VLC Media Player (Video Lan Client) is a multimedia powerhouse that plays audio, video, DVD's, and even streams! VLC is free open source and cross platform, meaning that you can download it for Windows, Mac, and even Linux. VLC seems to take less of a toll on your system when playing media, leaving more resources for your other applications. VLC is very lightweight compared to the popular alternatives; Windows Media Player, and iTunes. I consider this application a must have for any machine.