Official VLC for Android

[Pong20302000]

https://play.google.....vlc.betav7neon


VLC is a free and open source cross-platform multimedia player that plays most multimedia files as well as discs, devices, and network streaming protocols.
This is a BETA version of the port to the Android™ platform. It is intended for power users and hackers. This version is NOT stable and is slower than the final version.
It might kill your kitten, destroy your house and start the mayan apocalypse.
Use it at your own risk. Have Fun!
NOTA BENE
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This version is ONLY for devices with a CPU ARMv7 that will support NEON. Other devices will be supported by other applications, very soon.
Features
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VLC for Android™ plays most local video and audio files, as well as network streams, like the desktop version of VLC.
VLC for Android has a media library for audio and video files, and allows to browse folders directly.
VLC has support for multi-track audio and subtitles. It supports auto-rotation, aspect-ratio adjustements and gestures to control volume.
It also includes a widget for audio control, supports audio headsets control, covert art and a complete audio media library.
Missing Features
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As this is an early BETA version, a lot of things are not finished, but will change for the final release:
• The basic User Interface will change;
• Performance improvements are missing;
• Some audio issues might occur;
• Hardware decoding works only with a limited set of hardware;
• Other unknown issues.
Permissions
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• It needs hardware control, in order to change the audio volume;
• It needs phone calls control, in order to pause the music when someone is calling;
• It needs full Internet access to open network streams;
• It needs to be able to read logs, during the beta version, to understand the issues;
• It needs to get access to the SD card storage, in order to allow deletion of files.

 

[Lastly]

Good news, but old news.

 

[Bladexdsl]

also shouldnt this be in Mobile Phones and Media Players

 

[Pong20302000]

Good news, but old news.

this is the official one only released a few hours ago

how is this old?

its not the dodgy alpha releases that have been floating around

 

[heartgold]

Cool, will give it a go.

 

[Lastly]

Good news, but old news.

this is the official one only released a few hours ago

how is this old?

its not the dodgy alpha releases that have been floating around

My mistake. Guess I wasn't looking closely enough.

 

[FAST6191]

A mobile phone with a decent halfway capable media player might exist* in the near future?

*I love mplayer too but ehh as far as what I have seen on android...

Should one appear that might be able to run big boy toys in a relatively unrestricted manner (I can at least see it happening now) and some decent ouputs I might even consider getting a phone. Should a phone size device with all that and with just wifi appear stuff might actually happen.

 

[mameks]

I'll only care when it lets me play 10bit videos

 

[Flame]

VLC >>>>>>>>>>


haters gonna hate.

 

[Gahars]

VLC is an all around great program, and to see it come to Android like this is welcome news.

No joke, I'm just happy.

 

[Guild McCommunist]

As long as it supports the same wide file variety as the original VLC, I'll be pleased.

I always use VLC because I haven't found a video file it won't run. If I ever buy another tablet that's Android-based, it'll be good to have the same compatibility on a mobile device.

 

[Satangel]

Let's hope it develops fast and reaches public releases, I could use another videoplayer on my Galaxy S. I must admit the stock Android video player is very impressive though, it handles 720p videos very well.

 

[IBNobody]

I wonder if this will be gimped like I've heard that the iOS version is.

I love VLC for Windows. The best feature is the ability to play partial AVI's, which lets you watch them while you download. I wonder if this will work on the Android app.

 

[raulpica]

I still wonder why people even care about videoplayers like VLC for Android nowadays. Hardware Decoding it's pretty much the only way to properly watch things on a mobile device, and I'm sure that VLC doesn't support that (boo!) while more solid players like MX Player have been doing that since ages.

Seriously, it's like most people will use it only for brand recognization - which in turn should be the worst advertising method possible for them, knowing that VLC is one of the crappiest mediaplayers ever for PC. The irony is that a lot people just love to think that VLC is a good player, and that's why it's still around!

 

[VashTS]

i agree raulpica, but mxplayer crashes on me for no reason. older version work great, but i use my tab to play videos for my son in the car. most of the time mx player will play the video then just stop for no apparent reason.

i wish mx player worked as it is the best, but i need other options and vlc is pretty robust. glad to hear i have another option thanks for the news.

