VLC is also known for its relatively unique ability to play
video files from uncompressed WinRAR archives saving the need to unpack
(extract) the files from the rars. Also, it has the ability to let the
user view the video content of incomplete, unfinished video downloads
before they've been fully downloaded to the hard drive.
VLC media player is a highly portable multimedia player for
various audio and video formats (MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, DivX, mp3,
ogg, ...) as well as DVDs, VCDs, and various streaming protocols.
It can also be used as a server to stream in unicast or multicast in IPv4 or IPv6 on a high-bandwidth network.
It doesn't need any external codec or program to work.
