If you want to play video or music files and not worry about format, VLC media player is the best application for the job. With so many media formats out there, VLC media player is a catch-all player that can handle anything.

If you're looking for a great alternative to Windows Media Player, iTunes, RealPlayer and others, VLC media player is the application you need.

Now in its 1.0 release, VLC media player is simply the most stable, flexible and lightweight audio and video players around today. While other media players will play unusual formats after downloading a codec, or simply refuse to play things, VLC media player covers tons of formats, from MPEG to FLV and RMBV files. In addition to this, you can also use it to preview files you are downloading, because it will play parts of files. It takes no time to start up either, so opening it up to preview something is no trouble at all.

If you don't have any media to play, then VLC also offers superb integration with video channel streaming services such as Channels.com giving you access to channels such as ESPN, Reuters and National Geographic. Just right-click or CMD-click on the playlist, select Services Discovery and Channels.com. Channels.com will then appear in your VLC media player playlist. Click on it to reveal the the different categories of channels available. Click on the category you want and a drop down list of all available channels appears in VLC media player. Just click on the channel you want to watch and streaming should begin almost immediately.

VLC media player has great hotkey support, if you take the time to learn the shortcuts so it can be controlled without touching your mouse. If you're watching DVDs or video files through it, this is not an issue. For music, it plays more or less any file and features an equalizer and playlist creation. VLC media player isn't as intuitive as iTunes as a media manager, but it's a much more flexible player in terms of file formats. You can even use VLC to convert your files, and on top of all the formats and physical media it will play, many streaming protocols and TV capture cards are supported.

VLC media player makes it easy to add subtitles to your video files too - just add the SRT file to the folder where your video is kept, and it will automatically play with subtitles. The interface is functional, but by no means attractive - but you can download skins to completely change VLC media player's appearance. The preferences menu is comprehensive without being overwhelming, and there is extensive documentation online.

For video, VLC Media Player is the best application you will find. It's minimal interface is great for viewing, it's got excellent tools for effects, and doing things like adding subtitles is easy.