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VLC 's Beta For Android Is Ready — Unless You're North American

Posted by timothy on from the norteamericano-is-the-correct-term dept.

MrSeb writes "The VideoLAN Project has pushed a beta version of VLC for Android to the Google Play Store. The beta brings most of the functionality of VLC for Linux, Windows, and Mac OS X to Android in a native UI in the Android 4.0 Holo style. However, there are a few hitches. The beta release published to the Google Play Store today is only compatible with ARM systems that use the ARMv7 architecture set and support the NEON instruction set. That means that there are several devices — mostly those released before the Samsung Galaxy S in late 2010, and anything powered by Tegra 2 — that cannot run the current beta. Also, apparently due to a lack of North America-specific Android test devices, VLC for Android is currently not available from the US or Canadian Play Store. Both problems should be rectified soon, though." VLC is one of those impressive programs that just works with nearly any input thrown at it, and one of the first things I put on any computer. I hope the Android version retains pitch-controlled variable-speed playback, perhaps my favorite VLC feature, and something I miss on my tablet.

4 of 118 comments (clear)

  1. hmmmmm by nomadic · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Ahhh, VLC. The only free, open source software I've ever seen that was just as good as the hype.

  2. Re:What for by CanHasDIY · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Of course I could just transcode and avoid the whole VLC / hardware compatibility list whatever.

    You could, but why make all that extra work for yourself?

    1 - download media file to device
    2 - discover it doesn't play on the stock player (*.avi, for example)
    3 - copy file from device to computer
    4 - fire up transcoding software and wait 10 min - 1hour+ for completion
    5 - copy new transcoded file back to device
    6 - play file in stock player (maybe, assuming the transcoder didn't mess anything up, you had all the settings perfect, Venus is in alignment, etc.)

    --or--

    1 - download media file to device
    2 - play in VLC


    At least, that's how it's worked for me thus far, but of course, YMMV.

    --
    An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
  3. Re:Impressive progams? by chronoglass · · Score: 3, Insightful

    VLC is one of those impressive programs that just works with nearly any input thrown at it, [...].

    Or what we, in the Linux community, call "software"*. ^^

    * after all required dependancies are hunted down from the ends of the earth and/or compiled from source and installed.

  4. Re:tegra 2 by jedidiah · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Quicktime does a poor job of dealing with random audio and video formats and doesn't have a good package management system to back it up.

    That's why VLC is a very popular Mac download.

    It covers up both of those faults in MacOS or Windows.

    --
    A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.