VLC (VideoLAN) 1.1.4

Rated 50/50 by morrigen at Oct 8, 2008

So it's not just me having a problem re-skinning,asked on sight but no real joy,as following correct instructions,do not no if it's a XP3 thing?

Rated 50/50 by anomoly at Oct 8, 2008

K-lite's pack just crashes my pc lately so I've been running mpc hc which is portable. No matter what I did (almost 45 minutes later) I could not get mpc hc to show subs. The probs I have had before with vlc are gone and it displayed the subs perfectly. VLC is back to being #1 which is a good thing. Trying to skin it crashes vlc however. If you switch to a skin which does not work, vlc crashes irretrievably & must be reinstalled. Switching to one that does work & then to one that doesn't will not crash it. List of ones that do not display on my pc: ASkin Colibri_1.0 Dark default_ebony DefaultRemix D-GFX_Dark_Skin iPod MySimpleSkin Presume psvlc shiftieVLC SimplyWhite solar truc-2 vlctch vplayer WB WMP11 XPSP3 with SharpeE shell. The only skin which has controls in FS is the default so I will use none. Some of the skins use other languages which seems to be another reason not to skin it.

Rated 50/50 by improvelence at Oct 8, 2008

Simply the best.

Rated 50/50 by lucianct at Nov 10, 2008

yeah it seems that on windows v0.9.6 crashes when opening flv files... they will probably release a fix for that soon...

Rated 30/50 by pihug12 at Nov 10, 2008

VLC Media Player 0.9.6 crashes when opening FLV files. VLC Media Plater 0.9.4 is fine. Can you confirmed ?

Rated 50/50 by anonymouscowturd at Nov 10, 2008

Love it. It's the only player that seems to open all the DVD's that i rip. Apart from SM Player that uses the Mplayer backend i can't think of another similar program that comes even close.

Rated 50/50 by Paul Skinner at Nov 10, 2008

Hooray for bug-fixes!

Rated 50/50 by jcollake at Nov 11, 2008

Great open-source media player and more. It simply has more features than any other media player, and has convenient integrated CODECs. However, some things on the UI design side could be improved. This version moves in that direction.

Rated 50/50 by shelb at Nov 21, 2008

Nice program, but be aware it is illegal to use in the United States and several other countries. It is able to decode many types of encoding that are covered by patents without paying the licensing fees. If you are using XP, all free DVD playback programs are illegal in the US. Vista includes the DVD codecs, so some free DVD programs are legal on Vista (the ones that use the Vista codec and don't include their own codec.) On XP, for MP3 playback, the fees for unlimited distribution are lower, so a few of the free programs are legal. Itunes has paid the fee and is legal to use for MP3 playback. Winamp has also paid the fee. Again, Vista includes the MP3 encoding and decoding codec, so any program on Vista that uses the Vista codec and does not include its own codec is legal.

Rated 30/50 by pohlman at Nov 29, 2008

VLD has always been reliable for me, though plain and clunky, but this version (0.9.6) stumbles over half of what I've thrown at it. Since I only keep it around for playing things the others (primarily Zoom Player) have trouble with, this is a definite move in the wrong direction. I trust the next version will correct this, though.

Rated 40/50 by Aegis69 at Dec 1, 2008

Good video player, not so hot as an overall 'media' player especially when it comes to MP3's The interface is clunky and feels heavy, skins do not work well or crash the program to the point where running it in safe mode is the only way to get back to default. Its got a lot of potential to be the de-facto open source media player, but for speed and light interface Media Player Classic in k-lite is the way to go for video, and AIMP is still the best way to go for MP3's

Rated 50/50 by gehtnix at Dec 1, 2008

It just rules. Nothing more to say, a great player that beats most payware players.

