Too bad most of my devices can't run VLC :')

You can't run vlc? What kind of devices do you have?

Could be a barebones TV with a usb port? Some do have media players
A VCR and 26" CRT, why?
- This is the way.
Lol ikr.

Stupid fridge 😠
I legitimately wouldn't be surprised if someone has ported VLC to smart refrigerators.
- IIRC smart fridges usually use some fork of Android, it's probably doable on some smart fridges very easily
- Some smart fridges run android right? VLC has an android apk
Downloading now... I can't wait to watch Avatar 2 on my GE ColdBox 3000!
Could be a tv with a usb port and bare bones media player, pretty sure in that case you could download with vlc and then convert them before transfer
Running VLV on Chromecast with Google TV sometimes gives you issues with audio codecs if you want audio output through Bluetooth. Not sure whether this is OP's problem but it happens.

What devices can't run VLC? thought it was one of those things that even run on a toaster

Some operating systems are restrictive about what APIs they give to applications.
VLC on xbox is so horrible, it doesn't deserve the VLC name, for an example.

Is it because it's a work device ? Because except if you're not the admin of your machine, VLC will run on any potato.

And even if you can't install it on a locked-down device, there's a portable version, too. Install on any removable media (from another machine, to be fair) and it will run from USB without installation.
- So should I run it directly on the potato or run the portable version from a thumb drive inserted into the potato?
We have VLC installed by default on company computers.

Try mpv then ;-)

MPV deserves its own community. It's the only player on windows that can handle DV content. Though the default offering is very minimal and difficult to use. There are some awesome gui projects though
- At least on android TV, the latest release candidate for Kodi also finally properly supports DV. So I would expect the same thing to be the case for the windows version
mpv can render video everywhere, even inside a fucking text terminal! Use --vo=tct argument to render the video into text art. Heck, if you're using Xorg it can even render into another app window!
https://github.com/mpv-player/mpv/blob/master/DOCS/man/vo.rst
I love this player, wish it was more popular. They should make the installation a bit simpler on Windows, it's a bit weird compared to most programs people download
(which is far superior to vlc in graphical fidelity out-of-the-box)

Selfhosting an *arr stack with Plex/Jellyfin is the way.
There's also Tdarr for automatic transcoding of videos right after they get downloaded, haven't tried it yet so can't comment.

Took me years to finally get around to it and it's phenomenal.
- I just did it today! Not done with it, but seems nice so far

Codec inconsistency? Try resolution inconsistency. I keep finding some that have a weird mixture of 720p and 1080p resolutions. Drives me insane.

I hope this is sarcasm.

Did you try to install ffmpeg and run: „ffmpeg -i someFile.fileextension -c:a libmp3lame -c:v libx264 -f mp4 outFile.mp4“ to repair the file. Then you should be able to play it on every device. On windows you can install ffmpeg with winget and on linux for example with apt or on macos with brew.

Which device doesn't run VLC?

My car stereo can run VLC... I don't know what OP is getting at
- I have one of those ornate Victrola turntables. It runs VLC.

I trying to think which devices can't run VLC and all I've come up with are a pager and a Blackberry. Does anyone have any idea what he's talking about?

presumably a toaster from the potato age
Nintendo 3DS

Codec inconsistency is annoying yeah. You need a better tracker

I'd look into buying a cheap Firesticks you can jailbreak if nothing else.