I moved away from VLC because of the somewhat boring UI. Then I used potplayer, then I discovered MPV - which is awesome because it’s so performant you can easily customize it.
But I think VLC helped pioneer the library that allows decoding and playing videos without the mess that were video codec drivers on desktop.
If I try to play 3 random videos in VLC, they all three will play perfectly. If I try those same three on anything else, at least one of them will be buggy in some way.
Yes you can argue there could be encoding problems in the video file of that buggy one, but somehow VLC just always works. Shit’s unbelievably good, so I won’t be switching.
I remember the first time I encountered the Ogg Vorbis (.ogg) media type which ultimately lead me to downloading VLC as it was the only player that could handle it at the time
Sadly i recently learned VLC doesn’t just always work.
About a year ago i had an issue with playing FLAC files on VLC, where there would be short periods of no audio. I had recently made some upgrades to my audio hardware, so i was looking at my new hardware/cables/config… but in the end i realized it always happened at the same point in the same files, so a software issue was more likely:
Nice quote from this issue:
VLC is broken since months
Use their nightly version, it has a nice new interface too, and no bugs.
I don’t get how they can keep a huge breaking bug like this in vlc from MONTHS.
And neither can i… until a year ago VLC was for me the pinnacle of “it just works”. Now after them leaving a bug causing audio playback issues into their stable version for months, they broke my trust in them… they’re probably still the best option out there, but now i’ll just say probably, not for sure, and there is room for improvement…
And if it were some obscure format, sure, but FLAC? …
Damn, that sucks. I’ve rarely used VLC for anything but video. I wonder if it’s not super high priority because it’s not a video bug? Sucks either way because yeah it has always seemed very solid
It was already fixed in their nightly builds, and it’s an extremely mature video & audio player, i get most open source projects can’t pounce on any tiny issue. But like the most mature open source player should be able to resolve a serious playback issue in their stable build in less than a month. Either by applying the fix that fixed it in their nightly builds, or by reverting to a previous version of whatever is causing it that had it working well in earlier versions. I get the open source mantra of “you’re not the client”, but VLC is good & big enough to manage this kind of stuff a lot better.
MPC-HC and MPV both rock, but VLC will always stay on all my machines because any time I have a problem with a video file, VLC opens that shit no issue.
As of right now VLC also doesn’t properly support Wayland, but MPV does. It’s a great piece of software!
Agree on the sentiment about VLC though, having an open source project demonstrate what is possible and stand the test of time definitely paves the way for future work and improvements.
MPC comes with those inexplicable keybindings, and it’s a hassle setting them, as far as I remember. Or it lacked some deal breaking customization option for me, some stuff is essential.
Ease of use, I suppose. I can certainly set it up, but it would be another investment of time. I have a hundred other software that needs similar treatment, so one have to triage, if you know what I mean.
Why does the UI matter for a video player? It’s not like you’re looking at it when the video is playing. How odd. I’ve been using VLC for years, I like that it doesn’t change. It just cracks on and plays the video, which is what you want in a video player. Isn’t it?
I moved away from VLC because of the somewhat boring UI. Then I used potplayer, then I discovered MPV - which is awesome because it’s so performant you can easily customize it.
But I think VLC helped pioneer the library that allows decoding and playing videos without the mess that were video codec drivers on desktop.
If I try to play 3 random videos in VLC, they all three will play perfectly. If I try those same three on anything else, at least one of them will be buggy in some way.
Yes you can argue there could be encoding problems in the video file of that buggy one, but somehow VLC just always works. Shit’s unbelievably good, so I won’t be switching.
I remember the first time I encountered the Ogg Vorbis (.ogg) media type which ultimately lead me to downloading VLC as it was the only player that could handle it at the time
Same story. I even remember where the files came from - ripped from Daft Punk’s Homework album (I had and have the physical CD)
I used to use media player classic. it seemed good until I used VLC which was already way ahead of it
Not a 4K movie.
edit: the only reason I switched from VLC to potplayer was because VLC couldn’t play my 2160p videos
Hmm I’ve definitely played many 4k videos in VLC. Don’t remember having any issues.
Weird I never had issues playing 2160 porn in VLC, on occasion
Ok?
