VLC is a fantastic media player that plays just about every type of media format quite effortlessly. Windows 8 users who love using metro apps may have had to settle for less until now, but the good news is that metro VLC app is finally available for download from the Windows Store. However, the Windows version is only in beta and that means its still a work-in-progress.
VLC App for Windows 8
The VLC app for Windows is currently only available for devices with x86 processors. Users of Windows RT devices running ARM will not be able to check out the app for the moment as the development team are still working out the kinks and bugs. That said, the app is still way ahead of the built-in media player.
Once you install VLC on your device, give the app a few minutes to index your music and video files. While I got a big chunk of my music files indexed, none of my video files turned up and I had to manually navigate to the folder to play them. VLC for Windows also recognizes external devices such as USB’s. However, it won’t play DVD’s due to the limitations posed by Microsoft’s modern UI sandbox.
Once the indexing is complete you will see a tiled thumbnail view with attractive album art of all your files in alphabetical order. When you play a particular soundtrack, you have options to favorite it, view other popular albums recorded by the artist, see a brief biography of the artist, and view albums by other similar artists as well.
Video playing capabilities are somewhat limited with pretty bare options to increase and decrease speeds. However there is support for closed captioning and subtitles.
If you’ve been a big fan of VLC for your desktop, the current metro app may feel a tad bare boned and lacking in the rich features that you’re usually used to seeing. However, the app is still a work in progress so you shouldn’t feel too disheartened if its not up to its usual standard. We can only say that things will definitely get better as users feedback is input and the final product materializes.
Until then, you can still enjoy the beta version of VLC on your Windows 8 PC.
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