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Windows Media Open Source Software

VLC Finally Launches App For Windows 8 170

Posted by timothy from the happy-ending-forever dept.
SmartAboutThings writes "After a long journey of more than one year, which included even a successfully ended Kickstarter campaign, the VLC app for Windows 8 is officially here. VLC for Windows 8 is currently in beta, and it lacks some important features, such as the ability to open music files or support for Windows RT devices. On the good side, VLC for Windows 8 supports the same codecs as the VLC application for desktop, from MPEG-1 to H.265, through WMV3 and VC-1; it also supports multiple-audio tracks selection, embedded subtitles, background audio playback, Live Tiles, removable storage and DLNA servers."
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VLC Finally Launches App For Windows 8 More

VLC Finally Launches App For Windows 8

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  • Apps (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Tmackiller ( 959837 ) on Thursday March 13, 2014 @06:03PM (#46478405) Homepage
    Does anyone NOT using a touchscreen device use apps on windows 8? I've been running VLC for Windows since I got Win8, just after it came out and had no problems with it as a traditional program, in fact it's the only media player I use for video. Isn't this a waste of developer's time? Why won't microsoft give up on apps and tiles? 8 isn't THAT bad without them...

    • Re:Apps (Score:5, Insightful)

      by SuricouRaven ( 1897204 ) on Thursday March 13, 2014 @06:06PM (#46478439)

      Because apps and tiles are a vital part of their strategy. They are putting out these features everyone hates right now,because doing so establishes them as something in Microsoft's long-term interest. They've seen how profitable an app store can be, and how it can be used to promote other services like media sales. They want in on that game, and a consistant cross-platform interface may be a vital advantage in their desperate but unsuccessful struggle to become a serious player in the mobile space.

      • They may want to take a market share in mobile devices, but do you see MacOSX putting Tiles and Apps on their desktop devices? No. Marketing Department sshould be fired.

        • Re:Apps (Score:5, Insightful)

          by MightyMartian ( 840721 ) on Thursday March 13, 2014 @06:28PM (#46478621) Journal

          No one said Microsoft actually knew how to gain market share. The old tools of threatening OEMs with a fate worse than death don't work any more, so Redmond is a bit of a fish out of water.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by dbIII ( 701233 )

            The old tools of threatening OEMs with a fate worse than death don't work any more,

            It looks very much like that's what happened to ASUS yet again recently. Their "transformer" tablets now run that Win8 shit despite them (anecdotally) selling more slowly with that than the android ones did.

            • Transformers are actually exactly the device category where Win8 makes sense - the original concept was severely hampered by the limitations of Android itself, and apps for it, running on a device with full-fledged keyboard and mouse/trackpad, whereas Win8 is designed for that as much as a touchscreen.

              • While I agree with you in theory, this is not the case - mainly because Win8 "apps" suck. The only really usable app is (ironically) Internet Explorer... for non-work stuff (I use my Win8 tablet for things like note-taking with the digitizer and OneNote), I'd take Android any day. The apps are just better through and through :(

          • That method still works. That's how they managed to get Secure Boot widely deployed practically overnight. They just had to decree that only computers with SB capability enabled may be sold with the cheap OEM edition of Windows, and OEMs start falling over each other in their rush to meet the demand.

            • It might work for PCs, but as we can see, the whole thing has failed for RT. The market share is so infinitesimal that even giving it away with methods to say, install it on Nexus 7, probably are doomed to failure.

        • Re: (Score:3)

          by Mashiki ( 184564 )

          but do you see MacOSX putting Tiles and Apps on their desktop devices?

          That's because the marketing dept., hasn't figured out how to spin it as the next new hot thing. Like round corners.

        • No tiles, yet, but the Mac App Store was introduced a few years ago.

      • You're telling the truth with all seriousness and yet you are modded as Funny...

      • Y'know, like those desktop sidebar widgets in Vista...oh wait, they killed those. I mean, like the new pseudo-Awesomebar hover functionality in 7 (I've forgotten what the hell marketing term they gave to it)...oh wait, they killed that, too (or at least superceded it from the sounds of things).

        But I'm sure Windows 8 apps are going to stick around! It'll be different this time, we swear!

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by vux984 ( 928602 )

      Does anyone NOT using a touchscreen device use apps on windows 8?

      Yes. It is pretty good on a home theatre PC. The start screen is infinitely better from the couch then the old start menu, and the apps (like netflix, and the video player are easier to operate as well - both to see the controls, and to operate)

      I've been looking forward to VLC for a while. As the included video player app displays ads in some circumstances and I find it offensive.

