Videolan is so good, but don't do things like this please.
Posted: 03 Feb 2009 07:01
I have been a huge fan of VLC for years, its on my top lists of things to recommend to anyone, and the very first application I snag for any computer I'm working on. However Its been some time since I had to reformat my computer and figured well, clean new slate, how about a new version of VLC. Nothing was wrong with my old version mind you, I just assumed things had gotten better...they had not.
To start off here is the problem that led me down the rabbit hhole: the new interface is all sorts of bad. I have a separate program skinning windows, and that has to be messing with VLCs skin or something because what I am given to interface with media is neigh unusable. This in itself is not the problem though. The problem lies in the way you skin VLC, which as far as I can tell from the forums, involves fresh bled goats blood, a full moon on a Sunday at 9am, 3 priests, 6 rabbis and a partridge in a pear tree, then you have to be naturally lucky for anything to ever change. I've yet to find anything that will change the players skin. Even changing the 3rd party windows skinning application has no effect on returning VLC to a usable state.
However there is hope! its called VLC .80 and Its all I wanted in the first place. See with .8 my 3rd party skinning application doesn't affect how it looks, and the skin it comes with by default is as easy to use as crayons. Its a shame I had to scour some grungy hole of the internet to find such a gem.
There isn't much to ask of a media player if I'm going to be honest. It should play the songs and movies you find in all the common media types. It should not lag. Thats it. There is a reason that people use VLC instead of WMP, WMP is bloated and slow, it plays jack all of squat, and its ugly like a duckling in a woodchipper.
Honestly I cant tell the difference between .8 and .98a for what I use it for, its hard for me personally to see where all the new versions came from. In fact the only problems I find with vlc are in .98a which is a shame, cause its the only one posted openly on your website. Prior to .98a I couldn't point to anything specific that eneded changing, or any possible functionality that needed adding. However, now you've got something that a new version would fix. All I can point to specifically is that you need to fix the skinning for the player, its bad. The player looks very very bad, and is as fun to play with as bleach, couple that with the inability to easily (key word easily) change skins, makes it the rubiks cube of projects just to set properly.
I cant say that there isn't more functionality in .98a, I damn near read every line on the forums trying to change your basic UI and I know that you can do more things with it in theory. However, I don't care and neither does anyone I know. In fact almost every single person I know uses VLC, and none of them have used anything beyond the basic drag and drop play anything functionality. Its good cause its simple, and reliable, please, don't mess that up by cramming more crap in it, especially if the stuff you put in is anything like the skinning interface. If you must add new stuff to it, at least post the previous versions for us mortals who can live without streaming-integrated-hyperbolic-graphic functionality, on your own web site.
This is a complicated thought and one that eternally bothers my computer programming friends, but there is a possibility that a program does all it needs to do. You can reach a point where you don't need to do anything more. The scissors haven't been altered for quite some time and very few people are whining about that. The last VLC I had prior to my reformat was scissors, the new VLC seems to be growing a tweezer, and a bottle opener, neither of which I require when making collages.
To start off here is the problem that led me down the rabbit hhole: the new interface is all sorts of bad. I have a separate program skinning windows, and that has to be messing with VLCs skin or something because what I am given to interface with media is neigh unusable. This in itself is not the problem though. The problem lies in the way you skin VLC, which as far as I can tell from the forums, involves fresh bled goats blood, a full moon on a Sunday at 9am, 3 priests, 6 rabbis and a partridge in a pear tree, then you have to be naturally lucky for anything to ever change. I've yet to find anything that will change the players skin. Even changing the 3rd party windows skinning application has no effect on returning VLC to a usable state.
However there is hope! its called VLC .80 and Its all I wanted in the first place. See with .8 my 3rd party skinning application doesn't affect how it looks, and the skin it comes with by default is as easy to use as crayons. Its a shame I had to scour some grungy hole of the internet to find such a gem.
There isn't much to ask of a media player if I'm going to be honest. It should play the songs and movies you find in all the common media types. It should not lag. Thats it. There is a reason that people use VLC instead of WMP, WMP is bloated and slow, it plays jack all of squat, and its ugly like a duckling in a woodchipper.
Honestly I cant tell the difference between .8 and .98a for what I use it for, its hard for me personally to see where all the new versions came from. In fact the only problems I find with vlc are in .98a which is a shame, cause its the only one posted openly on your website. Prior to .98a I couldn't point to anything specific that eneded changing, or any possible functionality that needed adding. However, now you've got something that a new version would fix. All I can point to specifically is that you need to fix the skinning for the player, its bad. The player looks very very bad, and is as fun to play with as bleach, couple that with the inability to easily (key word easily) change skins, makes it the rubiks cube of projects just to set properly.
I cant say that there isn't more functionality in .98a, I damn near read every line on the forums trying to change your basic UI and I know that you can do more things with it in theory. However, I don't care and neither does anyone I know. In fact almost every single person I know uses VLC, and none of them have used anything beyond the basic drag and drop play anything functionality. Its good cause its simple, and reliable, please, don't mess that up by cramming more crap in it, especially if the stuff you put in is anything like the skinning interface. If you must add new stuff to it, at least post the previous versions for us mortals who can live without streaming-integrated-hyperbolic-graphic functionality, on your own web site.
This is a complicated thought and one that eternally bothers my computer programming friends, but there is a possibility that a program does all it needs to do. You can reach a point where you don't need to do anything more. The scissors haven't been altered for quite some time and very few people are whining about that. The last VLC I had prior to my reformat was scissors, the new VLC seems to be growing a tweezer, and a bottle opener, neither of which I require when making collages.