Freeware/shareware VCD player for Mac?

April 3, 2004 5:19 PM

VCD Player for Mac - Is there a freeware or shareware program that y'all recommend for playing VCDs on a mac running OS X? As a Windows user, I was shocked to find that my VCD wasn't even recognized by any of the applications on the mac.
posted by turbanhead to computers & internet (6 answers total)

Try Mac VCD X and VLC Media Player; you can find both on Versiontracker.
posted by Smart Dalek at 5:24 PM on April 3, 2004

i think you should definitely get VLC, it comes in handy a lot.
posted by rhyax at 5:48 PM on April 3, 2004

mplayer rocks. You just need to open the mpeg dat file with it directly. It does full screen nicely and is GPL, free software.
posted by mathowie at 6:17 PM on April 3, 2004

VideoLan Client (VLC) and mPlayer are both excellent, free, updated regularly, and support many formats including VCD, SVCD, DVD, WMA, DivX, etc. In the rare instance where one doesn't play some format, usually the other has it covered. Personally, I prefer VLC's UI (mPlayer launches a secondary app just for the playback window which always strikes me as a very weird, very un-Mac-like thing to do) but either would be a fine choice for your needs.
posted by nakedcodemonkey at 7:42 PM on April 3, 2004

Another vote for VLC. It's also under the GPL. Plus, it can do all kinds of nifty things with streams (despite the name "Video Lan Client," it actually works as a server too), which is handy if you have a home network. It even plays songs from the iTunes store.
posted by jbrjake at 9:52 PM on April 3, 2004

Also, just to jump on the VLC bandwagon, VLC has a much nicer UI for playing VCDs. In mplayer OS X you have to root around in UI for the files to play, but in VLC you simply go to File>Open Disc... and in the ensuing menu click the radio button for VCD, and then click OK. Much simpler than mplayer.
posted by Gnatcho at 3:34 AM on April 4, 2004