      I'd also really like a good free open source file browser app.

      • A file browser likely can't be done, since apps are sandboxed.

    • yea i just serviced a windows 8 box that was infected. i go to the control panel wtf no real settings. i go to metro can find a setting tiles or even a app tile there hidden in the next window but ok. i finely figure out i had to hover the left side to get the settings

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Bozzio ( 183974 )

        Finely, a reasonable criticism of Windows 8.

        • Too bad that this one is actually made up (since control panel didn't change in any significant way since Win7).

          • wrong. to access the system restore/factory reset i had to do it from metro in the hidden right bar i did goof and said left.

            • That's because it's a new option that was not available in Win7.

              • bs any factory installed pc its either a hot key at the bios or a app all the way back to xp. windows 8 bury's these settings witch was annoying as hell being the thing was loaded with mailware locking up and being otherwise unstable. 8.1 did unhide these setting a bit with the shift key and power down button but this box was not updated. the os is garbage and if your hear even attempting to argue it you don't run it or just really fail at computers.
        • yea seems the other just wanna troll i didn't like the ui.

    • Because the whole point of writing VLC for Windows 8 was so they could port libvlc to Windows 8, which means that it can potentially run on Windows Phone and Windows RT without modification. They haven't done a phone app yet, but this release can run on Windows RT as well.

      Also, it's open source. So others can leverage the work they did for media playback on Windows Store apps.

      • This release cannot run on Windows RT, it says so right in the summary, and on the Windows App store, it says it only supports x86 and x86-64. Having it work on RT would require their codecs to work on ARM processors. Since they do have a version for Android, this probably shouldn't be too difficult, but the current release does not run on RT.
    • They're bothering because it got kickstarted, so they kind of have to follow through, and more importantly, people want it on Windows RT so they can play ripped movies on their tablet since it doesn't have a DVD/BluRay drive.
      • You can already play videos on your Windows RT tablet (such as the Surface) using the included video player. It supports x264 which is probable the most widely used format. I'm not sure if it supports MKV, but there are other apps that already support that. VLC is actually quite late to the game. They should have had something a long time ago. People who have a Windows RT tablet already have lots of options for playing videos.

    • Games mostly but the news reader is good too. Games are obvious because they should be full screen anyway. The metro mail app is also good. And I often have the twitter app snapped to one side while in desktop mode. And same goes for hulu.
      So yeah, people do.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by MobyDisk ( 75490 )

      I honestly tried. I even got an old touch screen as a second monitor so I could try to use the start menu on it. I always try to drink the latest cool-aid. But the OS was unusable, so over the course of a few weeks I changed it to boot to desktop, and re-associated all file extensions to the desktop apps, one by one. Ultimately, the problem is the Metro apps simply don't have the features that the desktop apps have.

  • I wish they chose a different name (Score:3)

    by s.petry ( 762400 ) on Thursday March 13, 2014 @06:08PM (#46478461)

    Shows my age, but every time I see this acronym I see "VCL". [wikipedia.org] and not VLC.

  • Just like the Windows 7/Vista version, VLC will again prove itself the most useless media player available by still not having V-Sync.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by ichthus ( 72442 )
      And yet, somehow, it still works great for millions of users.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Zedrick ( 764028 )
      What's V-Sync and how is VLC useless if everything I play in it looks great?

  • Comment removed (Score:3, Insightful)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Thursday March 13, 2014 @06:10PM (#46478485)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion

    • I understand the need to recoup some funds for developing this, but..

      To add to your but, I give you:

      But...
      https://www.kickstarter.com/pr... [kickstarter.com]

      why bother when the desktop version is free?
      What does the metro version really get you?

      I asked that question elsewhere, and the response I got was - after I explicitly said people shouldn't start talking about 'touch interface', considering you can slap a touch interface on a desktop app just fine and you would never be able to tell - 'touch interface'.

      Aside from that,

      • Porting to RT (ARM) is ongoing. The problem is that GCC doesn't know how to target Win32-THUMB2, and VLC doesn't compile under MSVC yet. They're looking at solving both of those problems, and will go with whichever one bears fruit sooner.

        Personally, I hope for the former. GCC being able to target RT would allow us (the users of jailbroken RT devices, which are basically low-power Windows laptop/tablet things with great battery life but you have to re-compile native apps) to port a bunch more open-source sof

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Arker ( 91948 )
        There's simply no reason to use Metro, period.

        The fact that someone actually went through the trouble to to produce this monstrosity is mind-boggling. But I guess it's their time and money so it's their decision.

