GOM vs VLC: Your Opinion
I recently read that people are starting to move away from VLC for their default media player to GOM. I plan to do a side by side comparison in the near future but I was hoping to hear from you, the reader, to see which you prefer and why.
Fill up the comments with your pick and convince me that this is the best way to go!
32 Responses to “GOM vs VLC: Your Opinion”
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Alek Davis Says:
May 12th, 2009 at 9:56 amI prefer The KM Player. I totally don’t like the VLC UI, and I have problems playing DIVX in GOM Player, so I have been using The KM Player for a while, and I like it better than any other video player I tried.
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Patrick Tingen Says:
May 12th, 2009 at 10:30 amI have not made my mind up either which one to choose, although I am leaning a bit towards GOM because of it’s slick presence. Although VLC has a very good reputation, I don’t want to fiddle with a gazillion possible presets. I don’t even know what they all mean and GOM supports me very well. VLC looks a bit too techy for me. GOM looks good, plays almost anything out-of-the-box and if you are missing a codec, it will almost automatically install it for you.
Hey, I just think I’ve made up my mind
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Matt Says:
May 12th, 2009 at 10:49 amI have moved over to GOM. I’m not sure how it happened though.
I installed it and slowly started associating more and more extensions with it. I guess i just prefer its interface. However, I love the “robustness” of VLC more. -
David Says:
May 12th, 2009 at 11:09 amI too recently switched to GOM over VLC. VLC seems to be a bit slower at loading videos. Also when skimming through the video or jumping to different parts VLC gets choppy and sometimes doesn’t begin playing right away. GOM does not suffer from these issues.
One thing I did discover recently about GOM was that you can step through the video 1 frame at a time, which is great for capturing single frame screen shots of videos.
Though I am starting to like GOM much more than VLC, I have not yet uninstalled VLC. I’m going to keep them both around for a while before I abandon VLC. If I find later that GOM is seriously lacking in any way some time in the future, I will go back to VLC. Otherwise, It’s all GOM all the time for me.
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Peter Says:
May 12th, 2009 at 12:15 pmI haven’t even tried GOM. I’ve been using VLC because it just works. I have yet to find a file format it won’t read. Even the impressive K-Lite Codec pack didn’t do the job on some files that VLC handled without a hitch.
I do like that VLC is open source, but it’s not just a philosophical thing — it lets me use it at work for commercial purposes, and I have a portable version on my USB drive that I can take anywhere. It’s nice that it’s skinnable too. I like that I have the same player on Windows and Linux. My only complaint is the orange traffic cone logo, which is really quite ugly. But so far it hasn’t been a dealbreaker. I don’t consider VLC the ideal media player, but it gets the job done, and I can appreciate that.
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Mike Says:
May 12th, 2009 at 2:03 pmjust started using GOM…main selling point for me..the GUI is much cleaner and the conversion process so far is too simple not to use. Oh yeah…used to use Super@ until our corporate antivirus product decided it was dangerous…may have to buy the thing…watermark a bit intrusive…
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Richard Kolodziej Says:
May 12th, 2009 at 3:40 pmI’ve never heard of GOM and I do not intend to switch from VLC to it. VLC works fine and there is no company behind it, making money in some way.
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Joe Says:
May 12th, 2009 at 4:09 pmI installed GOM Player last year, and it’s the one I use most often, but I still turn to VLC once in a while.
I’m a software collector. I have portable versions of VLC, SMPlayer, The KMPlayer, and MediaPlayerClassic- HomeCinema. I keep them all, even though I’ve had problems with all but VLC (granted, the only problem I’ve had with MPC-HC is that it’s not compatible with Aero, so my desktop goes blank and restarts when I open a file with it).
I agree with those who say that it’s easier to find the controls you need in GOM’s interface - having everything in the context menu works for me (MPC-HC does the same, but the UI isn’t as pretty, and it also has the aforementioned aero incompatibility).
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omgirc Says:
May 12th, 2009 at 8:37 pmFact is VLC works. period. There are hundreds of ‘other’ players out there. VLC is a nice open source cross platform player that’s as easy to use on any system as pushing the power button.
Once the hype about gom is over, VLC will stand as the winner. -
Kevin Says:
May 12th, 2009 at 11:26 pmWIN only - sorry, not for me. Pretty happy with Quicktime and Perian extensions
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Lucas Says:
May 13th, 2009 at 7:41 pmI just installed GOM after seeing this article, I had never heard of it before… And I was sold in an instant. As mentioned before, if I want to pause with VLC I get a slight delay, same with restarting. GOM doesn’t suffer from this. Additionally, I’ve never gotten VLC to go full-screen on my secondary monitor, while GOM does it without a hitch.
I generally have a lot of issues switching from one software to another (it took me years to start using firefox), but this switch just made itself. At work and at home, GOM is now my player of choice (thank god I’m a network admin :P)
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john Says:
May 17th, 2009 at 2:19 pmno mac version of VLC so not really a question i can answer, although VLC does rock on Leopard
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abhijit Says:
May 17th, 2009 at 10:23 pmHonestly speaking, GOM’s UI is exceptional. VLC’s UI is really, really bad, even after their recent overhaul. There are too many setting I have to set before I can do a single-click DVD play, for example.
The shortcuts window, which according to me, is very critical in giving a relatively experienced user access to all the interfaces is so poorly designed to be almost unusable.
Avid GOM user!
