Postby Kalean » 05 Jan 2009 06:38
Alright, this thread has been posted in to death, and 1.0 will make everything kosher, but I'll add my comments. It's a long post, so I'll summarize in case people don't want to read through the whole thing. These are what I 'miss' about 0.8.x that are likely the source of most people's complaints.
1: Defaulted to a highly minimalistic setting, with almost no operating overhead.
2: There was a file menu. (Strangely, this matters to windows users. I don't know why.)
3: 'Quick Open File' (Control + O) was great.
4: Playlist didn't auto-sort items unless you told it to, so they were added to the playlist in the order you chose them.
5: Playlist allowed drag and drop re-arrangement.
6: Default settings integrated the video display with the player.
Things that are still good about 0.9.x:
The ability to play /any/ media file. VLC Media Player's claim to fame.
Most everything else.
Things that could still use a little work:
The options for VLC have never been very intuitive, and often require significantly more understanding than other media players to adjust.
More customizable interface without requiring a skin. (Added in 1.0? Yay!)
Not everyone owns a copy.
Diagnosis: The interface seems a subject of contention, but no matter how you look at it, VLC media player is still the very best media player there is.
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Here's the full post.
I just want to list what I liked about 0.8.6. That is missing in the newer versions that I used. It should be noted that I haven't used them in some time, like many people I know, because I prefer how absolutely and elegantly simple 0.8.6 is, and VideoLan is still kind enough to host the 0.8.6i installer on their site. So some of them may be out of date. Still, I think that what this thread doesn't have, is a point by point listing of what made 0.8.6 so good to some of us.
First, and this is still in place with the newer versions of VLC, is the "I don't care what it is, VLC can open it" function granted by the built-in codec library. Never /ever/ change this, because this is what makes VLC Media Player absolute gold.
Second, in VLC 0.8.x, the program's interface was very minimal, and took no real overhead, so it seemed simplistic. This can be mostly regained by using the minimalistic settings in the new players, but it /was/ nice to have it default. Kudos to the team for making buttons adjustable in the upcoming 1.0 release, thus rendering this point null.
Third, in 0.8.x, there was a file menu. This seems silly, but a lot of windows users quite simply panic when they don't have a file menu. It's such a basic thing for Windows programs, that people's brains throw a gear when they don't see one. The fact that (in the version I used) the media menu didn't appear to have a 'quick open file' option like CTRL+O opened in 0.8.x only compounded this problem by making it seem like people would have to learn a whole new process to open a media file. This is also the main reason people say the new VLC "feels" like a linux program and not a windows program (besides the fact that it is.), because the vast majority of windows media players have a simple file menu with "Open" and "Exit" as options. There might be others, but those are specifically always there. When a user clicks on "open" and they get "did you want to open disc, open network, open a stream, view a local file, or..." many of them panic and feel confused. They're not used to it. With the quick open file feature of 0.8.x, the 'typical' windows user interface that some people were talking about was intact, and there was no panic.
Fourth, in 0.8.x, opening multiple files in the playlist opened them in the order you chose, as most windows programs that have the 'open multiple files' option do. This is not a deal breaker, but people who've been using windows for a while will find the loss of this to be problematic. The playlist also allowed drag and drop re-arrangement, which was much simpler. Fortunately, we can just save playlists once we have them done, so people really should start building up those .m3u files.
Finally, 0.8.x defaulted to having the picture and the controls in the same window. I can't emphasize enough how important it is for this to be default. I'm not certain which version of 0.9.x I used, but the video stream was not integrated in the same window with the controls by default. Certainly, it can be changed, and it seems like a non-issue for that reason, but in my opinion, one shouldn't have to navigate the (rather un-intuitive) options to change this. It should default this way, much like 0.8.x used to.
These are pretty much all my notes about what I found positive regarding 0.8.x. I actually like the way the new interface's minimal setting looks to a degree. It obviously took someone some real work, and it's really not that much different from the old one. Still, the old interface is also appealing because I'm used to it, I'm sure you've heard that before.
I'm not bothered enough by it to make a skin for everyone that looks like the old interface, I just use 0.8.x, and probably will continue to until VLC Media Player 1.0 comes out.
It should be noted, however, that no matter how much anyone wails on the new interface, or complains about missing the old one, there is one thing that you won't hear anyone ever debating: VLC Media Player is still the best media player around, hands down.