I use Clapper to play files that are embedded in websites (in Giara, the Reddit client most of the time), and VLC for anything else (although VLC will happily play embedded video’s too).
At first I tried playing video files off of my sd-card with Clapper, but that did not work for one reason or another.
I do not recall having to install any plugins to make things work.
Only exception to all this: DRM content. That does not play in either (any) app.