VLC is an incredibly robust application but very simple on the surface. It makes playing music simple, yet still manages to give the user all the tools he/she wants in a music player.
Everything VLC needs to play media files is contained within which means no outside codecs are needed. This makes it one of the most hassle-free music players as it can play virtually anything as soon as it's installed.
VLC is updated regularly with bug fixes and new features . The next major version of VLC, 4.0, will feature a media library browser (on Windows) and a completely redesigned interface.
Browsing large libraries causes slow down and stutter, there are overlay issues when starting a video, and in general some video does lag especially when using lower end hardware.
Click to open files and get Video with sound (and passthrough of codecs like DTS etc) for a perfect cinema experience. Works okay for many files.
Default window is not much more than a title bar - and if you drag/resize the window it resizes the video and leaves no empty areas. There is no visible control or display unless you use mouse/keyboard over the window.
This is the best player to use unless you're going for a media center (then use MPV based Plex Media Player to display and play the Plex Server library).
Hardware acceleration can be used for video playback to help in the apps HW+ mode. This allows for smoother video playback as well as better playback of higher resolutions.
There is a free version of BSPlayer available that is limited in features but a good way to test the app or have a simpler version of the app for those that don't need all paid features.
The paid version of BSPlayer has experimental support for Chromecasting, which will allow any content the player can play to be cast to any Chromecast compliant device or app.
While the Chromecast support is experimental currently it does not cast subtitles (unless hard coded) which can be a problem for foreign movies that rely on them.