Author Topic: The New (And Improved?) VLC (Read 44071 times)

Ehtyar · « **on:** September 22, 2008, 10:35 PM »

Recently VLC was updated from 0.8.6 to 0.9.2 (0.9.0 & 0.9.1 were skipped due to blocking bugs, anyone notice a little lag?

). The new release includes the following improvements:
1. New interface based on Qt (see screenshots below).
2. Improved playlist with support for:

Media library support
Live search
Shoutcast TV listings
Audioscrobbler/last.fm
Album art support

3. New demuxers
4. New decoders
5. New video/audio/stream output and filters
6. Improvements to the developer interface/libVLC via Google's Summer of Code.
7. A beta LUA module for providing additional functionality.
I am posting this information because after using the new version for some days, I like it much better than the earlier UI, though there are some features that tick me off, so I would like the opinion of other users on the subject.
Firstly, there's the new main window, as shown below. It has much enhanced menus (though they're not visible here) as well as better volume control and an improved controls bar. The volume control appears to ramp the volume to 200%, though playing the same video in 0.8.6 and 0.9.2 side-by-side 100% in the new player sounds exactly the same as 100% in the old player.

The New (And Improved?) VLC
Then there is the new open dialog, which unfortunately IMO is quite the step backward. VLC now appears to handle indexing of files itself, which in windows causes some big issues when indexing a large directory, and the interface is not particularly intuitive. I've also found that, occasionally, trying to open something in VLC via one of the open dialogs causes a CPU spike prior to the display of the dialog itself, and the fullscreen control panel appears briefly at the bottom of the screen.

The New (And Improved?) VLC
Speaking of the fullscreen UI, here it is. It has also been a much missed feature of VLC.

The New (And Improved?) VLC
And just for comparison sake, here is the old UI:

The New (And Improved?) VLC
I've never been a fan of VLCs skinning options, as you always seem to lose controls and menu options with the skins, indeed frequently you lose the menus altogether. I am however a fan of the new VLC as a whole, and I hope the new UI at least will encourage users to move away from behemoths like QuickTime and WMP to this free, open alternative. Please let us know your opinion.

Ehtyar.

lanux128 · « **Reply #1 on:** September 23, 2008, 12:30 AM »

the new UI looks very sleek and nice.

jgpaiva · « **Reply #2 on:** September 23, 2008, 02:46 AM »

Also, here's a link: http://www.videolan.org/vlc/

Paul Keith · « **Reply #3 on:** September 23, 2008, 02:52 AM »

Thanks. Ironically I just redownloaded VLC today after a long while without reading this thread and was surprised with the new look. I'm not sure what to say to it.

It looks better but at the same time, looks too kiddie but I always never felt right when I couldn't go fullscreen using alt+enter.

CleverCat · « **Reply #4 on:** September 23, 2008, 02:56 AM »

I hope they upgrade the portable version as mine only has audio?

Ehtyar · « **Reply #5 on:** September 23, 2008, 04:07 PM »

Also, here's a link: http://www.videolan.org/vlc/
-jgpaiva (September 23, 2008, 02:46 AM)

Oops, thanks jgp.

I hope they upgrade the portable version as mine only has audio?
-CleverCat (September 23, 2008, 02:56 AM)

John Haller's portable version is unnecessary. All you need for a portable VLC is to install it from the zip file and make a batch file for it containing this:

[Select]

@start %~dp0vlc.exe --no-plugins-cache --config=%~dp0vlcrc %*

If you'd rather not see the command line window you can use vbscript or hwind

Ehtyar.

Lashiec · « **Reply #6 on:** September 23, 2008, 06:14 PM »

While it's better than the previous version (at least the interface is normal now), there are quite a few rough edges. Certain elements of the "Open" dialog overflow the limits of this dialog (although I suspect it's caused by my shellstyle), file parsing in the playlist works whenever it feels like it, tag reading is still flaky, and video quality is lower than that of the DirectShow-based players (though it seems like it can also use external codecs with this version).

Still, it's quite a leap in many aspects, and it will surely be refined in forthcoming versions. It's not up to the standards of the competition (Zoom Player, MPC...), but then again VLC is SO much more than a mere media player.

Ehtyar · « **Reply #7 on:** September 23, 2008, 06:42 PM »

It's good to get the opinion of someone who has actually a good portion of the new features, even if it is mostly bad news. I too agree there are some rough edges in the new interface and functionality. Hopefully there will be fixer-upper going on before the next revision.

Ehtyar.

nontroppo · « **Reply #8 on:** September 25, 2008, 04:40 PM »

Note, at least on OS X several people have noticed higher average CPU use, which hammers using it to play media on a portable compared to 0.8.6 - does anyone see this on Win?

