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posted by janrinok on Friday March 14 2014, @10:59AM   Printer-friendly
from the Beta-with-significant-limitations dept.

wantkitteh writes:

"VLC, the popular Swiss Army knife of media players, took one step nearer to a Windows 8 Metro release after the beta was released on the Kickstarter project page. The version currently available is for x86 processors but an ARM compiled version is expected soon for Windows Phone compatibility. It seems to be merely a matter of time before VLC provides a common user interface, media sync route and (almost) universal file and codec support to (almost) every phone and tablet currently available.

The main article is here:

From Update #19:

Today, the first Beta of VLC for WinRT is getting deployed on the store. As many of you know, the road to come to this point has been long... Very long... I've been driving or helping some ports of VLC on mobile, but this port has been the hardest, by an order of magnitude. [...] This application [...] is compiled for Intel x86 CPUs: Windows RT version will follow as soon as we are able to compile it. The ARM version will also apply to Windows Phone."

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  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by dotdotdot on Friday March 14 2014, @11:10AM

    by dotdotdot (858) on Friday March 14 2014, @11:10AM (#16423)

    Finally I can watch MKVs on a Surface (RT) I got from work.

  • (Score: 2, Interesting) by n1 on Friday March 14 2014, @11:19AM

    by n1 (993) on Friday March 14 2014, @11:19AM (#16431)

    What Windows RT is, I like VLC but i've only heard of Windows RT. Is this important?

    • (Score: 2) by marcello_dl on Friday March 14 2014, @11:26AM

      by marcello_dl (2685) on Friday March 14 2014, @11:26AM (#16439)

      it is important as in: very few people are using windows RT right now, but at least porting programs from other platforms is... ahem... a rather lenghty process.

    • (Score: 5, Informative) by archshade on Friday March 14 2014, @11:32AM

      by archshade (3664) on Friday March 14 2014, @11:32AM (#16443)

      Windows RT is a cut down version of Windows 8 that runs on ARM. It supports Metro Apps but wont support most Windows applications (as it lacking lacking legacy x86 stuff). The MS Surface (not the MS Surface pro) is the most popular tablet running this OS, in fact I'm not sure there are any others.

      • (Score: 2) by Ethanol-fueled on Friday March 14 2014, @11:50AM

        by Ethanol-fueled (2792) on Friday March 14 2014, @11:50AM (#16462) Journal

        And to piggyback on your answer, I'd like to add that yes, to Americans, Windows RT is important.

        You may not know living in India or Australia, but you know in the U.S. because Microsoft commercials for the Surface tablet(and by extension Windows RT) are now shown only during NFL (National Football League) games alongside commercials for BIG TRUCKS and NACHOS and AMERICA FUCK YEAH narrated by gruff-voiced mens' men.

        So what they're trying to say is, buy a Surface and you'll grow hair on your balls and traditionally subservient women will throw themselves at you.

      • (Score: 1) by meisterister on Friday March 14 2014, @08:17PM

        by meisterister (949) on Friday March 14 2014, @08:17PM (#16701)

        Correct me if I'm wrong, but does that mean that of the five people who actually bought a Windows 8 RT tablet, around four or so have the Surface?

    • (Score: 5, Funny) by Koen on Friday March 14 2014, @11:44AM

      by Koen (427) on Friday March 14 2014, @11:44AM (#16459)

      What Windows RT is, I like VLC but i've only heard of Windows RT. Is this important?

      RT stands for RISC Technology, in which RISC stands for Reduced Instruction Set Computer.

      Windows RT is an Operating System for the IBM RT-PC [wikipedia.org], it is the main competitor to the Visi On Operating System [wikipedia.org] which was recently revived by Commodore [wikipedia.org].

      So, yes, it is extremely important.

      --
      /. refugees on Usenet: comp.misc [comp.misc]
      • (Score: 4, Funny) by wjwlsn on Friday March 14 2014, @11:56AM

        by wjwlsn (171) on Friday March 14 2014, @11:56AM (#16468) Homepage Journal

        I really love that this got modded "Informative". :)

        --
        I am a traveler of both time and space. Duh.
        • (Score: 3, Insightful) by bart9h on Friday March 14 2014, @01:02PM

          by bart9h (767) on Friday March 14 2014, @01:02PM (#16508)

          Well, it has links to Wikipedia...

