VLCAnd, it’s here. We were on top of it and reported that VLC app for Windows 8 and 8.1 is uploaded to store and “in certification”. So, it has crossed the hurdle and Windows 8 / 8.1 owners will be able to enjoy arguably the best video player on their PCs and Tabs. The VLC team is terming it as first Beta release and have promised an update coming by weekend.

Detailed features and limitations list from VLC kickstarter page:

This application, version 0.2.0, is a BETA stage of the port of libVLC on WinRT. WinRT is the runtime of Windows 8/8.1 Metro/ModernUI, Windows Phone 8 and Xbox 1.

As this is a beta, some features are still not perfectly stable, but we are working on that. We thought we should share it with the users, so that people could test and help us.

This application:

  • works on Windows 8.0 and 8.1: too many people are still on 8.0, so we had to use that. This decreases the stability of the application, though…
  • is compiled for Intel x86 CPUs: Windows RT version will follow as soon as we are able to compile it. ARM version will also apply to Windows Phone.
  • plays all video and audio formats of VLC, including MKV, Ogg and Mov files or FLAC and MPC;
  • supports the same codecs as the VLC application for desktop, from MPEG-1 to H.265, through WMV3 and VC-1;
  • supports multiple-audio tracks selection;
  • supports embedded subtitles;
  • supports Background Audio playback;
  • features a easy-to-navigate but complete UI, notably for audio browsing;
  • supports Live Tiles!
  • supports removable storage and DLNA servers.

However, there are a few limitations:

  • This app is currently slow, and is slower than VLC for desktop for video decoding and has no hardware acceleration;
  • Subtitles support is not very good yet, and notably it only supports embedded subtitles; this is our major point of focus for now.
  • Audio does not seem to work in all configurations;
  • Playlists and streams are not supported in the UI (they are present in the core)
  • It’s clearly not as stable as it should be.

If you find ay issue with the application during usage, you can report them or any new feature request here. For those wondering about Windows Phone app, read here.

VLC store link

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