After 20 years together, VLC and I are finally breaking up, and it’s because of this app

For as long as I can remember, VLC has been the only app I installed on every new PC, after every new Windows installation, before almost anything else. After all, why wouldn’t you? VLC has always been the no-nonsense media player that you can throw anything at and it plays everything without so much as a complaint. This My love story with VLC It’s been going on for the better part of two decades, and this open source media player has really earned a level of trust that very few apps match.

However, software does not stand still, nor do user expectations. Over the past few months, I found myself opening a different media player more often than VLC, until one day I realized I wouldn’t switch again. After twenty years of loyalty, I finally found an app that does enough to make moving forward seem both justified and retarded.

PotPlayer takes everything good about VLC and makes it better

It started out as a VLC replacement before becoming something better.

What made the switch easier for me was that PotPlayer never asked me to compromise on the basics. Every video I launched into PotPlayer, from my old AVI files or massive 4K HEVC movies, played exactly as expected, without having to search for codec packs or modify any settings. The whole point behind everyone loving VLC is that it “just works”, and PotPlayer offers the same peace of mind from day one.

However, once I got comfortable, I started to notice all the little things that made day-to-day playback more enjoyable. Something as simple as turning off my PC after finishing a movie has become one of my favorite quality of life features, especially when I’m watching something before bed. Sure, it’s a small addition, but it’s also one that VLC has never integrated so seamlessly into its experience.

The interface also strikes a balance that VLC has never achieved. It looks noticeably more modern without trying too hard. The best way I can think of to describe it is that the design is what VLC would look like if it had received thoughtful visual updates over the last decade. Everything is completely familiar, but it’s also cleaner, more polished and much easier on the eyes. As someone who has spent years testing dozens of skins and themes in the VLC media player to make it a little easier on the eyes, or give it a dark mode or a more modern feel (all to no avail), it was really refreshing to see PotPlayer launch with exactly the kind of polished, premium UI I always wanted. It doesn’t demand attention with flashy buttons and menus, but it also won’t immediately make you assume it’s twenty years old by design, which is more than can be said for VLC.

PotPlayer has many functions over VLC

There are a number of additional features that have endeared me to PotPlayer.

When it comes to specialized media, PotPlayer cleans the floor with VLC. I have a handful of 360-degree videos in my collection and PotPlayer recognizes them immediately and plays them correctly without needing to modify any additional settings. I admit it’s a feature I rarely use, but when I do, it’s refreshing to see it work automatically. There’s also a built-in codec manager, frame-by-frame stepping, and a dedicated 3D/360-degree video mode to boot.

Where PotPlayer In fact However, what convinced me the most was Nvidia’s super-resolution video. I’ve relied on VSR for quite some time, ever since I bought an RTX 2070 Super six years ago, but it took quite a while for VLC to support the real-time scaler. In fact, even now, it is necessary to do some digging into the menus and settings to enable RTX VSR in VLCeven when the GPU supported feature works perfectly in my browser. In fact, in the latest version of VLC, I still ran into stretched aspect ratios, videos opening as nothing more than a black screen, and other quirks that usually required restarting playback or disabling VSR entirely. On the other hand, PotPlayer has been remarkably consistent and every video I’ve tried has simply worked, allowing VSR to do its job without adding any new problems to the mix.

Then there’s the built-in subtitle generator that leverages local AI models in OpenAI’s Whisper Engine to automatically generate synchronized SRT subtitle files directly from the audio track of your video. This feature makes Requires GPU resourcessure, but it also happens to be a blessing when you’re watching that foreign movie from decades ago where Google somehow keeps giving you the wrong subtitle file. Rounding out my favorite native features in PotPlayer that VLC doesn’t have is XInput, where I can simply grab my connected controller to use PotPlayer intuitively. VLC doesn’t even come close to supporting controllers, which is a gigantic feather in PotPlayer’s cap.

PotPlayer gives users more control over everything

It’s the enthusiast’s media player and it’s not afraid to show it off.

On the customization front, VLC offers a respectable number of settings, but PotPlayer seems like software created by people who really enjoy giving control to users. Each menu opens into another menu, exposing dozens of playback settings, rendering options, subtitle controls, keyboard shortcuts, and interface behaviors, to name a few. You don’t need to touch most of them, of course, but if you’re the type of user who enjoys tweaking your software, PotPlayer is a real playground.

I also noticed that this philosophy extends to the rest of the PotPlayer experience, and very clearly so. There are more display modes, more playback options, much more robust support for 3D content, and generally much more. Deeper feature set than VLC offers today. It’s true that most users probably won’t use all of the capabilities PotPlayer has placed among its various menus, but knowing they’re there makes it feel much less like a simple media player and more like an enthusiast-friendly toolset for consuming video media.

Above all, my biggest surprise has been the “just works” nature of PotPlayer. From a distance, I had always assumed that PotPlayer was just another media player for Windows. trying to compete with VLC. Now, however, it seems like this software spent years catering to enthusiasts while quietly developing a deeper feature set. Fortunately, it managed to succeed without sacrificing the reliability that made VLC famous in the first place.

I’m finally making the switch, but it may not be necessary

I’m not saying that PotPlayer is the perfect multimedia player that I had always been looking for. In fact, I’d hesitate to recommend it to someone who just wants to play a movie from time to time. PotPlayer’s menus are several layers deep, and the sheer number of options at your disposal can be intimidating for beginners. There’s a learning curve here that VLC generally manages to avoid entirely. So if you value simplicity, familiarity, and seamless support on Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, and iPhone, VLC remains the easiest recommendation anyone can make, myself included.

However, that’s not the type of user I am anymore. I appreciate software that rewards curiosity, gives me powerful features to leverage, and lets me take the reins when I want. PotPlayer does all that, while matching VLC’s legendary codec support and reliability. After almost twenty years of instinctively downloading VLC on every new PCPotPlayer is now the first media player that has really convinced me that it’s time to break an old habit.