VLC Media Player for Windows 8 is a go

Martin Brinkmann
Dec 24, 2012
Apps, Software
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If you are using Windows 8 on a desktop PC or laptop, or not at all, then you may not be that excited to hear that the VLC Media Player campaign on Kickstarter reached its funding goal of £40,000 five days before campaign end. What this means is that Videolan developers will produce a version of the popular media player for Windows 8 that will be available in the system's Windows Store. Why is that not exciting for desktop users? Because they can install VLC Media Player anyway. Users who cannot on the other hand, which means Windows RT users, for instance people who bought the Surface RT from Microsoft, benefit from this as they get their hands on a media player that will improve the overall experience of the system.

vlc media player windows 8

Windows RT users will benefit from additional format support including DVD, VCD and unencrypted Blu-Ray disc playback, something that the operating system does not support by default. While most RT devices come without disc drivers, you can still connect an external DVD or Blu-Ray drive to the system, and if you do that, you may also want options to play media on the system.

Next question. Why are people still donating even if the project goal has been reached? Answer: because the developers will use the money to add features to the client that were not planned initially. Here is the list of features that may make their way into the application (the team calls them proposals):

  • Camera input support to record anything your connected camera sees and live stream the picture as well
  • DLNA client and server integration to play media stored on servers and stream media to devices that support DLNA
  • Smartglass support
  • Support for locally attached devices for media playback and synchronziation

Additional funding furthermore will speed up the development process so that the final application will be available sooner rather than later. Here is a mockup that VLC posted a while ago on the Kickstarter page.

vlc windows 8

While Windows 8 and Windows 8 Pro users may prefer the desktop version of VLC most of the time, it may sometimes makes sense to use the app instead as it may provide better fullscreen access or an easier to use interface that users of all experience levels can work with.

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Comments

  1. DanTe said on December 24, 2012 at 8:35 pm
    Reply

    The post to Softpedia looks like it goes through. But it never appears. And I noticed that there are rarely any comments showing on Softpedia. It’s as if they have turned it off and only those in the know gets posts through.

    If you managed a post, I would like to know. Than I might trust Softpedia enough to download stuff from them. Right now, it smells…

    1. Martin Brinkmann said on December 24, 2012 at 8:43 pm
      Reply

      I never bothered to comment on the site so no, I did not try to leave a comment.

  2. DanTe said on December 24, 2012 at 6:35 pm
    Reply

    This is totally off topic. But I noticed the same article in Softpedia and it reminded me of their version of software Give-Aways.

    They say leave a comment to qualify for a chance to get free software. But I have yet to see how anyone can leave a comment on Softpedia. So what do they do? Give-Away to friends and family only?

    Just curious. Anyone managed to leave a comment on Softpedia?

    1. Martin Brinkmann said on December 24, 2012 at 8:26 pm
      Reply

      Dante, is not the post your comment option not working that is displayed beneath the article?

  3. Anonymous said on December 24, 2012 at 1:48 pm
    Reply

    Merry Christmas to you all! And a Happy New 2012!!;)

    1. Martin Brinkmann said on December 24, 2012 at 1:59 pm
      Reply

      To you too, whoever you are ;)

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