**EDIT**
Please go read this post I wrote after a few days of GOM Player use!
Why haven’t I heard of GOM Player before today? It is simply amazing. This program is basically everything that VLC strives to be, but without all the hassle.
*EdIt* I would like to add that GOM player isn’t open source, and tis cross platform 😦 How could I have missed that!? Anyways, this still doesn’t change my opinion of the software. Luckily (lol) I use Windows, and unlikely many people, I don’t believe all open source software is better. Sometimes, a closed sourced software is simply better than an open source. This is an example.
(Had to plug I’m an anime fan :P)
Codecs: GOM comes capable of playing almost all of the most popular codecs by default and has this wonderful built in option that will find an open source version of the codec that you need if you happen to be missing any.
Broken AVI’s? Have you ever downloaded a file that was a broken avi broken avi before and tried to open it in VLC? It takes anywhere from 2- 10 minutes or more to open the bloody file! Well, not in GOM my friends. You click on that broken file and it will start playing right away. They has a register patent on the tech they use to play broken avi’s and all I can say is that it works.. Good!
Memory usage: For those that love VLC because of it’s small size, GOM is almost exactly the same size! After playing a ep of naruto in both players for about a minute and pausing it, this is how they stood;
VLC: 46000k
GOM: 44000k
o.O
Now playing:
No difference 😛
As for the CPU, I can’t quite compare because I had set GOM up to use all its advanced features but if I will give the numbers anyways,
GOM (Everything checked, everything set to high and playing): 30
VLC (default while playing): 6
A slight difference, but with everything GOM boasts it’s understandable.
Final Verdict
GOM is an amazing player that, in my honest opinion beats VLC. Mind you it’s not by a whole lot, but it does come out on time. I will keep both installed for the time being but to ensure that GOM won’t do something ridiculous 😛
PaperKingdoms 
The big plus about VLC to me is the fact it is very multi-platform, so i can reccomend it to anyone without even knowing what computer they use. Without that GOM looks good, but isnt useful to me.
Comment by Rizzla — October 21, 2006 @ 12:45 pm
Tis true. I forgot to mention that. I don’t know many people that use anything other than Windows.
But thanks for the comment. I will append my post to include that its only for Windows.
Comment by bardicknowledge — October 21, 2006 @ 1:00 pm
What about users of other operation systems like Mac OSX or Linux? Nope, VLC is more accesible in that matter and extremely good.
Comment by freese — October 21, 2006 @ 2:17 pm
Its sad it isn’t cross platform. But on Windows it perform and offers much more than VLC.
Comment by bardicknowledge — October 21, 2006 @ 2:34 pm
Windows windows windows… BUT WE ARE USING LINUX
Comment by Egidijus — October 23, 2006 @ 2:30 pm
Love you windows?
I love my linux (ubuntu)..
I love my security…
I love my system not phoning home…
I love not having so many virus, bots, trojans and other attacks (Yes, Linux does have them, but not the same ones for years like Windows… but, those are only enhancements… hehehe)
I dumped windows after being able to keep it safe, learning all the tweaks to get it running right, and getting past stupid default settings… like running in 16 bit mode on a 32 or 64 bit system, unless you knew how to change it…dumb)…
Nothing I need, needs windows… and nothing I need to use costs said arm and leg to be incompatible with what they will force on you next week.
Comment by the old rang — November 26, 2009 @ 11:43 pm
then i would suggest installing windows 😛 I personally love my windows install and wouldn’t give it up for the world.
Comment by bardicknowledge — October 23, 2006 @ 2:56 pm
I’ve had GOM since it came out…I knew about it through family in Korea….it is definitely a great find for a software for anyone that runs Windows…Yes, the downside is that it is multiplatform…but in Korea, Linux and Mac are not as popular as the Windows platform…which in my opinion is ridiculous…But GOM is definitely an unknown jewel download of the internet…it is great to hear that other people enjoy it just as much as I do…
Comment by Joe Moon — November 14, 2006 @ 2:31 am
O ya dont flame me with I have mac or linux pls…cuz I own the new macbook pro and yes it is the best laptop I have ever had!!!
Comment by Joe Moon — November 14, 2006 @ 2:32 am
I wanted to thank you for the post. I have been sitting here with my son looking for information about this for a report he is doing for school. he goes back tomorrow and I looked everywhere! Thanks again! Have a nice night!
Comment by Joanne Smythington — January 7, 2007 @ 8:12 pm
i dont like windows but i use it because everything is compatible with it.
Comment by xmido — February 27, 2007 @ 11:22 pm
Hehehe… Windows iS NOT compatible with everything… If it was, I wouldn’t have bought my iMac 20″ it’s gorgeous and has OSX which Windows isn’t even closed to being.
