**VLC** is a libre and open source **media player** and **multimedia engine**,
focused on **playing everything**, and **running everywhere**.
**VLC** can play most multimedia files, discs, streams, devices and is also able to
convert, encode, **stream** and manipulate streams into numerous formats.
VLC is used by many over the world, on numerous platforms, for very different use cases.
The **engine of VLC** can be embedded into3rd party applications, andis called *libVLC*.
**VLC** is part of the [VideoLAN project](https://videolan.org) and is developed and supported by a community of volunteers.
The VideoLAN project was started at the university [École Centrale Paris](https://www.centralesupelec.fr/) who
relicensed VLC under the GPLv2 license in February 2001. Since then, VLC has
been downloaded **billions** of times.
## License
**VLC** is released under the GPLv2 *(or later)* license.
*On some platforms, it is de facto GPLv3, because of the licenses of dependencies*.
**libVLC**, the engine is released under the LGPLv2 *(or later)* license. \
This allows embedding the engine in3rd party applications, while letting them to be licensed under other licenses.
# Platforms
VLC is available for the following platforms:
- [Windows] *(from7and later, including UWP platforms andall versions of Windows 10)*
- [macOS] *(10.10and later)*
- [GNU/Linux] and affiliated
- [BSD] and affiliated
- [Android] *(4.2and later)*, including Android TV and Android Auto
- [iOS] *(9and later)*, including AppleTV and iPadOS
- Haiku, OS/2and a few others.
## Source Code sitemap
```
ABOUT-NLS - Notes on the Free Translation Project.
AUTHORS - VLC authors.
COPYING - The GPL license.
COPYING.LIB - The LGPL license.
INSTALL - Installationand building instructions.
NEWS - Important modifications between the releases.
README - Project summary.
THANKS - VLC contributors.
bin/ - VLC binaries.
bindings/ - libVLC bindings toother languages.
compat/ - compatibility library for operating systems missing
essential functionalities.
contrib/ - Facilities for retrieving external libraries and building
them for systems that don't have the right versions.
doc/ - Miscellaneous documentation.
extras/analyser - Code analyser and editor specific files.
extras/buildsystem - Different build system specific files.
extras/misc - Files that don't fit in the other extras/ categories.
extras/package - VLC packaging specific files such as spec files.
extras/tools/ - Facilities for retrieving external building tools needed for systems that don't have the right versions.
include/ - Header files.
lib/ - libVLC source code. modules/ - VLC plugins andmodules. Most of the codeis here.
po/ - VLC translations.
share/ - Common resource files.
src/ - libvlccore source code. test/ - Testing system.
```
[Dauer der Verarbeitung: 0.5 Sekunden, vorverarbeitet 2026-10-24]