VLC was a big deal in the 2000s if you wanted to watch torrented anime. Operating systems didn't come with players with broad codec support and it was a legitimate nightmare to figure out what fly by night codec worked with whatever the bootleggers cobbled together to encode the video of the week.
These days, operating systems already have rock solid video players with far less clunky UI.
On Linux, video is already sublime thanks to ffmpeg and the dozens of available frontends.
It feels like wrestling with 1998 in trying to use VLC these days. It's got a real WinAmp feel to it.
But the real elephant in the room is that the lionshare of video is now being delivered by major media platforms like YouTube.
I remember having to install the K-Lite Codec Pack back in the day (college days) to be able to watch videos I would "acquire". When I eventually discovered VLC, it was like a breath of fresh air. I still use it to this day as my default video player, because nothing else comes close to the quality they have.
I'm the opposite. I started out using VLC, but once I found the codec packs (K-Lite being one of the last) I immediately started using other, more user friendly media players.
The problem with VLC is that the interface consistently feels... both imprecise and ridiculously granular. Everything just behaves weird. It felt weird in 2002 and it still feels weird in 2025. Like they cribbed the design from a DivX player, and haven't thought about it since.
VLC seems bound and determined to not let you interact with a video without pausing it, then opening the menu and hunting for option you need. Yes, I could set up my own interface, but that's not an excuse for not having a bare minimum of functionality that matches modern user expectations. Besides, configuring VLC to have the interface you want is itself not an easy task. Like, they have interface presets. Why isn't there a preset interface for "make this match YouTube"?
Just looking at what they chose to make be default key bindings is just bizarre to me. Half the things they have bound to single key presses are things that have never come up for me ever, while several things I want to use frequently are double or triple key combinations or not available for binding at all. All the default adjustments like skipping ahead or adjusting speed are all so granular that you have to hit them 10 or more times to actually accomplish anything. Just a completely alien interface to me. This software feels like it was built to solve media problems that I have not encountered since the late 90s when video tracks and audio tracks were more frequently out of sync from the producer.
What using VLC has taught me over 20 years is that the best way to play media with VLC is to open the software, begin playback of the media, and then under no circumstances attempt to interact with the software again.
In the early 2000s the video field was flooded with fast paced releases of new codecs and new codecs versions, and there was codecs implementation to downloads right and left, and people were bundling them and releasing them with names sounding like a warez group. It was a little crazy to watch a video at the time.
This was mitigated by vlc and mplayer, two video players that integrated most codecs as fast as they could, and it was a breath of fresh air. You just started them and any video would play, no codec issue anymore.
MPlayer has not been updated for some times, and traction was lost, but VLC, although looking a bit old on the UI-side (and a little buggy on ARM Windows) is still here and is solid when someone just wants to watch a video on any platform.
I never experienced subs I could not deactivate. And why they activated it? Well, because they own their plattform and do what they want with it. (I think they have done worse)
That's... a very subjective take to be polite and can't agree much. I enjoy VLC very much, install it everywhere even on TV, and couldn't care less about some OS/bundled players, codecs and whatnot. UI is great, clean, easy to navigate. Couldn't ask more from video player.
These days, operating systems already have rock solid video players with far less clunky UI.
On Linux, video is already sublime thanks to ffmpeg and the dozens of available frontends.
It feels like wrestling with 1998 in trying to use VLC these days. It's got a real WinAmp feel to it.
But the real elephant in the room is that the lionshare of video is now being delivered by major media platforms like YouTube.