A few years back, when Nicole and I started watching DVDs on our computer, we started out with the software that came preinstalled… but that didn’t work half the time. Then we let one of those DVDs install the InterActual player. Oy, what a headache! We got such jumpy, twitchy video and audio through it that we almost gave up on watching movies at home.

Then I found VLC. Here’s a few of the reasons why I like it so much:

Unobtrusive: VLC doesn’t sit in the background hogging system resources from the moment you turn the computer on, and when you turn it off, it really turns off. (Take that, Quicktime and RealPlayer!)

Versatile: VLC handles pretty much any and every type of audio or video format I use, right off of a fresh install. And it’ll play files without trying to make itself the default player/viewer. I like being able to make that choice for myself, especially because the day may come when I move from VLC, and I’d like to be able to do that without worrying about what it may have done to the Windows Registry.

User-Friendly: I don’t need to be at Nicole’s side when she wants to watch something. That’s important to me.

Free: Praise God for the open-source community!

I’ll admit that there’s probably better software out there, but VLC seems to have the best mix of features and operability. And that’s not even getting into how VLC can record streaming audio and video…