VLC media player 0.8.6

[Albert]

Hello,
I can see many comments on VLC-0.8.6 release, which are not just positive. And I would like to say, that form my point of view VLC is getting worse.

When I started to use VLC (as VideoLAN client), I was keen on all the opportunities how to manage videostreams over LAN. Now VLC is for me an another owergrowed video player full of (old) bugs, which tries to support whatever can be supported and is not able to do comlete support for all of them.

I use (linux) VLC to stream DVB for (win) VLC clients. There was a promise (2 years ago, Ticker#70) to support EPG and I am still waiting for version 1.0 I don´t think it is so difficult to do this, but I am not a programmer.

Question of DVB support under Windows is also opened for a long time. And so really usable support for DirectX inputs. I don´t want to hack win regs or write complicated configurations when I need to plug in 2 same webcams or PCI TV or sound card.

Too many bugs aren´t solved for ages and new are created when newer and newer video formats are being added. There is over 200 plugins for videoformats and most of them I have never met.

I asked for infra-remote control for win builds. WinLirc is not supposed to be supported and this is the end (Ticket #443). No progress.

If I try to use several transcoding filters together, VLC will crash at the moment or after few minutes due to memory leak...

It would be nice if VLC version 0.9 could be released as a stable, well done video player supporting all the features, which are expected to be supported by such a famous program.

Thanks
Albert

[The DJ]

@Albert

I don't know how many times i'm gonna have to explain this, but here goes one more try:

Trac tickets are not promises, they are ideas. There is no timetable for VLC. If you want something fixed today, do it yourself, otherwise have patience with the very few developers who have to the time to code VLC.

If you want something delivered on your timetable, go and hire a company. I'm really getting sick and tired of people's expectations and needs on a piece of software that is all about Freedom and Open Source and doing it yourself. VLC is not Mozilla, and it's not Microsoft. It's 10 people doing some software in their spare time. You do not get to make demands nor "punish" us on our so called "faults".

As a matter of fact, it's people like you that are slowing down development, because they make these people that wanna develop feel like they are no good and that there work is not being appreciated.

So file bug tickets, help with usersupport (which is a very big burden on us), create skins, do testing, write documentation, write patches, ergo do ANYTHING you can, feel part of a community, and the community will develop what they can. It's a joint effort.
If you cannot appreciate how this system works, by all means, do NOT use VLC and go and pay CorePlayer to hire some people to do the work for you and allowing them to screw you over any time they like. I'm not being angry or trying to be unpleasant. It's how this system works. It's a best effort based on the work of a few.

I would like to remind people that VLC is most likely the largest Open Source and Free software project in the world run without a Foundation nor payed employees and with regard to the amount of users also the one with the fewest funding. This by itself is an achievement none of us would have expected when we started on VLC.

[Albert]

@The DJ
Thank you for your reply.

Trac tickets are not promises, they are ideas. There is no timetable for VLC. If you want something fixed today, do it yourself, otherwise have patience with the very few developers who have to the time to code VLC.

OK, I agree, they are ideas. But when I chose VLC media player with its long history of development, I would expect a mature product in the basic features - e.g. if DVB features/LAN streaming/... are announced to be supported, I would expect full support. Aa a linux user I prefer one programme for one purpose, and the program do the best. I tried to say, that for me the primary goal of VLC as a VideoLAN client is not reached and some additive (for me not so important) features are created.
I can find many free/GPL/... DVB* project supporting something from DVB area, but from VLC I would like to expect more, as it is the most developed free software in this area. I would like to fix bugs myself, but I am not a programmer.

If you want something delivered on your timetable, go and hire a company. I'm really getting sick and tired of people's expectations and needs on a piece of software that is all about Freedom and Open Source and doing it yourself. VLC is not Mozilla, and it's not Microsoft. It's 10 people doing some software in their spare time. You do not get to make demands nor "punish" us on our so called "faults".

I don't want to hire a company. I like open source. I know there is no VLC foundation and only few developers. I would suggest you to participate in Google's Summer of Code (e.g.). I don't see a reason to be sick and tired - you attracted many people to use VLC and many users have expectations on their favourite player. I don't want to "punish" you, that was a something like a regret. I only wrote my opinion.

