'This item is not available in your country'

[MarkG]

So after weeks of waiting for a Beta release and days of clicking on the 'get it on the google store' and finding that it's still not there, I was delighted this morning to discover that the Beta is finally available.

Except when I try to install it I find... 'this item is not available in your country'.

Why?

I realise that this is free software and you're free to release it however you want, but this just seems a... not very good experience... for your users.

[unit3]

I'm seeing the same issue from Canada. Not sure who thought it was a good idea to region lock the Google Play download, but IMO it was a mistake. Does anyone have a link to the apk for those of use outside the US hit by this?

[edwardw]

No-one forced you to use the Google Play store. What kind of device do you have?

[unit3]

No-one forced you to use the Google Play store.

Well, actually, the Android download page on the site lists that as the only option to grab the beta that I can see, there's no direct download APK link. http://www.videolan.org/vlc/download-android.html

So I would argue that this means I am, in fact, being forced by the VLC devs to use the Google Play store. It makes sense, you get automatic updates, content is delivered from Google's servers, etc. And I'm sure that the region locking wasn't intentional, because that would be crazy talk. Nonetheless, that's the current situation as far as I'm aware.

In any case, I have a Galaxy Nexus, which is listed as supported on the page, so I'd love to see an APK download link if someone has one.

[unit3]

Update: found the answer to my own question from another newer thread:

http://nightlies.videolan.org/build/and ... -debug.apk

I still think the region restriction should be removed from the Play store so that people can get automatic updates and things, but this at least will allow me to install it.

[goinovr]

So the VLC devs in conjunction with Google took away your ability to look in other places on the web including the VLC for Android forums? Those bastards!

[unit3]

So the VLC devs in conjunction with Google took away your ability to look in other places on the web including the VLC for Android forums? Those bastards!

TL;DR: lol troll

Longer: When this thread was started, the only link available was to Google Play, including on these forums as far as I could find. Others in multiple threads had the same issue. I have no problem with Google Play, as I've said already, just with the senseless region locking the app was uploaded with. When I found the link for the nightly builds, I updated this thread with it, so that others could find it in the thread with the most applicable subject. Given that this is all pretty obvious from this message thread, I assume you're being intentionally argumentative.

To the actual devs, it's running really smoothly on my Galaxy Nexus (4.0.1). Thanks so much for the new release!

[cabito]

I think it may be a bogus message; I got it and I'm *in* the US. I grabbed it from the nightlies link above and it installs but doesn't run.

(Toshiba Thrive AT100)

[edwardw]

It installs but doesn't run.

(Toshiba Thrive AT100)

Probably you have the wrong build for your device.

[Arite]

From @videolan on Twitter (source):

BETA is not yet in North America, because we do not have access to enough devices from there. This will change in the future, hopefully...

That's pretty self explanatory: there are too many US devices which have not yet been tested (so could break horribly), hence it's not yet suitable for everyone in the US to be using yet. The beta release is aimed at countries where most(/some) devices are known to work correctly.

If you want to test it just download the *.apk directly though. Not sure if the neon nightly build is the same as the Google Play release, but find it and other version here:
http://nightlies.videolan.org/build/

Check you get the right version for your CPU etc.

Cheers, Arite.

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

exactly. Listen to the wise Arite.

[hashmaster]

There are a lot of different sites you can dl vlc from me myself I got it from mobiles24 but as in most sites you have to join to download files.

[Arite]

Just get the *.apk from the VLC Nightlies website... NEON version is here (posted above in this topic as well):
http://nightlies.videolan.org/build/and ... -debug.apk

*.apk's can be obtained from a rooted Android phone where's it's installed if you need the Google Play build - but the Nightly one is newer and potentially better.

Arite.

[edwardw]

the Nightly one is newer and potentially better

Indeed, the nightly one is built from the latest Git master and has fixed many bugs reported in the Market version.

[argh!]

I'm told that the "nightly is better". But I am warned that it is unstable. Why can't I download the stable version if I choose? Why is the link not available (like it is for every other version). When VLC comes out of beta, will there be a download link? Will users in the United States be prohibited from downloading this FOSS software?

[edwardw]

There is no stable version of VLC for Android, yet.