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Long overdue, the VLC Media Player app has finally landed on the Android platform, albeit in an initial beta form.
The VideoLAN team have pushed out the app as a beta to be tested by ‘hardcore’ and ‘power’ users, and it’s reportedly a little buggy and slower than the finished product will be. It does however bring with it the usual excellent standard of both video and audio playback in a multitude of formats.
VLC Beta for Android is currently only compatible with devices that use ARMv7 processors with support for NEON. In more simple terms, for now you’ll need one of these devices in order to use VLC: Galaxy Nexus, HTC One X, Samsung Galaxy S III, Motorola Defy, HTC Desire and the Nexus One.
For those who aren’t familiar with VLC, it’s been one of the most popular free media players for PC and Mac for some years. Its popularity is down to the massive catalogue of video and audio file formats that it supports – if anything can play an obscure video or audio file, its VLC.
The app currently has a less-than-polished user interface, due to its beta tag. It works well from what we’ve thrown at it so far, with a neat and unobtrusive selection of buttons available to pop-up and hide away when watching videos. The interface will be given a makeover before the full launch and performance improvements will also be added.
VLC soon made the jump to iOS to give iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch users some more freedom when it comes to media playback, but as has become the norm, Apple removed the app from its App Store.
Thankfully for Android users Google doesn’t have the same closed approach to apps, so VLC Player will probably enjoy a long and successful time in the Play Store. If you’re feeling confident and you’ve got one of the compatible devices listed above, you can download it for free from the Play Store now. Compatibility with other devices will soon be added in app updates, and a full version will be made available once everything is tested and working well.
Have you tried out VLC for Android? Let us know what you think of it so far.
Let us know your thoughts on our comments below or via our @Gadget_Helpline Twitter page or Official Facebook group.
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