As a matter of fact, it's people like you that are slowing down development, because they make these people that wanna develop feel like they are no good and that there work is not being appreciated.

No, I didn't say this. I would just prefer to develop something else. I am sure there are many users who like all the new features, but they don't write here (please write here). I appreciate the work of all the VLC developers. I really admire them.

So file bug tickets, help with usersupport (which is a very big burden on us), create skins, do testing, write documentation, write patches, ergo do ANYTHING you can, feel part of a community, and the community will develop what they can. It's a joint effort.

If I know, I answer the question, I do testing on night-builds sometimes, I write "how to" for local BFU in my language, all the "hacks" I found I posted into this forum, but I am not a programmer, I don't know how to write patches and develop a feature. I am just a user, who tried to suggest something.

Thank you for you time
Albert

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

However, you should add a bit more the bugs request, the descriptions to the trac in order they are not forgotten

Everything i want for VLC is in the Features paradise of trac. That is where it belongs, not here.

DJ, please use more trac, it would be very helpful.

@Albert, it is not going worse, it is just that some features you want are not yet in. But believe and pray, it will be

[DJ]

However, you should add a bit more the bugs request, the descriptions to the trac in order they are not forgotten

Everything i want for VLC is in the Features paradise of trac. That is where it belongs, not here.

DJ, please use more trac, it would be very helpful.

@ j-b Perhaps I'm to Conservative? I put into trac the things I can prove (confirm) or find two or more users that really do have the same issues that can be confirmed between them. I'm striving to do this more and more as time goes on. Given the early look at the Windows forum I have my job cut out for me! Anyone considering a 0.8.7???

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

It is planned support for VP61?

PS: I know it's windows only but this can help with Real files: http://guliverkli.svn.sourceforge.net/v ... ortby=date

VP61 is not planned yet, neither in FFMPEG nor in VLC, sorry.

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

@ j-b Perhaps I'm to Conservative? I put into trac the things I can prove (confirm) or find two or more users that really do have the same issues that can be confirmed between them. I'm striving to do this more and more as time goes on. Given the early look at the Windows forum I have my job cut out for me! Anyone considering a 0.8.7???

, You are doing it the right way, but sometimes, just fill a trac, with an unconfirmed tag, and we will see

About 0.8.7, I doubt, but if there are important problems, 0.8.6a will be on the roads.

[ophirv]

I have a P-4 2.4 Ghz , 512 mb of ram running windows xp.

In vlc 0.85 i can see 1280x720 wmv files as smooth as silk but in version 0.86 it is all choppy.

Please help !

[The DJ]

Actually once we have had more feedback and testing on Vista, and it proves that there are significant problems within VLC, and not within the ATI drivers (which seems to be the majority of the problems), i might consider releasing a special 0.8.6 + Vista release

[DJ]

I have a P-4 2.4 Ghz , 512 mb of ram running windows xp.

In vlc 0.85 i can see 1280x720 wmv files as smooth as silk but in version 0.86 it is all choppy.

Please help !

Have you tried the --codec dmo switch? Really this should take it back the way it was in 0.8.5 for WMv3 or WVC1.

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

@DJ: Do you know if that can be set in the prefs ?

[ophirv]

I have a P-4 2.4 Ghz , 512 mb of ram running windows xp.

In vlc 0.85 i can see 1280x720 wmv files as smooth as silk but in version 0.86 it is all choppy.

Please help !

Have you tried the --codec dmo switch? Really this should take it back the way it was in 0.8.5 for WMv3 or WVC1.

Care to elaborate ?

[FORCE]

Plays that clip really smooth but without audio and mplayer plays audio but video lag, please fix that video runs fine and audio too.

http://www.redrockmicro.com/footage/HVX ... _2720p.mov

When i start play HD video then vlc skinnable window height goes out from desktop, only thing that will help i switch video size to half. I dont know is that bug or what

[DJ]

@DJ: Do you know if that can be set in the prefs ?