        • There's simply no reason to use Metro, period.

          "Simply no reason" is strong words. On an x86-64 PC that comes with Windows 8 or 8.1, you need to use Metro to A. create or modify user accounts, or B. switch to the desktop to download and install Classic Shell. But that's about it.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by Arker ( 91948 )
            Yeah, someone beat me to it, but anytime I see Metro I use a keyboard shortcut and I get back to work.

            I suppose I actually do use it in a sense though - as that is where windows search has gone. But again I am hardly using that unusable excuse for an interface, it's just win-foobar on the keyboard and go.

            I still find it funny that in 2014 Microsoft has now decided to sell an OS that is only usable from the keyboard, but it doesnt slow me down at all.
            • That is also because the graphical interface is so clunky to use that people simply resort to using the keyboard.

    • Re:Costs money (Score:5, Funny)

      by ichthus ( 72442 ) on Thursday March 13, 2014 @06:23PM (#46478585) Homepage

      Do RT users really matter?

      I'm sure both of them would say, "Yes!"

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by vux984 ( 928602 )

      In the world of Metro, I can get the same app for $3.99

      http://apps.microsoft.com/wind... [microsoft.com]

      Says its free? Is there a plan to charge 3.99 at some point? I'm confused.

      • Comment removed based on user account deletion

      • Odd. It says "for the WinRT platform" but also says supported processors are "x86, x64".

        • "WinRT" != "Windows RT". This is even discussed in the linked article (yeah, yeah).

          Microsoft's branding people should be lined up along a wall, beaten with baseball bats, shot, and then pitched out a fifth-story window onto rusted spikes. OK, maybe that's excessive. There's no need to waste the bullets.

          WinRT is an API set, intended for use with "Windows Store apps" (a.k.a. "Metro" or "Modern" apps). It is intended to be sandbox-friendly (for example, having functions to let the user pick a file via a truste

    • Even if it were free, you'd still be required to get a Microsoft ID to download the free app.
      I used to bitch about this, but now suddenly this is the case in OS X Mavericks also (the "optional" apple id is required to get the free xcode command line tools), so evil is everywhere. Up next I predict a Linux ID ("totally free, trust us, I don't know why you paranoid people aren't signing up with your personal information!").

    • Re:Costs money (Score:5, Informative)

      by ljw1004 ( 764174 ) on Thursday March 13, 2014 @07:51PM (#46479137)

      ??? VLC on win8 is free! At least, it was free when I downloaded it an hour ago.

      There were a load of FALSE vlc apps on the store for $3.49 and $3.99, with similar branding, trying to scam money. Did you get suckered by one of these?

    • On my Windows 8.1 desktop, I can get VLC for free
      In the world of Metro, I can get the same app for $3.99

      I went out and successfully installed the free VLC Modern app through the Windows store while trying to make sense of your post.

    • Do RT users matter? Everything is going to mobile and tablets, so yea, it does matter if you're in the business/hobby of making apps for people to use.

      I have an iPad, would swap it for a Windows tablet without a second thought. But I would like the assurance that I could play any format I wanted to, which I'd get from VLC. Historically, appliances and tablets (PS, Xbox, iPad, iPod) will either limit your format options, or not stay up to date on new ones. So having VLC there is great, I think.

  • What about 3D screen support for VLC? I haven't been able to get that working. I am using Windows 8.1 and NVIDIA with a shutter style glasses and 120MHz screen.

  • Is it possible to run windows 7 apps on windows 8 ? ..Is there an easy means to click on a file and tell it to install it as if it was running on windows 7? I have been a long-time windows user, and like the overall user experience and graphics, but it does give me pause about much easier it is to run old programs in Linux. It's been my experience that you can get programs going from 10+ years ago because you have the source you can build from.. I maintain many old boxes for software/hardware compatibility

    • Is it possible to run windows 7 apps on windows 8 ?

      Yes, so long as it's not ARM (and hence running Windows RT).

      .Is there an easy means to click on a file and tell it to install it as if it was running on windows 7?

      Yes, but only for desktop apps. It doesn't work for the new-style Store apps - the latter can only be installed from the Store (though there are some options for sideloading if you get a free-but-registration-required developer license).

      . I installed a virtual machine in windows 7, only to find that my video card didn't have an XP driver other than the default windows one

      This doesn't make sense. Your physical video card is not exposed directly to the VM, the VM gets some sort of emulated one, the performance of which depends on which VM software you are using.

      I really like the people at Good Old Games that figured out a way to make a large selection games run on a modern

      Most of GOG stuff is j

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