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Media Player · Windows 10 and 11

A VLC alternative for everyday watching

VLC is the player people install so that every file opens. Octoolo's Media Player does that job for watching and listening on your PC: MKV, AVI, WMV, MPEG-2, HEVC and FLAC play, with subtitles, sound tracks, chapters and a playlist, in the same app as your editors and converters.

Updated

How to play a file that will not open

  1. 1

    Open the Media Player

    In Octoolo, open Media Player. The first time, it downloads FFmpeg, the video engine it uses (77 MB, once), and keeps it on your computer.

  2. 2

    Drop the file in

    Drag a file, several files or a whole folder onto the window, or press Open files. The first one starts playing at once.

  3. 3

    Pick the language and subtitles

    Use the Subtitles and Sound track buttons on the bar under the video. A subtitle file with the video's name beside it comes on by itself.

  4. 4

    Watch

    Double-click for full screen. Space pauses, ← and → skip 5 seconds, [ and ] change the speed.

What you use VLC for, here

Most people open VLC for a handful of things, and the Media Player has each of them:

  • Files nothing else opens: MKV, AVI with DivX or Xvid, WMV, FLV, MPEG-2 TS and VOB, HEVC from phones, and sound such as FLAC, WMA, APE and AC-3.
  • Languages: a menu of the file's sound tracks, and subtitles from the file itself or from an SRT, ASS or VTT file beside it, with their size, place and timing.
  • Control: speed from 0.25× to 4× with the pitch kept, volume up to 200% for quiet films, chapters, repeat a part from A to B, and save any frame as a PNG picture.
  • Playlists: drop a folder or open an M3U or PLS playlist; shuffle, repeat one or all, drag to reorder.
  • Habits: VLC's keys and YouTube's (Space, K, J, L, F, M, N, P), picture in picture, and keeping the window on top.

How it plays what Windows cannot

Videos and songs that Windows' own video engine decodes (MP4 with H.264, WebM, MP3, FLAC, WAV, Ogg) play as they are. For everything else, FFmpeg works while you watch, and the bar under the title says which way it went:

  • Repackaged as it plays: when the picture is H.264, HEVC, AV1 or VP9 that your PC decodes, it is passed on untouched and only the box around it changes. That is how most MKV files play: no quality is lost and the computer barely works.
  • Made playable as it plays: older pictures (DivX, Xvid, WMV, MPEG-2, Flash) become H.264 on your graphics card (NVIDIA, AMD or Intel), or through Windows or the processor. Sound your PC cannot decode, such as DTS or WMA, becomes AAC.

Nothing is written to your disk: no temporary copy of a film fills it up. Jumping to any point starts FFmpeg again at that point.

What VLC has that this player does not

To be fair about it, VLC does a good deal more:

  • Streams from web addresses, network shares by URL, internet radio, and DVDs and Blu-ray discs with their menus.
  • Subtitles that are pictures (Blu-ray PGS and DVD subtitles); Octoolo shows text subtitles only.
  • An equalizer, video effects, casting to a TV, recording, and versions for Mac, Linux, iPhone and Android.
  • Opening files from Explorer: Octoolo does not make itself your default player, so you open files from inside it.

VLC is open source and costs nothing. The Media Player comes with Octoolo Cloud, $4.99 a month for all of Octoolo's apps, beside the Video Editor and Convert video files.

Questions, answered

Do I need a codec pack?

No. FFmpeg, which Octoolo downloads once, reads almost every video and sound format. Nothing is installed into Windows, and other apps are not affected.

Does it play DVDs?

Not discs. VOB files copied from a DVD play, without the disc's menus.

Can it be my default video player?

Not yet. Octoolo does not change which app Windows opens videos with; open the Media Player and drop the file in, or press Open files.

Is anything uploaded?

No. Files are read on your computer and played there. The only download is FFmpeg, once.

Does it remember where I stopped?

Yes. For videos and songs longer than two minutes it keeps your place, and the next time you open the file it offers to continue from there. The last files you played are listed when the player is empty.

VLC alternative, and 16 more apps.

Download for Windows

7 days free, then from $3.99 a month for all 17 apps. Windows 10 and 11.