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VLC has been downloaded over a billion times

videolan.org

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Re: VLC has been downloaded over a billion times

#61
post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

VLC is open source right? It would be nice if they put up the source for the iPad app so at least developers could make a build for themselves.

Seems that they do http://www.videolan.org/vlc/download-ios.html unless it's a different iOS version of VLC than the one on the app store that was removed.

Perfect! Thank you for finding that! I skimmed their site but obviously not deep enough.

Re: VLC has been downloaded over a billion times

#62
post #46

If you want something smaller, faster and tons more efficient for OS X, I highly recommend MPlayerX instead. It's everything VLC is, and more, with none of VLC's bloat.

Or just install Perian. Which installs most popular codecs system wide. That means things will work fine in any app that uses the OS X APIs to render video. Including QuickView .. really nice to be able to just hit space bar in the Finder to see a quick preview of a movie.

I used to be a Perian user, but its complications and shortcomings made me ditch it in favor of MPlayer OS X Extended, which eventually led me to the better MPlayerX. I am in favor of Perian's solution of being a nifty QT plugin, though.

Re: VLC has been downloaded over a billion times

#63
post #47

There's a lesson in how to make a product in VLC's success. It has a horribly unfriendly interface, and is certainly not pretty, but it doesn't matter - Whatever media file you point it at, you can feel confident that VLC will play it, without hassle.

"It just works."

Strangely reminiscent of the success of Apple products.

Re: VLC has been downloaded over a billion times

#64
post #56
post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The interface might not be the prettiest, but I don't think it's "horribly unfriendly". Can you contrast it with another player? I have been using vlc for a long time now and although I just switched to Mac OS, I can't say that I find other players on the platform particularly appealing. But again I think it depends on what you do it. In my case its usually either in minimized mode or playing a movie on full screen m…

mplayer, for example, is just as capably at playing just about any media format, but is definitely far more user-unfriendly than vlc

While it does require some terminal skills, as far as playing or streaming any media file and skipping left and right a bit (the largest part of my contact with a media player) or shuffling through a music library goes, I find it far easier to work with.

I feel that people too often confuse a user-friendly interface with an intuitive or noob-friendly one. But I guess seeing as most programs' user base's large majority are non-technical people that's fair.

Re: VLC has been downloaded over a billion times

#65
post #41
post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Plex runs on a computer at home. You then stream that computer's media over the Internet on the iPad/iPhone using the Plex app. To make things super-easy you can register your home Plex server on myPlex and sign into it using myPlex on the iPad/iPhone. Bam! No need to bring a computer OR move files to the device. You can even stream over 3G with pretty decent quality.

That works so well on an airplane without wifi, or a tent in a valley in the wilderness :)

> That works so well [in] a tent in a valley in the wilderness

Much like a laptop.

Re: VLC has been downloaded over a billion times

#66
post #26

I know that it's a fallacious statistic but here is the VLC all time OS market share (rounded): Windows: 89.38% OS X: 10.27% Other: 0.35%

I assume that also doesn't count package manager or App Store installs. Still, OSX seems to be quite a big market there.

Re: VLC has been downloaded over a billion times

#67
post #2

I cherish the VLC.app for iPad that was pulled from the AppStore! It's just great to copy a movie in the app folder and know it will play in VLC without any conversion, etc. It's actually the reason we stopped taking the laptop while away for the weekend. I just put a movie on the iPad for VLC and we are good to go. Edit: But the new VLC on OSX is horrible. Had to revert to the older version, mostly due to the way on…

There are only two programs I reversed a version update:

- Skype back to 2.8

- VLC back to 1.1.12

Re: VLC has been downloaded over a billion times

#68
post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

VLC is open source right? It would be nice if they put up the source for the iPad app so at least developers could make a build for themselves.

Seems that they do http://www.videolan.org/vlc/download-ios.html unless it's a different iOS version of VLC than the one on the app store that was removed.

I'm debating buying an iPad and not being able to play all media formats is a big one. Can I drag mkv 720p files to my iPad and will VLC play them if I can get it installed via above? Also hows the battery life if trying to play a 720p or 1080p file?

Re: VLC has been downloaded over a billion times

#70
post #44
post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or you can use AirVideo. It converts while it streams or you can have it just do the conversion and dump it in iTunes so it will sync to the ipad automatically for offline usage.

Sure, but then you'll have to use up precious gigabytes for video storage. Via plex I have streaming access to my entire video library.

Dude it's 2012...gigabytes haven't been precious for over a decade.
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