 

[Deleted User]

K

 

[ProtoKun7]

I wonder if this will be gimped like I've heard that the iOS version is.

I doubt it, if you're talking about what I think you are. Apple is way too closed for something like VLC to have full functionality.

knowing that VLC is one of the crappiest mediaplayers ever for PC.

ಠ_ಠ

 

[Rydian]

I still wonder why people even care about videoplayers like VLC for Android nowadays. Hardware Decoding it's pretty much the only way to properly watch things on a mobile device, and I'm sure that VLC doesn't support that (boo!) while more solid players like MX Player have been doing that since ages.

Seriously, it's like most people will use it only for brand recognization - which in turn should be the worst advertising method possible for them, knowing that VLC is one of the crappiest mediaplayers ever for PC. The irony is that a lot people just love to think that VLC is a good player, and that's why it's still around!

Er, the first post says hardware decoding is already partially-implemented.

Format support is one of the top reasons people use VLC. On a nandroid device you can't just install codec packs and be away with the problem, and like FAST posted even though MPC can be ported, MPC is nothing without the decoders to actually play the files (and android is currently limited to ports of FFMPEG for format support in "homebrew").

I mean this news is like the news of IE9 coming to the 360. Yes it's not as good as firefox on the PC, but you can't run firefox on the 360 anyways so be happy it's coming.

 

[raulpica]

I still wonder why people even care about videoplayers like VLC for Android nowadays. Hardware Decoding it's pretty much the only way to properly watch things on a mobile device, and I'm sure that VLC doesn't support that (boo!) while more solid players like MX Player have been doing that since ages.

Seriously, it's like most people will use it only for brand recognization - which in turn should be the worst advertising method possible for them, knowing that VLC is one of the crappiest mediaplayers ever for PC. The irony is that a lot people just love to think that VLC is a good player, and that's why it's still around!

Er, the first post says hardware decoding is already partially-implemented.

Format support is one of the top reasons people use VLC. On a nandroid device you can't just install codec packs and be away with the problem, and like FAST posted even though MPC can be ported, MPC is nothing without the decoders to actually play the files (and android is currently limited to ports of FFMPEG for format support in "homebrew").

I mean this news is like the news of IE9 coming to the 360. Yes it's not as good as firefox on the PC, but you can't run firefox on the 360 anyways so be happy it's coming.

Keyword: partially.

Heck, even my crappy Amlogic internal HW Player on Android reads every format out there. I repeat, the point of VLC on Android is moot - it's just another player on the block. There are a crap-ton of other players out there that can decode everything perfectly supporting every HW out there.

While it's a nice thing, it's not ground-breaking news, nor people should rejoice for it, especially if it has the same fantastic (irony tag) quality the x86 counterpart has.

 

[Rydian]

There are a crap-ton of other players out there that can decode everything perfectly supporting every HW out there.

No, no there are not.

"All the formats I get pirated stuff in and convert stuff to" may be what you mean when you say "all formats", but that's not the same as "all formats".

There's always cases like video files with out-of-bounds settings (MP3s with bitrates too high, video files in AVI containers with resolutions not divisible by 16, etc.) video/audio formats shoved into containers they shouldn't be shoved into (h.264 inside AVI, flash video format inside of MOV), video/audio formats that aren't supported at all (many tracker formats come to mind but also codecs like Sorensen, Camstudio's codec, Lagarith, RMVB), and then there's the whole realm of "this video file is corrupted but most players ignore the corrupted parts or auto-fix them" (the most commonly-seen being AVI files without a valid header which won't seek properly) where files may play just fine on a computer but will fuck up on any less-capable devices (like the PSP and android devices)

I had to try a variety of media players on android before I found one that would play the standards-compliant video files from my camera, so no way in hell can anybody say there's a player on android that plays everything considering the incredible variety of formats in use out there.

EDIT: And befor "well those are extremely rare cases and you're unlikely to find them", yes they are rare which is why they're not normally seen as an issue, but they do happen (for example my collection of the first FMA anime series was in RMVB) and when cases like that happen it'd be nice to not have to convert an entire series because of something like that. Support for these rarer (or oftentimes newer) formats is quite welcome on android devices, even if VLC will just be the secondary player only brought out when needed.