I just wish they had GOM Player for mac, or linux.
I also had it since it came out.
Comment by Keehun Nam — April 28, 2007 @ 6:25 pm
There are apparently plans to port Gom to Linux but not for the Mac.
http://www.gomplayer.com/forum/viewtopic.html?t=6&highlight=linux
No idea on when it’ll be released but it’s positive news.
Comment by Rob — May 22, 2007 @ 1:10 pm
I dual-boot Vista – Ubuntu Feisty and can say that VLC does not work well under Vista but works well under Linux. GOM has been my Windows choice for a while.
Comment by Jeremy — August 6, 2007 @ 3:20 am
I like the Gom player too.. It is well designed and easy to use. In defence of VLC, there are lots of formats GOM halts on, and asks for codecs that cannot be found. VLC plays almost anything.. rarely will it fail to play a file. SO really I would recommend having both on a windows machine. That said, VLC has so many advantages that its slightly messy interface is easy to put up with!
Comment by Martin — October 9, 2007 @ 11:24 pm
gom play flv videos very smoothly. but while using vlc u cant pause the video or move the slider coz it will start the video again from the beginning. i recommend gom for window users. vlc is multiplatform which means it work in many platforms but doesnt mean that its the best on each one.
Comment by xmido — January 2, 2008 @ 10:59 am
I just recently discovered GOM. I have been using VLC for quite some time. I was immediately impressed with GOM. However. Since I intend to purchase a MAC in the very near future, I’m sorry to learn GOM doesn’t work on that OS. VLC is still a good choice.
Comment by Tim — January 12, 2008 @ 11:07 am
GOM is the best player which i ever use in Windows. But I frequently use SuSe Linux. So i couldn’t find any GOM player for Linux. In this case VLC is the best player.
Comment by sandunfernando — January 29, 2008 @ 1:17 am
vlc and gom are real good a/v players , there is a third one that fits to there site , BS PLAYER (a slovenian player… yes its suport other languages) , curent its windows only and the free version has some adware (GET THE PRO VERSION (its adware free)… you know where to get it 😉 )
Comment by someone — February 8, 2008 @ 1:23 pm
Be careful for GOM player.
When you start it, It tries to connect upto 4 web sites.
For what?
GOM player isn’t an open source!
Because of that I can’t trust them!
Ask yourself, why are they making a video player for free? 😉
Comment by Okey — February 8, 2008 @ 8:38 pm
What? Not available for Linux???? Is it open source? Maybe some of us can compile it for Linux…
Comment by Ajju — March 20, 2008 @ 1:06 am
gom player? who gives a shit? the only reason i use vlc is when i want to play a vob on a friend’s system that’s running windows, because, well, windows sucks when it comes to codecs. in linux, mplayer plays anything i throw at it. codecs are a dime a dozen. i always see windows users posting, ‘i can’t play this file in wm11,’ or ‘how come i can play one avi, but not another avi, yada yada yada.’ poor bastards. with linux, it takes about 1 whole whopping minute to install or ./configure any codec i need. hell, i could install linux on my coffee maker and play encrypted dvd’s. gom player? again, who gives a shit?
Comment by john — March 30, 2008 @ 4:24 am
hmm, after reading why people think gom is better than vlc, i’d just like to add that whenever i use vlc to play vobs that have been backed up (in linux, with free open source software), i can pause, full screen, advance, forward, etc, etc. not sure what why it’s so hard for others. also, anything that can be done in windows, i’ve managed to get working in linux on all my laptops. games take time but right now i’m too busy playing wow and cod4 to add more games.
Comment by john — March 30, 2008 @ 4:33 am
like joe moon said, GOM is really the unknown jewel of the internet. I found out about in Korea where honestly, IT/computing/filesharing is #1 in the world so you can bet a decent product would be released there. It is very simple to use yet so it has so many features. Loads practically anything and is quite fast.
Comment by joe c — April 30, 2008 @ 12:53 pm
gom is awesome, they release it for free because they do pay per view internet video service in korea. its market share in korea is #1, followed by windows media.
Comment by kuser — May 6, 2008 @ 12:15 pm
Thanks for the comments on GOM player. I think it’s useful for playing broken files.
However the CPU usage numbers posted are:
“GOM (Everything checked, everything set to high and playing): 30
VLC (default while playing): 6”
You didn’t say what CPU usage was with no player running, if it’s 3% at idle en that’s a 900% increase in CPU usage. Even if your CPU was 0% at Idle which I’ve never seen, 30 is 500% as high as 6, so why in the world would you say:
“A slight difference, but with everything GOM boasts it’s understandable.” I can’t see how any definition of slight fits a 500%-900% change.