It would fall under the "preferred decoders" list in preferences, input / codecs. Probably entered as just DMO.

The command line switch (--codec dmo) can be added to a shortcut.

[ophirv]

@DJ: Do you know if that can be set in the prefs ?

It would fall under the "preferred decoders" list in preferences, input / codecs. Probably entered as just DMO.

The command line switch (--codec dmo) can be added to a shortcut.

DJ Thanks , now it is much better ( though i don't know if it takes more cpu cycles or the same as version 0.85 ).

[mgreene]

Has the capability been added in 0.8.6 to add options to subfilters when specified in the transcode arguments?

For example, if I specified "sfilter=time", is there anyways to then specify the time format in 0.8.6?

[Seamaiden]

I am not familiar with all of VLC Player's features and don't know which of my problems are Windows-specific and which are not.

Complaint #1: VLC-0.8.4 and 0.8.5 work fine on my system. I can go to startrek.com and watch the 'Clip of the Day' either by clicking WMP or QT. (I do not have QuickTime or QuickTime Alternative installed yet.) VideoLAN could play the format. The same was true watching certain movie trailers found off IMDB.com.

After installing 0.8.6 on 2 different occasions, I could no longer play streaming video, primarly QuickTime files. VLC either disabled ALL my streaming capability for ALL media formats -- the '[No Video] error' -- or it prompted me to download the QT plugin from Apple. Is QuickTime no longer supported? On both occasions, I had to do a 'System Restore' to return to 0.8.5.

Complaint #2: VLC does not have the capability to view or change file associations. If there's a way to do it, please give me the steps. If I have to go into Control Panel -> Folder Options -> File Types, I wouldn't know which ones to change to VLC cause VLC supports so many. There needs to be an easy way to do this in the program interface like WMP and QT/QTA have. I was hoping that 0.8.6 would finally provide that option, but it doesn't.

[ipkiss]

For complaint 1: that's probably because you installed the Mozilla/Firefox plugin.
Uninstall VLC and reinstall it without checking the option for the plugin...

For complaint 2: you can specify the file associations in the installer. So same thing, uninstall VLC, reinstall it, and pay a bit more attention to what you are doing when installing software

[Seamaiden]

I do pay attention during installation and selected the file associations. But the problem is that other programs can change those associations. I should not need to keep reinstalling VideoLAN every time I want to change an association. There needs to be a feature in VLC to do this AFTER installation.

[DammitDan]

No video with Vsta. I tried changing the output type in preferences, but still just gives a black screen and just plays audio.

[DAC324]

We disabled many mime-types, because:
VLC conflicts with other mozilla plugins. VLC in many cases supports LESS features then other plugins, which is very annoying to most Mac OS X and Windows users of the plugin.

Is there a way to re-enable these associations again? For example, re-compiling the DLL?

We plan to add interfaces to the mozilla modules, and perhaps a "configuration application"[...]
That will probably be the only way to have the VLC mozilla plugin properly.

A more time-saving way would be a configuration file or certain registry settings (for Windows). Per default, the configuration should be as it is now. But for more experienced users, it would be great if they had the chance to customize the settings in the config file or the registry.

[0.8.5. is better]

Please report any bugs, remarks and comment and this release.
Please suggest new features on the topic on this forum.
Please make some advertisement for this release.

Thanks and enjoy!

Ye-ye.Very nice that there is new version, but new version is much slower than 0.8.5! 0.8.6 also have problems with .mpg(v)-some files it shows black.
Oh, God-do not use 0.8.6 with any skin (as you know VLC traditional have huge problems with skins)-it will be more slower and after file is finsihed, you could not watch it again-because after you will press button PLAY, VLC will crash!. So go back as I-to 0.8.5.version!


New features? Make compatible skins-let they do not break VLC.

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

Did you reset your preferences before the new version ?

[0.8.5. is better]

Did you reset your preferences before the new version ?

I started new life! I completely uninstall 0.8.5. and then install 0.8.6. So-I need 0.8.5. let 0.8.6. works good ?!

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

This is not what I meant. You can reinstall and keep your preferences...