I used VLC until I looked for a backward frame step functionality. I then found this thread on the VLC forums where the maintainers explain (with bad attitude) why this functionality is technically impossible. Everyone points out that mpv supports it, but the maintainers double down and say they’re Doing It Wrong and it shouldn’t be possible.
On Windows at least VLC has had better alternatives for the past 20 years, both feature and UI wise. I had frame-stepping hotkeys back in the mid-00s with Korean video players. These days I use the currently maintained fork of MPC-HC which similarly has this.
On Mac it wasn't until the mid-10s that I found a decent player.
“I, like others, arrived here through a Google search looking for this feature. Reading this thread is one of the worst decisions I've made recently. I will never have this time back and I am worse for it.”
So anyways, I switched to mpv.
https://forum.videolan.org/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=120627