News - VLC 2.0 receives makeover

[abaxas]

Perhaps i should also add... im a broadcast engineer and i regularly work closely with companies like Ericsson, Harris and Harmonic who actually design the transmission coders so i know in pretty good detail how codecs work.

Inefficiently and badly optimised but whole standards compliant

[tribaljet]

Inefficiently and badly optimised but whole standards compliant

LOL.

Don't be like that, slowly the industry is heading for a better path

[Biscuit]

Inefficiently and badly optimised but whole standards compliant

It might seem that way but when you consider these devices will be transcoding multiple 270Mb/1.5Gb/3Gb HDSDI down to a couple of Mbps MPEG in real time and then muxing them together to fit down a tiny bandwidth pipe with as little latency as possible the optimisation starts to seem a bit more impressive.

I agree standards do hold back development, but they also mean people at home have less to worry about... sort of.

[tribaljet]

The question is, do you think hardware manufacturers (consumer segment) are limiting the end user format flexibility, therefore pushing even further broadcast standard compliance?

[Biscuit]

The question is, do you think hardware manufacturers (consumer segment) are limiting the end user format flexibility, therefore pushing even further broadcast standard compliance?

The standards are set by various board such as SMPTE, and these are adhered to by both the consumer product manufacturers and the broadcasters, i don't think either side of it is limiting the other necessarily, its about creating commonality in the industry so that everything actually works!
When we talk about IP delivery the story is different and the lines are much more blurred. If im honest im not totally up on any standards, or if such a think even exists on this platform.

[valhar2000]

VLC has worked very well for me, until recently, when the hardware H264 decoding started producing artifacts.

Meanwhile, on a laptop, VLC could not use hardware decoding at all, and neither could MPC-HC, until I configured it to use a dxva2 codec that comes bundled with Windows 7, which works beautifully.

Different computers are different, and sometimes complex software like this will fail. Just use what works, people.

[IronWarrior]

Well, I welcome the new update, it seems to have fixed many things for example, the old version couldn't play ordered chapters without the video restarting, seems the new one can now.

I still prefer MPH-HC since it's still superior, but I might like VLC again if you could pause and start the video just by clicking anywhere on the video.

Don't understand why people complain about codec's through, all you need is the latest K-Lite or CCCP download to allow you to play anything and everything.

[this_is_gav]

I only use VLC on a deployment image at work, where the standard 1.1.11 version will work on all computers I've tried it on, whereas MPC:HC must retain optimised settings for the hardware it was initially installed on, which is fair enough, as I threw it a fairly unique task.

Personally, PotPlayer, the successor to KMPlayer, is the one I like, though for the time being I'm sticking with KMPlayer as Logitech SetPoint doesn't fully support PotPlayer. KMPlayer is still occasionally updated, albeit not by the original developer.

[Oobie-]

Useful for those on the macintosh, but windows users have better options.

Really? I disagree. Not found anything to improve on VLC.

MPC-HC and FFDShow. (+ac3filter if you have a 5.1 setup)

[jim]

MPC-HC and FFDShow. (+ac3filter if you have a 5.1 setup)

Which is far more complicated, and therefore not better.

If you want a more full-featured solution, then sure, that's great. But it's not, in my book, competition for VLC Player.

[Hicks12]

To say im depressed when i say this is an understatement...

I tried installing MPC-HC and setting up like this guide: http://www.homecinema-hd.com/intro_en.html

I installed and attempted setting up all the required components, using a high end setup(relatively?) i thought best to grab all the intensive items. After 2 hours of trying i gave up, well i had something without MadVR working fine but there was performance issues to say the least, it was like microstutter all the time, VLC was fine. Now this might have been due to me being sleep deprived (awake 48 hours... coursework + coffee + more coffee + quadruple espressos hot from a krups machine = not tired at all) but it just seems way to complicated. Or is the guide just a terrible one? (reading it i had to reread alot, it seems a bit odd).

Unless i find another guide that can get me to do this in < one hour then VLC still stays king in my book. I cant believe i struggled setting up a video player though....

edit : i stand corrected... i must have needed to reboot when i last tried! It seems a touch better than vlc but if i can get madvr actually working i guess a bigger difference will be apparent? Will test with proper demo stuff friday mind!

edit2: just installed anydvd hd... impressed i can play bluray without shoddy powerdvd! Now to see if anyones doing a discount on anydvd, unlikely . However id still like someone to let me know if theres a better guide, want to set up 100% dont mind spending another 2 hours now i know films working , imperials attacking hoth looks lush, no jittering but i will test with other blurays on friday .

Anydvdhd is EXPENSIVE!!!!!!!!! Only 70 euros for a 2 year sub... 100 for a lifetime, dont fancy paying £95 just to flipping unlock the bluray so i can play it in legit software, stupid flipping cyberlink screwing me over with bugging their powerdvd9 so it can play new releases... Any alternatives to anydvd?

[this_is_gav]

Someone on another forum linked this guide a few days ago, though I've not tried it. Updated this month though, so it should be bang up to date.

[aidanjt]

Which is far more complicated, and therefore not better.

If you want a more full-featured solution, then sure, that's great. But it's not, in my book, competition for VLC Player.

Or, you can install K-Lite, which comes with, and configures both of those for you.

[jim]

Or, you can install K-Lite, which comes with, and configures both of those for you.

Codec packs + Windows = Evil

[aidanjt]

Codec packs + Windows = Evil

The only thing that's evil is that Windows still depends on googling around for codecs. K-Lite solves that problem, very effectively.

[jim]

The only thing that's evil is that Windows still depends on googling around for codecs. K-Lite solves that problem, very effectively.

The problem isn't so much putting them on as getting them off. Once they're on, they just will not leave. If you have a problem with the codec packs, you're pretty much screwed and have to nuke the whole thing.

In the past I've used MPC + Haali + ffdshow, or even WMP + Haali + ffdshow which has been fine.

Mind you, I don't collect videos in quirky formats and want top-class performance out of them so a fairly simple solution is ample for me. Hence why I like VLC. It was a nightmare on my old HTPC, yes, but on a quad-core it's not an issue.