

Hitting ESC while a video is playing doesn't exit. The Open File button doesn't open a File Picker interface, it opens a menu. There's a distinct lack of playback configuration here, but that can only get better over time. Videos simply fill the screen and many look squashed or pulled as a result.

This alone is fantastic.īeyond that, my final major gripe is that there's no aspect ratio tuning.
#Vlc download beta mp4#
mp4 they work fine.īut the best news from my perspective is that the VLC app fully supports the captioning and subtitling types I've used on my ripped DVDs, which includes various forms of "soft" captioning "CC" or "SUB," and "VSUB." They all work. (I think Handbrake must use this extension by default.) Unlike its desktop cousin, VLC can't even see these files. (The desktop version works this way.)įrom a format perspective, I've not tested all possible formats, of course, but I have tested the format I used to rip my DVD collection: My video files are all in H.264 format, but some of the files have *.mp4 extensions (preferable) while many others use a *.m4v extension that is specific to iTunes.

But you can't right-click on a video file and choose to play with the app. It offers limited system integration so far: You can configure it as the default media player if you know where to look (PC Settings, Search and Apps, Defaults).
#Vlc download beta windows#
The key one, perhaps, is that it only works on Intel-type x86/圆4 PCs, meaning it won't (yet) work on Windows RT. It's described as an initial beta release, so there are some functional holes.
#Vlc download beta windows 8#
It arrived last night, and you can now download VLC Media Player for Windows 8 from the Windows Store. So like many, I was quite happy to find out that Videolan was creating a version of its video player for the Modern environment. Xbox Video is fine for what it is, but it has limited format support and is useless for captioned and subtitled videos I've made with Handbrake. When you look at what's missing from the Modern environment in Windows 8.x (including RT), a proper video player is of course near the top of the list. (That last bit is important because my son is deaf, and as I've ripped DVDs to digital formats I've always used some form of captioning or subtitling when available.) Beyond these, VLC is also amazing full-featured and configurable. I use VLC for a number of reasons, but the top two are that it works with every single video file I've ever thrown at it and it supports all of the captioning and subtitling formats there are. I don't write about this very often, but VLC Media Player ranks among my top five gotta-install-it applications for Windows. And it already supports all the captioning and subtitling options that matter to me. But it will of course get better over time. But there are some caveats: It's only a beta, doesn't work with Windows RT, and doesn't support all of the file types that make the desktop version of this app such a delight. Last night, Videolan's long-awaited VLC Media Player finally arrived in Modern mobile app form for Windows 8.