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Kenny Says:
May 19th, 2009 at 2:05 pmI agree with Lucas. I actually started using GOM way before I started using VLC. I really like GOM’s UI, plus the shortcuts that can handle the placement of subtitles in relation to the video. A HUGE plus for me, since I usually have to watch videos with subtitles, and sometimes they’re out of sync. One other thing - my remote works with GOM, no configuration necessary. Very few programs can claim that!
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Jay Says:
May 19th, 2009 at 9:32 pmI’m using GOM since last year, but keep a copy of portable VLC. The GUI & control in GOM is much better than VLC.
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DanB Says:
May 21st, 2009 at 9:49 amI work on all the major operating systems. VLC is a easy choice for me. VLC thus far just plays anything I throw at it. Did I mention it works on all the major Operating systems.
I install VLC on users computers and set it as the default video player and thus far no one has called me that something does not work, unlike the other media players that come with windows pc’s. GOM is in the toolkit, but VLC is right for me.
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Jonathan Says:
May 22nd, 2009 at 4:16 amWith Broken Files:
When a file has been split into two files with HJSplit for example, I can play and skip ahead through the first half of the broken file with VLC Player. But with GOM player, it will play the first half of the broken file, but I’m not able to skip ahead through it (or don’t know how to).
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curiBOX Says:
May 22nd, 2009 at 2:08 pmI’ve been using GOM player for several years now. GOM is very compatible with many different types of codecs.
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sisko Says:
May 25th, 2009 at 12:49 amGom has a *perfect* and easy support of subtitles with also a re-sync engine! Very useful 4 people who wants to follow other languages.
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Dotan Cohen Says:
May 31st, 2009 at 2:42 pmWhen GOM runs on Ubuntu then I’ll try it. Until then, I’ll stick with VLC.
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Artemis3 Says:
May 31st, 2009 at 7:15 pmWho cares about GUI? Thats what the skins are for. VLC is Free Software, and the alternative to it is Mplayer, which i fallback to if there is a problem playing with VLC.
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kuiman Says:
June 1st, 2009 at 8:07 amI had always used VLC until I got a full HD monitor with 1920×1200 resolution and started to notice the blurry subtitles of VLC, so I started searching for a replacement and GOM’s subtitles are perfect. Which I couldn’t manage to set with VLC no matter how hard I tried (I liked VLC a lot).
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R Says:
June 12th, 2009 at 11:48 amI use SMPlayer (mplayer + GUI) when I have playback issues (generally due to CPU slowness). A plus is it has built-in soft subtitle support (and a large range of supported codecs), the minus is it sometimes doesn’t work too well when softsubs are written too liberally (e.g. using floating point pixel coordinates).
I suppose it’s a PITA to build from source. Fortunately, it is also released in binary packages for Win32 and any popular Linux flavor.Note: If the free software guys can’t understand the importance of a solid / sensible GUI, then they’re light years behind major players.
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J Says:
July 3rd, 2009 at 8:10 amGOM is relatively pretty and simple, with a nice UI out of the box. It plays most everything I throw at it and is easy to reconfigure. Great player for regular users too.
VLC, is the uglier & more complicated fallback solution. It can still play certain files that others can’t (and has certain features that others probably never will) but it’s not as easily configured and many default settings are unacceptable for everyday use.
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Carlos Says:
July 9th, 2009 at 9:56 amI usually use Vlc and it works fine. I like the options recordings. I don’t know if GOM can satisfy me.
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wapu Says:
July 23rd, 2009 at 2:18 pm
maybe littlebit too late…i prefer VLC because its opensource, supports many languages (german too :D) and its possible to stream movies.
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Ronchad Says:
August 8th, 2009 at 3:22 amI use both, I love to find new stuff to play things.
VLC+GOM is one of the most wonderful choose you can do.
VLC runs everywhere, but if you are on windows GOM is a good choose also.
I like GOM because it can play .swf files too,while VLC can’t.
I don’t complain about it, but it’s nice to know it.
2 powerful media players for sure. -
adinochestva Says:
August 19th, 2009 at 9:57 amActually i recently moved completely from Gom to VLC
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BOB THE MOB Says:
August 19th, 2009 at 9:06 pmLol if your after UI, then why you running windows ppl! Go get a bloody mac!
If your running windows though, use WMP for ur music, and VLC for EVERYTHING ELSE. Its minimalist design is perfect. If you are after a video player, that is quick, easy to use, will play anything and everything, and has all the features you require, then download VLC dummies. Look up google for comparrisons, you will see VLC is faster at decoding ALL videos than GOM or KM player. Anyone using KM player UPGRADE TO VLC!
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Atif Says:
October 19th, 2009 at 5:28 pmI just installed Gom Player, and played several movie files side by side both on VLC and GOM player, and found the result of VLC is slightly better than GOM Player, I would prefer VLC media Player
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j Says:
October 22nd, 2009 at 9:51 pmjust tried gom cos it was downloaded more that vlc, and gom would not would not play, nor could it find the codec, for an mp3
sorry charlie
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Columbo Says:
October 24th, 2009 at 2:44 pmNo VLC for Mac? I learned of VLC through seeing it on a Mac about a year ago, so I can say for sure that there is. My Mac-owning friend said it was the best media player he’d used. I’m just about to try GOM for the first time to see what it’s like. I like VLC because, like others have said, it just works, but I thought I’d try something different.