How many porn videos do you need to watch simultaneously?
spoiler
(for me it’s 4 but I might have to go up to 9)
All of them. Duh.
I mean, I didn’t say porn nor did I say simultaneously
The only answer is 4, unless you are running alternative audio tracks on a second monitor in the background. Borderless, of course.
Sadly i recently learned VLC doesn’t just always work.
About a year ago i had an issue with playing FLAC files on VLC, where there would be short periods of no audio. I had recently made some upgrades to my audio hardware, so i was looking at my new hardware/cables/config… but in the end i realized it always happened at the same point in the same files, so a software issue was more likely:
https://code.videolan.org/videolan/vlc/-/issues/27696
Nice quote from this issue: VLC is broken since months Use their nightly version, it has a nice new interface too, and no bugs. I don’t get how they can keep a huge breaking bug like this in vlc from MONTHS.
And neither can i… until a year ago VLC was for me the pinnacle of “it just works”. Now after them leaving a bug causing audio playback issues into their stable version for months, they broke my trust in them… they’re probably still the best option out there, but now i’ll just say probably, not for sure, and there is room for improvement…
And if it were some obscure format, sure, but FLAC? …
Damn, that sucks. I’ve rarely used VLC for anything but video. I wonder if it’s not super high priority because it’s not a video bug? Sucks either way because yeah it has always seemed very solid
Well… I’d point you to this very nice blog post to help rationalize why it can take a long time.
https://snarky.ca/the-social-contract-of-open-source/
It was already fixed in their nightly builds, and it’s an extremely mature video & audio player, i get most open source projects can’t pounce on any tiny issue. But like the most mature open source player should be able to resolve a serious playback issue in their stable build in less than a month. Either by applying the fix that fixed it in their nightly builds, or by reverting to a previous version of whatever is causing it that had it working well in earlier versions. I get the open source mantra of “you’re not the client”, but VLC is good & big enough to manage this kind of stuff a lot better.
Isn’t the logical conclusion here there’s an issue with the FLAC files instead of the player?
It would be if those weren’t flac files i had for a long time and i knew didn’t have any issues.
MPC-HC and MPV both rock, but VLC will always stay on all my machines because any time I have a problem with a video file, VLC opens that shit no issue.
I can trust VLC as software. Trust is a rare thing to have for any software these days.
As of right now VLC also doesn’t properly support Wayland, but MPV does. It’s a great piece of software!
Agree on the sentiment about VLC though, having an open source project demonstrate what is possible and stand the test of time definitely paves the way for future work and improvements.
I still have PTSD from those codec-install-infested-times… God bless VLC and it’s Author / Creator!
Boo!
I rarely ever use vlc but i almost always have it installed just in case something doesn’t work. It has never let me down.
Still mpv’s
gpu-nextvideo output driver is based on VLC’s libplacebo.VLC is really slow to integrate their own development efforts though, VLC media player 4.0 has been in beta for years…
Dude should try adding some ads to the program to generate some income to spend on more dev time…
Popups, I suggest, bing bar on installation, and it runs as a service, auto-startup (non configurable).
I tried to like MPV, I just can’t, potplayer lets me easily customize the subtitles so easily.
I moved away from VLC because compared to MPC-HC, VLC was super slow. If only MPC-HC could come to Linux, that would be amazing.
MPC comes with those inexplicable keybindings, and it’s a hassle setting them, as far as I remember. Or it lacked some deal breaking customization option for me, some stuff is essential.
I got it mostly set up how I was used to. I’d be curious what you are missing?
Ease of use, I suppose. I can certainly set it up, but it would be another investment of time. I have a hundred other software that needs similar treatment, so one have to triage, if you know what I mean.
Yeah true. I probably spend a few hours finding addons and configuring.
It has become my life. I have a map on the wall with red pins and lines and everything.
Vlc has many custom ui that you can download. And the current default isn’t that bad either.
Why does the UI matter for a video player? It’s not like you’re looking at it when the video is playing. How odd. I’ve been using VLC for years, I like that it doesn’t change. It just cracks on and plays the video, which is what you want in a video player. Isn’t it?
It’s the Tunnock’s Teacake of apps.
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