15 years of VLC and VideoLAN • Hacker News Board

Re: 15 years of VLC and VideoLAN

#11

Post by SwellJoe » Mon, Feb 01, 2016, 11:45 PM UTC

I briefly operated an audiovisual services company (that lost a tremendous amount of money, but that had nothing to do with VLC), and after trying loads of players, came back to VLC. It allowed all of the stuff I needed and that many other players (including expensive commercial ones) failed at.

It plays literally everything. We regularly had sponsors show up the day of the show and hand me a USB drive with their ad reel on it. With no clue what the format would be, I would always be able to say, "yeah, we can put it in the playlist for tonight".

It has excellent playlist abilities, and excellent means of controlling the playlist. Our shows often included multiple sources (live video, sponsor reel, feature, short, trailers, etc.), and being able to manually select the right things at the right times with keyboard shortcuts was great.

It actually allows one to kill all on screen displays, and can be reliably configured to always open video on the secondary display (projector) and controls on the primary display (laptop). This is shockingly difficult with every other player I used. They would always have problems getting things onto the right display, or would show some kinda bullshit on the screen. This is particularly true of the DVD and Blu Ray capable players; they're an utter shit show, even if you pay a bunch of money for them.

So, thanks! I love VLC bunches. I've donated in the past, and will certainly donate again.

Re: 15 years of VLC and VideoLAN

#12

Post by Kluny » Mon, Feb 01, 2016, 11:52 PM UTC

dopeboy wrote: post #3

In the earlier days of mainstream desktop linux (~2005), video codecs were a complete shitshow. VLC was a godsend during those times - it just worked. Still the first thing I apt-get after a fresh install. If you're reading this team VLC, thank you for your work. Ways to contribute to VLC: http://www.videolan.org/contribute.html

Quicktime on Mac OS remains a shitshow to this day. I still have not figured out how to use third party srt files for subtitles.

Re: 15 years of VLC and VideoLAN

#13

Post by thekevan » Mon, Feb 01, 2016, 11:53 PM UTC

My first reaction was, "Fifteen, shmifteen! When's that Chromecast support you promised coming?"

In all seriousness, as they say, VLC just opens everything. Thanks for it!

Re: 15 years of VLC and VideoLAN

#14

Post by xufi » Mon, Feb 01, 2016, 11:55 PM UTC

seivan wrote: post #5

Still wished I could have VLC as an engine inside QuickTime or whatever's native to the platform/OS. Is that possible or do you have to source the web for several obscure codecs?

I dont think it's possible since it seemed pretty lock down to me. I just always replaced it as my main player since that seemed to be the least hasle free way than mess with the OS featured player to get it to work right

Re: 15 years of VLC and VideoLAN

#15

Post by stordoff » Mon, Feb 01, 2016, 11:56 PM UTC

SwellJoe wrote: post #11

I briefly operated an audiovisual services company (that lost a tremendous amount of money, but that had nothing to do with VLC), and after trying loads of players, came back to VLC. It allowed all of the stuff I needed and that many other players (including expensive commercial ones) failed at. It plays literally everything . We regularly had sponsors show up the day of the show and hand me a USB drive with their ad…

> It plays literally everything

In the ten or so years I've used it, I've only come across one file that VLC wouldn't play (excluded DRMed files) - a (possibly malformed) 24hr long MP4 I recorded a few years ago. Pretty much everything chokes on it (VLC crashes straight away), though oddly enough Windows Media Player handles it fine until you try to seek to a different time.

I've dabbled with other media players/codecs in the past, but usually end up back at VLC not long after due to its versatility. Impressive stuff.

Re: 15 years of VLC and VideoLAN

#16

Post by ljk » Mon, Feb 01, 2016, 11:58 PM UTC

never realized VLC has been around for so long!

Re: 15 years of VLC and VideoLAN

#17

Post by oxide » Tue, Feb 02, 2016, 12:03 AM UTC

I'll never be able to say enough good things about VLC, it changed the way I interacted with video permanently. I haven't thought about a codec in years.

only wish I found it sooner.

Re: 15 years of VLC and VideoLAN

#18

Post by rossy » Tue, Feb 02, 2016, 12:13 AM UTC

SwellJoe wrote: post #11

I briefly operated an audiovisual services company (that lost a tremendous amount of money, but that had nothing to do with VLC), and after trying loads of players, came back to VLC. It allowed all of the stuff I needed and that many other players (including expensive commercial ones) failed at. It plays literally everything . We regularly had sponsors show up the day of the show and hand me a USB drive with their ad…

In general, it seems like FOSS multimedia software blows proprietary software out of the water with regards to format support, and that proprietary software works at a disadvantage, because for them, adding support for a new format means navigating a patent minefield and paying licence fees, but for FOSS, supporting every format is as simple as including FFmpeg.

Re: 15 years of VLC and VideoLAN

#19

Post by tnigro » Tue, Feb 02, 2016, 12:19 AM UTC

colordrops wrote: post #10

I love VLC's engine, but have never been a fan of its UI, especially the configuration interface. How well separated are the UI and engine? Building a new UI for VLC seems like a fun project.

You might want to check out VLC for Windows Store. We're trying new UI and user experiences and will release soon an update on Windows 10 with an improved design (cleaner and faster).

Re: 15 years of VLC and VideoLAN

#20

Post by projct » Tue, Feb 02, 2016, 12:19 AM UTC

stordoff wrote: post #15

SwellJoe wrote: post #11

I briefly operated an audiovisual services company (that lost a tremendous amount of money, but that had nothing to do with VLC), and after trying loads of players, came back to VLC. It allowed all of the stuff I needed and that many other players (including expensive commercial ones) failed at. It plays literally everything . We regularly had sponsors show up the day of the show and hand me a USB drive with their ad…

> It plays literally everything In the ten or so years I've used it, I've only come across one file that VLC wouldn't play (excluded DRMed files) - a (possibly malformed) 24hr long MP4 I recorded a few years ago. Pretty much everything chokes on it (VLC crashes straight away), though oddly enough Windows Media Player handles it fine until you try to seek to a different time. I've dabbled with other media players/code…

you might be able to reindex or remux this file (save to a new file in the process) to fix it, by the way.