Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

VLC or mPlayer or both?

Diatribe

Diatribe

macrumors 601
Original poster
Jan 8, 2004
4,258
46
Back in the motherland
Right now I have both on my Pbook and I want to get rid of one of them. Now I am wondering of which to get rid of. Are there any big differences or do they handle the same file formats?
I am leaning towards VLC because it distorts the video more while jumping in the timeline and because mplayer automatically quits after closing the window. Any other reasons why I might consider leaving either one behind or even keeping both?
 
Diatribe said:
Right now I have both on my Pbook and I want to get rid of one of them. Now I am wondering of which to get rid of. Are there any big differences or do they handle the same file formats?
I am leaning towards VLC because it distorts the video more while jumping in the timeline and because mplayer automatically quits after closing the window. Any other reasons why I might consider leaving either one behind or even keeping both?
Click to expand...

If you like both, why part with one of them?
vlc only takes 25MB, i think mplayer is about the same.

I've used vlc a lot on osx but i've used mplayer on linux a year or two ago.
Mplayer was then very buggy, i don't know how its now.
 
i find that sometimes one or the other is better depending on the file, so i keep both around. they cant be taking up that much space that you need to delete one, are they?
 
neilrobinson said:
i didn't know mplayer was on OSX, i tried installing it on linux a while ago - i huge nightmare! it looks pretty easy to install, has anyone had any problems?
Click to expand...

never any problems with either program
 
neilrobinson said:
i didn't know mplayer was on OSX, i tried installing it on linux a while ago - i huge nightmare! it looks pretty easy to install, has anyone had any problems?
Click to expand...
Works perfect, just drag the app from the dmg/sit archive to Applications, and you're done.
 
mplayerOSX is nice in its recent builds. Other versions are less nice =) VLC used to be better but now I think I'd opt for mplayer over VLC =)
 
My 2 cents...
I use mplayer more because it has an option of full screen on second monitor. If I do full screen with VLC, it takes my pb as the screen. I can change that through display pref, but I don't need to do that if I use mplayer.
 
neilrobinson said:
i didn't know mplayer was on OSX, i tried installing it on linux a while ago - i huge nightmare! it looks pretty easy to install, has anyone had any problems?
Click to expand...
Just because something didn't work for on Linux years ago doesn't mean that it doesn't work on the Mac now. MPlayerOSX is a somewhat more mature application than the MacOS X port of VLC. As others before me have said, there is no need to choose between MPlayerOSX and VLC. Keep them both.
 
Thanks for all the posts, I guess I will keep both. The only thing that is a bit annoying is that VLC automatically sets itself up to play WMVs... does anyone know how to revert this easily?
 
Diatribe said:
Thanks for all the posts, I guess I will keep both. The only thing that is a bit annoying is that VLC automatically sets itself up to play WMVs... does anyone know how to revert this easily?
Click to expand...
What do you mean by "automatically sets itself up to play WMVs..."? If by that you mean that VLC is your default WMV player, then you can change that behavior by doing a File > Get Info or [Apple]-I on a WMV file. Change the default app with the Open with: pop-up menu.
 
MisterMe said:
What do you mean by "automatically sets itself up to play WMVs..."? If by that you mean that VLC is your default WMV player, then you can change that behavior by doing a File > Get Info or [Apple]-I on a WMV file. Change the default app with the Open with: pop-up menu.
Click to expand...

Yeah, that comment is kinda odd, I admit that :D
I meant it sets itself up to be the standard WMV player. I know there is a way to change that but I forgot.
The way you describe lets me only change it for one file at a time or am I missing sth.?
 
Diatribe said:
Yeah, that comment is kinda odd, I admit that :D
I meant it sets itself up to be the standard WMV player. I know there is a way to change that but I forgot.
The way you describe lets me only change it for one file at a time or am I missing sth.?
Click to expand...

There's a "Change All..." button just under the "Open with" selection box that applies your selection to all files of that type.
 
I rather like VLC because I can use it to play DVDs regardless of region. I'm a Canadian living in the UK so I have both region 1 and region 2 DVDs and it's nice to be able to play them in VLC without having to change the region setting on the DVD drive.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back