VLC

VLC media player is a highly portable multimedia player and multimedia framework capable of reading most audio and video formats (MPEG-2, MPEG-4, H.264, DivX, MPEG-1, mp3, ogg, aac) as well as DVDs, Audio CDs VCDs, and various streaming protocols.VLC media player is an open source, multimedia framework written by the VideoLAN project.

While it is mainly used for videos, the program plays almost any audio file; a playlist for a mix of both can be made for the program. The program can also capture video on your desktop for tutorial videos or just for general fun. The program also recognizes connected firewire devices and can stream live video streams through any firewire port on the computer.

It was started as an academic project in 1996. Originally developed by students at the École Centrale Paris, it is now developed by contributors worldwide. It cone icon of VLC is a reference of traffic cones. It wears a Santa hat during christmas period

The latest release was VLC 1.0.5 on 31 January 2010.