MediaPortal vs VLC media player

MediaPortal is free, open-source software for turning a Windows PC into a multimedia center or home theater PC. It can show and record live TV, display a TV guide, and play or record TV across networked PCs. Its media library covers videos, DVDs, music, pictures, and home videos, with support for network playback, subtitles, and hardware acceleration. Listed formats include MPEG-1 and MPEG-2, MOV, H.264, VC-1, DivX, Xvid, AC3, DTS, MP3, AAC, Matroska, DVD, and Blu-ray. MediaPortal can also tune radio through a TV card or web stations and stream it to PCs connected to its TV Server. Remote access is available through a web browser, Android, and iOS devices, which can also serve as Wi-Fi remote controls. The project offers community plugins and skins. Its download page offers MediaPortal 1 and 2: MP1 is described as maintained with more plugins, while MP2 has fewer plugins. The software is free, with a free plan and no free trial listed.

VLC media player is a free media player for Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS and Android. It plays multimedia files, DVDs, Audio CDs, VCDs and streams, with sources including files, discs, webcams and connected devices. Supported formats include MPEG-1/2, MPEG-4, H.264, DivX, XviD, WMV, MKV, MP4, MOV, AVI, WebM, MP3, AAC and FLAC. It supports subtitles, network playback, hardware acceleration and 4K playback, and most codecs work without a separate codec pack. VLC also supports skins, extensions and skin creation through VLC Skin Editor. Additional downloads are listed for Apple TV, Windows variants, several GNU/Linux distributions and systems including Chrome OS, FreeBSD and Solaris. VideoLAN is a non-profit project, and its source code can be obtained directly. The free plan states that VLC has no spyware, ads or user tracking; no other free-tier limits are listed.