Rated 30/50 by ubermann at Dec 1, 2008

Yes beware of the cops when they knock on your door and take you to the station because you played an movie with an illegal codec or whatever. Be VERY afraid of that *shaking*

Rated 40/50 by photonboy at Dec 8, 2008

CowgaR, Which one is better depends a lot on hardware and how you use it. You may be very interested to know that the version of MPC you mention is now capable of using NVidia and ATI hardware decoders if you have them. For example, my "mplayerc" CPU usage went from 44% average to only 2%. Yes, only TWO PERCENT when watching a 1080p BluRay video that I of course ripped from my own BluRay disc. (my total CPU usage was 5%. Use CTRL-ALT-DEL then "processes" to see if "mplayerc.exe" has low CPU usage.) Recommended steps: 1. Uninstall any previous codecs or codec packs 2. *Install K-Lite 4.3.4 Standard 3. Download the newest MPC HomeCinema (currently 1.2.198.0) then overwrite the one in the K-Lite folder (C:/Program Files/K-Lite... ") 4. Change at least 3 settings under "View->Options": a) Output->"EVR" (for Vista; probably "default" or "overlay mixer" for XP) b) Internal Filters-> check H264/AVC (DXVA) c) Internal Filters-> check VC1 (DXVA) 5. Start a high-def video (i.e. AVC/AC3/MKV @ 1280x720) with MPC Home Classic (drag and drop or preferably it's just associated so double-click the movie) 6. Open Task Manager (CTRL-ALT-DEL) and look under "processes" for "mplayerc.exe"; if everything works you it should be 2% or 3% for an AMD X24800+. Even an Atom CPU should handle this. This should hopefully work fine. Over 90% of my High-Def rips worked perfectly and the ones that didn't just used the CPU and still played perfectly (just slightly more fan noise). *regarding K-Lite. Other packs may work fine. If running 64-bit be sure to get a codec pack specifically for it.

Rated 40/50 by munga42 at Dec 8, 2008

interesting preview, needs some bugs fixed though

Rated 40/50 by cowgaR at Dec 8, 2008

edit: photonboy: thanks bro for the info, but you should probably watch performance tab as well because some CPU usage probably went from MPC to other processes (?decoders) so you may end up with the same total CPU usage (or slightly lower). But why do I need a codec pack? I have NVidia video card (sadly 8x generation only) so I am using NVidia DVD decoder. And I thought mpc as well as VLC have their own set of codecs inside of them. I am not a fan of codec packs and installing them in my system when not needed. ---------------------- Hi folks, is it better player than Media Player Classic - Home Cinema 1.2.908.0? Does it have better codecs? In the end we all use commercial DVD decoders (or nVidia's one) but what about other video files? Which one of those is more reliable, faster, supported? I am using Vista Ultimate.

Rated 10/50 by tannenwheel at Dec 15, 2008

arrrrgh. at first i thought it had improved since my last try a year ago. but after 5 minutes that familiar pain was back. worst interface ever.

Rated 20/50 by elopez17 at Jan 3, 2009

Thanks CowgaR I follow your advise and now my system work perfect, thanks again

Rated 30/50 by roj at May 12, 2009

Tried this and honestly do not know what all the fuss is about. It's a pain in the a** to configure - Media Player Classic Homecinema is load and go and get the job done with remote control capabilities. This thing needs to be tweaked and in this day and age, there's no necessity for that. I don't use codec packs - they're garbage that clutter your system with the ridiculous scattershot approach - and use three codecs: XviD, Divx, Quicktime Alternative which is all most people really need anyway. It's even configured as my default player with the remote that comes with my Logitech Z-Cinemas. This thing? Meh - more trouble than it's worth. THREE stars

Rated 30/50 by anomoly at May 15, 2009

It will not use DXVA like MPC out of the box so can't play mkv's without stuttering, and I'm not sure if it even can use dxva. But, at least it handles subs better wih avi's (which it does play correctly) AND it doesn't overlay the audio info of the avi file while playing like that dumba** mpc does. Gui actually crashes on exiting from an mkv file. MPC home cinema for mkv's (no audio info overlay nonsense tg), and the avi's I use a usb fat32 flash/hd to my dvd player to tv amd @2.33 ati hd2400 pro -> 22" 2ms lcd gig ram on xp sp3