This is the software publisher's description.

VLC (initially VideoLAN Client) is a highly portable multimedia player for various audio and video formats, including MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, DivX, MP3, and OGG, as well as for DVDs, VCDs and various streaming protocols.

It also can be used as a server for unicast or multicast streams in IPv4 or IPv6 on a high-bandwidth network.

The latest version includes, amoungst other things, Mac Intel support, improvements in the Audio CD playback (CDDB), and a a new AJAX HTTP interface.