Jellyfin is a free software media system that streams films, series, music and photos from a home server to phones, televisions, tablets and browsers. It describes itself as volunteer-built: the project is...
Kodi is a free and open source media center that plays video, music, podcasts and photos from local storage, the home network and the internet. It began in 2002 as the Xbox...
mpv is a free, open source and cross-platform media player developed by a community of volunteers. It is known for a minimalist interface: there is no classic window with menus, only a...
VLC media player is a free and open source media player developed by VideoLAN, a non-profit organisation based in France. The project started in 1996 as a student project at the École...
Winamp is a media player for Windows that was first released in 1997 by Justin Frankel and Dmitry Boldyrev of the US company Nullsoft. It became one of the most downloaded Windows...
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Submit SuggestionEuropean media players and media servers play video and music from local files, discs and networks. This page lists VLC media player from France, Winamp from Belgium and the open source projects Kodi, mpv and Jellyfin, which have no company headquarters.
| Product | Country | Focus |
|---|---|---|
| VLC media player | France | Plays almost any format on every platform; run by the non-profit VideoLAN |
| Kodi | Open source project | Media center for the living room with libraries, live TV and add-ons |
| Winamp | Belgium | Classic music player with plug-ins and skins; owned by Llama Group |
| mpv | Open source project | Minimalist, scriptable video player controlled by keyboard and configuration files |
| Jellyfin | Open source project | Self-hosted media server that streams to phones, TVs and browsers |
For everyday playback of any file, VLC media player is the usual first choice. mpv suits users who prefer keyboard control and configuration files. Kodi turns a computer or small box into a living-room media center, and Jellyfin serves a home media collection to many devices from one server. Winamp remains a lightweight player for local music with skins and plug-ins.
VLC is run by the French non-profit VideoLAN. Winamp belongs to the Belgian Llama Group. Kodi, mpv and Jellyfin are community projects licensed as free software; Kodi has a registered non-profit foundation in the USA as its legal entity, and none of the three is a company product. Winamp is not open source, the other four are.
The big commercial platforms for music and video, from Apple, Google, Spotify or Netflix, have no European counterpart in this category. Media players and servers are the area where open source projects from Europe are strong, but they play files that users own and do not provide a content catalogue. For streaming catalogues see the categories music streaming services and video streaming services.