Ehtyar · « **Reply #9 on:** September 25, 2008, 05:01 PM »

On windows about 2-3% for xvid encoded video 640x480, less than 1% for mp3 audio.
AMD Athlon dual core x64 ~2.5Ghz 2gb DDR2.

Ehtyar.

wreckedcarzz · « **Reply #10 on:** September 25, 2008, 05:49 PM »

The new UI looks like a large improvement, and the options dialog looks simple (I never tinkered with it).

I'm assuming they released Windows, Mac and Linux versions already? I'm too lazy to boot Ubuntu...

Ehtyar · « **Reply #11 on:** September 25, 2008, 06:22 PM »

Yes, a version for each platform is available.
In the interest of completeness, here is a screenshot of the simple and advanced preferences UI respectively (yes, these are new for 0.9.2):

The New (And Improved?) VLC

The New (And Improved?) VLC

Ehtyar.

Paul Keith · « **Reply #12 on:** September 26, 2008, 02:28 AM »

Beware, I have this thing crash on me when I played a .ogg file.

Ehtyar · « **Reply #13 on:** September 26, 2008, 07:03 AM »

No problem with ogg files here, tried half a dozen.

Ehtyar.

Paul Keith · « **Reply #14 on:** September 26, 2008, 08:04 AM »

Try it on this

It could be just that the file is corrupted. I never did check with another player.

Grorgy · « **Reply #15 on:** September 26, 2008, 11:22 AM »

That file plays fine on VLC here for me. I've not ever managed to crash VLC even giving it silly files, it wont play a doc or an ini file but it hasnt crashed

Paul Keith · « **Reply #16 on:** September 27, 2008, 06:07 AM »

Hmm...strange. It does on mine here and I didn't do anything but install it. You're using the Windows version right?

Grorgy · « **Reply #17 on:** September 27, 2008, 10:17 AM »

Yeah I am using windows xp sp3. A new release, a bug fix release (0.9.3) came out today or yesterday, it may solve your problem, then again it may be something else entirely. Unfortunately their forum is closed during this release, got overloaded so if that doesn't work try there in a few days would be my suggestion.

PhilB66 · « **Reply #18 on:** September 27, 2008, 06:26 PM »

VLC media player 0.9.3 released (bug fix mainly) ... but not for Windows

Download Now for Windows (14 MB). This is version 0.9.2, we do not have a 0.9.3 windows release.

We are putting out a call for NEW Windows developers. At the moment, our Windows-port is sorely missing some much needed love from a true Windows developer. Our team has been without a Windows developer for several months now, which is blocking us from supporting our largest usergroup in the manner we want to. We are therefore looking for developers to help our team in the areas of debugging crashes, Direct X, A/V capturing, ActiveX and Windows integration, so we can hopefully resume supporting our largest group of users in the best possible way. If we are unable to find new developers, new versions of VLC media player for Windows might become less frequent and severely out of sync with the Linux and Mac OS X versions.

Ehtyar · « **Reply #19 on:** September 27, 2008, 07:18 PM »

0.9.4 is the latest (windows) nightly, I haven't noticed any issues with it thus far.

Ehtyar.

simakuutio · « **Reply #20 on:** September 28, 2008, 01:09 PM »

In my point of view, windows version had alot of UI bugs here and there... I was very unhappy after quick testing... it was quick return back to older version... jep, new version isn't always better one... sorry to say...

Hopefully they found some talented and motivated Windows developer to make this UI much much better... there is quite alot of work to be done...

cmpm · « **Reply #21 on:** September 28, 2008, 01:35 PM »

i had to dump vlc completely and went with wmp classic.

vlc would not play a lot of songs correctly. they would be all skipping and jumbled. so until they work it out, i'll stay away, but keep an eye on it cause it does have device functions i like.

fenixproductions · « **Reply #22 on:** September 28, 2008, 02:05 PM »

2cmpm
Try The KMPlayer.

cmpm · « **Reply #23 on:** September 28, 2008, 03:13 PM »

Yes I have the Kmplayer also.
But I prefer the wmc.
I still use kmp though, occasionally.

Paul Keith · « **Reply #24 on:** September 29, 2008, 07:28 AM »

i had to dump vlc completely and went with wmp classic.

vlc would not play a lot of songs correctly. they would be all skipping and jumbled. so until they work it out, i'll stay away, but keep an eye on it cause it does have device functions i like.
-cmpm (September 28, 2008, 01:35 PM)

Do you know of a way to have a video playlist in mpc? The reason I looked for vlc was because I couldn't find it.