Since Windows 8 Microsoft decided that there was no need for software capable of playing DVDs strait out of the box. Instead you have to pay for the luxury. If you qualified for the free version then lucky you. For most of us we'll be stuck buying Windows DVD player from the Microsoft Store for £11.59. I'm here to tell you that there is an alternative, VLC Media Player. |
Even when Windows could play DVDs I still used VLC mainly due to its ease of use and speed of action when putting a DVD in. It generally displayed good performance, never failed to play any media and is well trusted within the community. VLC is also free and easy to install and packs an amazing amount of features that makes it well worth downloading and using. So now that Microsoft wishes us to purchase a player when it should be included, I would say no thanks and go download VLC Media Player.
You've got two options either download the version from the Microsoft Store or the version from their own website VideoLAN. The Microsoft Store version tends to crash quite a bit so your best bet is to download direct from VideoLAN. VLC can play not just DVDs but files, audio CDs, DVB-Cable TV and many more which means anything you put in your drive will work with VLC. You can also do all the usual such as conversion and can even stream what you're watching.
VLC runs on all platforms not just Windows and runs codecs which is compressed data such as MPEG-2, 4 and MP3 without requiring codec packs. If someone has done a amateur subtitle for the movie you are watching then you can add that through the "add subtitle file". The customization of VLC is nothing to scoff at either as it boasts a large amount of extensions and plug-ins that increase its usability such as DirectX Audio Output, DVD subtitle decoder and many other types of plug-ins. Then you have skins that change the way VLC looks which is good for those of you who don't like the set-up of the base version. You can also create your own skins with the VLC Skin Editor and to top it off VLC also doesn't have advertising, which is great.
Overall VLC Media Player is really well put together with great features and ever increasing plug-ins and extensions. VideoLAN update it regularly which improves performance and stability and adds new features. As I said at the start it's free so what's to lose especially compared to Windows DVD Player which is quite unstable.
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