My bigger concern is why it tries to connect to the internet when opening a non-DRM file for which it already has the codec. Others have posted about this and it’s a valid concern/problem that VLC, which is also free, does not have.
So if the file isn’t broken, it seems like VLC has less security issues and is much less of a resource hog, but if you have a broken file you want to play, VLC might not do it and GOM might be the answer to that, but only for Windows.
Comment by Ace — July 18, 2008 @ 3:00 pm
VLC is not responsive player but formats that can open more tha GOM player. Overall GOM Player much much better than VLC.
Comment by Quazar — January 4, 2009 @ 1:02 am
Vlc has worked perfectly since I discovered it (seriously divx was becoming a major pain in the a**) starts up fast, stops, plays, forward, everything is smooth and fast on both my old xp and my new vista. Only had one problem with the audio not playing,but found out not to long ago that I had it muted on the volume mixer (duh stupid me). flv files play more efficiently now with the scroll/pause bug fixed. Also vlc uses virtually no memory or cpu for me. seriously who needs the hassle of codecs and players when you can get an all in one package.
Comment by Alan Heer — March 6, 2009 @ 9:16 pm
There is one thing that VLC is able to do that I have not been able to do with any other video player. That is capture video from a Comcast HD DVR box through the Firewire port. Is there ANY other player that can do this?!
Comment by Nickman — May 19, 2009 @ 10:53 pm
I like anime naruto too
Comment by dachuza as — June 11, 2009 @ 5:26 am
I have downloaded both VLC and GOM. Can this affect my downloads? If so please clarify anyone out there. Thanks
Comment by shobhan — June 17, 2009 @ 8:53 am
hi
the newer versions of vlc support playing broken avis..it ll ask u whether to repair it or not while opening the files..
vlc can increase volume upto 400% and tats y i use it
vlc is simple and lite
vlc can play all file types which can be opened by gom and even more…
i bet u cannot deny this
VLC is the best
Comment by mokkaman — April 16, 2010 @ 11:56 pm
Ok since I used to use both VLC and GOM in my Windows machine back then. GOM was way better than VLC and the only concern I had when I switched to linux was that I couldn’t find a decent media player since I was hunged up with GOM. I have never been wrong, VLC kicks a$$ on linux, it never crushes and it’s fkn awsome in every way. GOM, you can go burn in hell from now on, no one (atleast on linux) would give a $#it about you!!!
Comment by shebaw — May 1, 2010 @ 10:53 am
First, I never really liked MPC, and now, with this incompatibility nonsense with Windows 7, it’s out of the market, at least until they come up with a solution. And the UI… well, even the simplistic VLC goes way out of the ordinary in comparison. That said, I’ve used GOM and VLC for years. No need to say they beat the hell out of WMP. But the people from GOMLab claim that GOM player has native support for everything, which is simply not true. Personally, I find it very annoying when I try to play some video (nothing fancy, just some AVI, MPEG or MP4) and GOM says I don’t have the proper codec and it needs to go and look for it. And install it! More clutter to the already third party software infested Windows. Yes, WINDOWS. Say what you will, Windows 7 is good. One can always find problems and faults, but for some reason Windows has prevailed over the years. Apple INVENTED the PC, for God’s sake, and fell immediately behind. Linux is supposed to be very good, but let’s face it: open source OS is only a source for compatibility issues. Makes you wonder. Anyway, back to the issue: GOM is good. Very good. But the codec nag is more than unnecessary. Native support should imply that I don’t need to download anything to make it work, and that’s where VLC comes in. The only defect I find in VLC is the tweaking of the innumerable options; while it’s very flexible, it’s actually kind of complicated, without a proper manual to explain all about them. Someone should make a manual for VLC, because it’s very complicated and annoying having to search all the forums about it just to get something adjusted that solves some simple issue that’s making you crazy. And, let’s face it, there’s a lot of rubbish in those forums. I would love to do it, but I just don’t have the time to make a full comprehensive manual. GOM wins the options race, being simple and easy to use. And the UI, of course, provided you use a decent skin. So, which one of the two? Hard to say. Both free, both good. Both different, and that’s the real problem. Why don’t they work together, merge the good and strip the bad out of them? All in all, VLC approaches the “one program” solution to playing media.
Comment by max — July 13, 2010 @ 7:58 am
Does GOM play Flac ?
er no
still good though
Comment by Ralf — August 7, 2010 @ 6:26 pm
GOM is so much better, and it has the stretch to fit option yet to show up in any other linux compatible players 😦 GOM is the only reason windows is still on my machine.
Comment by brunobliss — October 4, 2011 @ 1:48 pm