    • (Score: 4, Interesting) by seandiggity on Friday March 14 2014, @12:01PM

      by seandiggity (639) on Friday March 14 2014, @12:01PM (#16471) Homepage

      Windows RT was the ARM build of Windows that failed spectacularly, for many reasons. IMO the biggest offense was that it denies Window users their "killer feature": Windows has a large library of apps specifically written for it on x86 and, by extension, AMD64. Not being able to run these apps on ARM was a dealbreaker for many, and Microsoft furthered the problem by locking down the OS extremely and making it difficult to install anything outside of the Windows Store.

      When I read the headline I first thought "Meh, who cares" but then I thought, "This may make it easier for the VLC team to provide builds for future Windows ARM incarnations." Maybe keeping a few users on that future OS will delay the M$ demise a fraction of a minute longer, though? ;)

      --
      Geeks like to think they can ignore politics, you can leave politics alone, but politics won't leave *you* alone. - rms
      • (Score: 1) by Baron Violent on Friday March 14 2014, @11:25PM

        by Baron Violent (3844) on Friday March 14 2014, @11:25PM (#16733)

        I never did understand why RT was released when it was and with the application library it had. I sometimes think they did it on purpose so it would fail - that way, they could just throw up their arms and say, "We tried, but nobody wanted it," and go back to focusing on Intel.

        But good to see the VLC team working with RT!

        • (Score: 1) by seandiggity on Monday March 17 2014, @11:53AM

          by seandiggity (639) on Monday March 17 2014, @11:53AM (#17668) Homepage

          Microsoft's "strategy" is a moving target, except when it comes to litigation and intimidation. A rational person might say that not having a good ARM build of Windows is suicide for the OS. An MS stockholder would likely agree.

          --
          Geeks like to think they can ignore politics, you can leave politics alone, but politics won't leave *you* alone. - rms
  • (Score: 2, Informative) by beckett on Friday March 14 2014, @11:26AM

    by beckett (1115) on Friday March 14 2014, @11:26AM (#16437)

    VLC for win 8.1 is a free download on the windows store, but VLC Play for Metro is 3.99. i could use both of these software on the same hardware. I use vlc almost exclusively for playback and streaming, but i don't understand why this new version costs besides recouping development expenses.

    • (Score: 3, Informative) by wantkitteh on Friday March 14 2014, @11:28AM

      by wantkitteh (3362) on Friday March 14 2014, @11:28AM (#16442)

      Sounds like a ringer, not an official VLC product.

      • (Score: 2) by dotdotdot on Friday March 14 2014, @11:46AM

        by dotdotdot (858) on Friday March 14 2014, @11:46AM (#16460)

        Exactly. The official VLC for Windows 8 is here [microsoft.com] and it's free, but it is not compatible with Windows RT. This new Beta version will work on RT and will also probably be ported to Windows Phone (also ARM).

        • (Score: 2) by everdred on Friday March 14 2014, @12:34PM

          by everdred (110) on Friday March 14 2014, @12:34PM (#16494) Homepage Journal

          > but it is not compatible with Windows RT

          Are you sure? The page reads "VLC for Windows 8 is an experimental port of VLC media player for the WinRT platform."

          --
          We don't take no shit from a machine.
          • (Score: 2) by dotdotdot on Friday March 14 2014, @01:05PM

            by dotdotdot (858) on Friday March 14 2014, @01:05PM (#16510)

            Yes. More information is here [jbkempf.com] on the developer's blog:

            This application is compiled for Intel x86 CPUs: Windows RT version will follow as soon as we are able to compile it. ARM version will also apply to Windows Phone.

  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 14 2014, @12:27PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 14 2014, @12:27PM (#16488)

    That VLC would flock to Kickstarter for something as meaningless as a "Metro" release of VLC is just deeply weird. First, because VLC has historically pissed on Windows-specific user requests. Second, because everyone hates Metro, and a Metro VLC interface isn't something anyone wanted or needed.

    And third, because there are other WAY more significant uses of their limited time and resources. The VLC Android port only VERY recently stopped being a crashing piece of garbage, and it is still missing vital features that have been in their other versions for a long time (notably podcast support).

    That said, VLC for Android is now actually pretty great, and I use it. But IT NEEDS SOME MORE LOVE from the developers.

    (The criticism applies at least equally to their wasting time on RT, which of course is essentially a dead product.)

    Is it a French thing?

  • (Score: 1) by ButchDeLoria on Friday March 14 2014, @03:12PM

    by ButchDeLoria (583) on Friday March 14 2014, @03:12PM (#16577)

    What about mpv on RT?