime	Ogg	OGM	Matroska	MP4	NUT	FLV	WebM
ALLPlayer
Apprentice Video
DivX
FFplay
GOM Player
iTunes
jetAudio
JRiver Media Center
K-Multimedia Player
Mac Blu-ray Player
Media Player Classic Home Cinema
MediaPortal
Microsoft Movies & TV
MPlayer
mpv
Plex Media Player
PotPlayer
QuickTime Player
RealPlayer
GNOME Videos
VLC
Winamp
Windows Media Player
Kodi
xine
sView
Video player	AVI	ASF	QuickTime	Ogg	OGM	Matroska	MP4	NUT	FLV	WebM

Streaming support

Information about which protocols the players understand, for receiving streaming media content.

Video player

RTSP
RTSPU/RTSPT

MMS
MMSU/MMST

RDT/RealRTSP

Yes

Media Player Classic Home Cinema

QuickTime Player

Video player

HTTP

HTTPS

HLS

DASH

HDS

Smooth

FTP

SFTP

RTSP

MMS

RTMP

Podcast

RDT/RealRTSP

RTP

DAAP

DLNA

Playlist format ability

Information about which playlist formats the players understand.

Video player	asx/wax/wvx	m3u/m3u8	pls	xspf	ram/rmm	sdp	rpl	xpl	bdmv	wmx
ALLPlayer
Apprentice Video
DivX
FFplay
GOM Player	ASX support									-
iTunes
jetAudio
JRiver Media Center
K-Multimedia Player
Mac Blu-ray Player
Media Player Classic Home Cinema
MediaPortal
MPlayer
mpv
PotPlayer
QuickTime Player
RealPlayer
GNOME Videos
VLC
Winamp
Windows Media Player
Kodi
xine
sView
Video player	asx/wax/wvx	m3u/m3u8	pls	xspf	ram/rmm	sdp	rpl	xpl	bdmv	wmx

Electronic program guide format ability

Information about which Electronic program guide format the players viewable.

Video player	PSI EIT	PSIP	XMLTV
ALLPlayer
Apprentice Video
FFplay
DivX
GOM Player
iTunes
jetAudio
JRiver Media Center
K-Multimedia Player
Mac Blu-ray Player
Media Player Classic Home Cinema
MediaPortal
MPlayer
mpv
PotPlayer
QuickTime Player
RealPlayer
GNOME Videos
VLC
Winamp
Windows Media Player
Kodi
xine
sView
Video player	PSI EIT	PSIP	XMLTV

Subtitle ability

Information about what subtitle formats the players understand. Footnotes lead to information about abilities of future versions of the players or filters that provide such abilities.

Metadata ability

Information about what metadata, or tagging, formats the players understand. Most other containers have their own metadata format and the players usually use them. Footnotes lead to information about abilities of future versions of the players or plugins that provide such abilities.

Video player	ID3v1	ID3v2	APEv2 tag	Vorbis comment	AMF	ASF metadata	MOV metadata	Cue [sheet (computing)\|Cue sheet]	CD-Text
ALLPlayer
Apprentice Video
FFplay
GOM Player
iTunes
jetAudio
JRiver Media Center
K-Multimedia Player
Mac Blu-ray Player
Media Player Classic Home Cinema
MediaPortal
MPlayer
PotPlayer
QuickTime Player
RealPlayer									-
GNOME Videos
VLC
Winamp
Windows Media Player
Kodi
xine
sView
Video player	ID3v1	ID3v2	APEv2 tag	Vorbis comment	AMF	ASF metadata	MOV metadata	Cue sheet	CD-Text

Optical media ability

Information about what kinds of optical discs the players can play. Footnotes lead to information about abilities of future versions of the players or plugins that provide such abilities.
Playback of Super Audio CD is not possible for any media player, because no suitable hardware exists.
All media players capable of audio CD playback will also play the Redbook core of any HDCD disc, providing no sound-quality benefits over standard audio CDs.