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Cinema vs VLC media player: catalog facts
Cinema	VLC media player
Free Free and open source under the GPL-3.0; donations accepted.	Free Free software from a non-profit; there is no paid tier and no advertising in the player.
Linux	Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, iOS
Thumbnail previews on the seek bar Resumes the last video played	Plays an unusually wide list of codecs and containers out of the box, including MPEG-1/2, H.264, H.265, VP8/VP9… No spyware, no advertising and no user tracking, stated on the project feature page
Linux only Fewer features than general-purpose players such as VLC or mpv	The stable desktop line is still 3.0.23; the 4.0 interface rewrite has not shipped The interface is functional rather than modern, and advanced options are buried in preference dialogs
Downloadable app	Downloadable app
Open source	Open source
License: GPL-3.0-or-later	License: GPL-2.0
No account needed	No account needed
Not stated if it works offline	Works offline
Official website Full listing and sources Checked October 1, 2026	Official website Full listing and sources Checked September 20, 2026

Catalog facts only. Anything “not stated” is unconfirmed. Check full listings for details.