VLC (initially VideoLAN Client) is a highly portable multimedia player for various audio and video formats (MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, DivX, mp3, ogg, ...) as well as DVDs, VCDs, and various streaming protocols. It can also be used as a server to stream in unicast or multicast in IPv4 or IPv6 on a high-bandwidth network.
It is a free cross-platform media player
It supports a large number of multimedia formats, without the need for additional codecs
It can also be used as a streaming server, with extended features (video on demand, on the fly transcoding, ...)
Input formats:
MPEG (ES,PS,TS,PVA,MP3)
ID3 tags
AVI
ASF / WMV / WMA
MP4 / MOV / 3GP
OGG / OGM / Annodex
Matroska (MKV)
WAV (incuding DTS)
Raw Audio: DTS, AAC, AC3/A52
Raw DV
FLAC
FLV (Flash)
Input media:
UDP/RTP Unicast
UDP/RTP Multicast
HTTP / FTP
MMS
File
DVD 1
VCD
SVCD 2
Audio CD (without DTS)
MPEG encoder 3
Video acquisition
Video:
Decoders:
MPEG-1/2
DIVX (1/2/3)
MPEG-4, DivX 5, XviD, 3ivX D4
H.264
Sorenson 1/3 (Quicktime)
DV
Cinepak
Theora (alpha 3)
H.263 / H.263i
MJPEG (A/B)
WMV 1/2
WMV 3 / WMV-9 / VC-1 4, 5
Indeo Video v3 (IV32)
Subtitles:
DVD 6
SVCD / CVD
DVB
OGM
Matroska
Text files (MicroDVD, SubRIP, SubViewer, SSA1-5, SAMI, VPlayer)