Video and audio formats VLC supports

VLC Media Player plays virtually every video and audio format — including MP4, MKV, AVI, MOV, WMV, FLV, WebM and MPEG for video, and MP3, FLAC, AAC, WAV, OGG and M4A for audio — as well as DVDs, Blu-rays, audio CDs, network streams and capture devices. The reason it is so reliable is that every codec it needs is built directly into the player. There are no codec packs to install, so the extension on a file almost never decides whether VLC can open it.

To understand why that matters, it helps to separate the container (the visible .mp4 or .mkv file) from the codec inside it that encodes the actual picture and sound — a distinction explained in full further down this page. The tables below list the formats you are most likely to meet, what each one is, and any notes worth knowing. If a file exists, VLC can usually play it; when you are ready, you can download VLC free.

Inside these containers, VLC decodes the codecs that do the real work, including H.264, H.265/HEVC, VP9 and AV1. That means 4K video, modern phone recordings and royalty-free web video all play without buying or installing extra decoders. VLC also opens partial or still-downloading files, which is useful when a transfer was interrupted. For a tour of what you can do once a video is open, see the VLC features page.

Because VLC handles lossless formats such as FLAC, WAV and AIFF alongside compressed MP3 and AAC, it works equally well for casual listening and for high-quality audio libraries. Add a 10-band equalizer, playlists with loop and shuffle, and adjustable playback speed, and VLC becomes a genuine everyday music player rather than just a video tool.

People often say a file "is an MP4", but that describes only half of it. Every media file has two separate layers, and understanding the difference explains why VLC succeeds where other players fail.

A container is the outer wrapper — the part you see as the file extension, such as .mp4, .mkv or .avi. Its job is to hold the video stream, the audio stream and any subtitle tracks together and keep them in sync. A codec is the method used to compress and decompress the actual content inside that container; examples include H.264, H.265/HEVC, VP9 and AV1 for video, and MP3, AAC, FLAC and Opus for audio. The same codec, such as H.264, can live inside several different containers.

Built-in players frequently support a container but not the specific codec inside it — which is exactly when you get an "unsupported format" error or video with no sound. VLC avoids this because it bundles a huge library of both container parsers and codecs. It can read the wrapper and decode whatever is inside, which is why VLC plays files that other apps reject, and why you never need a separate codec pack.

VLC plays far more than files saved on your computer. It also handles physical media, live network sources and capture hardware, all from the same Media menu:

• DVDs — play a DVD straight from the drive, with menu navigation, chapters and selectable audio and subtitle tracks.
• Blu-rays — VLC plays Blu-ray discs; some commercial titles use copy protection that may require extra system libraries.
• Audio CDs — insert a CD and VLC plays the tracks and can read disc information.
• Disc images — open ISO and similar image files directly, with no need to burn them first.
• Network and online streams — paste a URL into Open Network Stream; VLC supports protocols including HTTP, HLS and RTSP for internet radio, live streams and many direct video links.
• Capture devices — play and record from a connected webcam or capture device, or grab your desktop for a screen recording.

Step-by-step instructions for opening a disc, a stream or a capture device are in the guide to using VLC.

VLC has strong subtitle support and reads the formats you are most likely to download. It loads them as separate files — just drag the file onto the window — and can also switch between subtitle tracks embedded inside a video. The main external formats VLC supports are:

• SRT (SubRip) — the most common subtitle format; plain text with simple timing.
• ASS / SSA (Advanced SubStation Alpha) — adds styling such as fonts, colours and positioning.
• SUB — used by formats such as MicroDVD and, with an accompanying IDX file, VobSub bitmap subtitles.
• VTT (WebVTT) — the subtitle format used for web video.

Whichever format you use, VLC lets you synchronise subtitle timing if it drifts ahead of or behind the speech, and restyle the font, size and colour for readability. With a Lua extension such as VLSub it can even search for and download matching subtitles from inside the player.