The new VLC really has regressed. It crashes for me now (I don't remember the last time it did before the latest update). Also, the audio delay for volume changes is multiple seconds instead of instant, and for some reason, the "repeat this video" is always on whenever I start it up. Plus, the interface is ugly.

Even with all that though, VLC has regressed from being an amazingly solid piece of software to being merely above average.

Unless you have a different bug, "the audio delay for volume changes is multiple seconds instead of instant" was fixed in version 2.0.1 along with several other issues.

The audio delay issue persists for me in version 2.0.1 like the parent commenter. Among other issues is an increase in random crashing. The new interface isn't particularly inviting, either. Reading through the other comments here has caused me to revert to the older version with which I was never unhappy with.

I also see it "rebuilding font cache" on every fresh start. Is anyone else seeing that? Very annoying.

If you download the latest build this problem was fixed for me. http://nightlies.videolan.org/build/macosx-intel/?C=M;O=D

Yea, I get that on any 720p + movie. Basically any mkv that may have subtitle support.

Try hosting your video files on a Plex media server paired with the Plex iOS app.

No need to copy files to the iPad, Plex streaming works great even over 3G. You can register your server with myPlex then sign on Plex clients to make getting to your video collection super easy.

Custom video categories are fantastic for keeping track of programming screencasts. I just setup my Plex with Peepcode, Destroy All Software, and Railscasts categories and am very pleased with the setup. If I start watching a video on the Roku box on my TV, I can pick up where I left off on the iPad or my iPhone whether I'm at home or not.

That doesn't really solve for the parent's use-case of

> It's actually the reason we stopped taking the laptop while away for the weekend. I just put a movie on the iPad for VLC and we are good to go.

though. You'd need to bring something to run Plex on.

Plex runs on a computer at home. You then stream that computer's media over the Internet on the iPad/iPhone using the Plex app. To make things super-easy you can register your home Plex server on myPlex and sign into it using myPlex on the iPad/iPhone.

Bam! No need to bring a computer OR move files to the device. You can even stream over 3G with pretty decent quality.

I think the previous poster understood the technical details and was implying that internet access is not always there. Also a lot of people have limited mobile quotas so wouldn't want to use their 3G connection for streaming something.

Some people go where there is no 3G/WiFi coverage. Sometimes it's also financially not feasible to do this (think roaming costs).

Example - a ferry trip from UK to France. No 3G for about 1.5hrs, or in other words - no 3G for a average length movie.

Try a month in Japan. Not even the same basebands. You want Internet? Get yourself a new device my friend!

That works so well on an airplane without wifi, or a tent in a valley in the wilderness :)

> That works so well [in] a tent in a valley in the wilderness

Much like a laptop.

This isn't going to work at all on most airplanes.

It's a nice idea, but it's not really going to work when you're on the move with spotty phone coverage (let alone on a plane). A solution involving local storage is a hundred times better.

Or you can use AirVideo. It converts while it streams or you can have it just do the conversion and dump it in iTunes so it will sync to the ipad automatically for offline usage.

Sure, but then you'll have to use up precious gigabytes for video storage. Via plex I have streaming access to my entire video library.

Dude it's 2012...gigabytes haven't been precious for over a decade.

Neither has bandwidth. :-)

Only 3 GBP / MB when roaming. Remotely viewing a movie with a high-res encoding might only cost approximately the same as a car.

Why don't you just buy a local pre-paid SIM? Though I guess most of the time I'm travelling I'm on vacation, so don't need to be reachable on the usual number. That might be an issue if you're on a delegation.

That's fine in theory, but you have to find a reasonable deal, find a shop to purchase it in, familiarize yourself with how to charge it up, and all in the time you spend in that country. I've found it burns at least half a day - usually not worth it. Most of my leisure travelling is motorbike touring, and I may spend each night in a different country, or cross borders several times a day (mountains with interesting roads are frequently on borders).

If my travel was simpler, sure, it's somewhat workable, and I do have e.g. a German SIM. But it's usually better to just rely on hotel wifi, cached maps on phones, offline GPS on bikes, etc.

When travelling it often is. Mobile data rates are still prohibitively high in most places and wifi services have low caps.

Only if you are at 'home'. If I where to use 3G on my phone when traveling in the US, I'd pay $17/MB! Even a 3 hour drive from my house (a trip a regularly make) will put me in a new country and I'm paying $7 for the first 50MB and then $3/pr additional MB. That makes watching movies kind of expensive.

While offline?

Not so much. If you're going to need to view video away from data service or WiFi then, yeah, you have no choice but local storage.

I've lost count of the number of times I've gone to click play on the new OSX version of VLC and accidentally clicked forward or backward, completely losing my place in the video I was watching as it skips to another. Horrible UI.

Try MPlayerX for OSX, I prefer it over the new VLC.

I tried MPlayer OSX once, and found that it turned my mac's volume up to max everytime I played a video. Sorry guys, endangering my audio equipment is terminally bad QA in my book. No thanks.

If OSX is anything like other OS's, you have to turn down the volume through OSX, not mplayer. mplayer's volume control is a way to "fine tune" the system volume. It sounds like your system volume is set high to begin with. Lower it. Then launch mplayer.

I would tell you how but I don't use OSX. Surely someone else can tell you, or you could learn yourself. It's worth learning how to use mplayer, if you are serious about audio.

Actually, it turn(ed) the system volume all the way up.

But mplayer (command line) itself is awesome. It's the only thing I use on Linux.

VLC is open source right? It would be nice if they put up the source for the iPad app so at least developers could make a build for themselves.

Seems that they do http://www.videolan.org/vlc/download-ios.html unless it's a different iOS version of VLC than the one on the app store that was removed.

I'm debating buying an iPad and not being able to play all media formats is a big one. Can I drag mkv 720p files to my iPad and will VLC play them if I can get it installed via above? Also hows the battery life if trying to play a 720p or 1080p file?

FWIW my Android Transformer plays everything using MX player. There's a seperate install for the codecs, but its easy and painless. All in the android play store. No sideloading needed.

Perfect! Thank you for finding that! I skimmed their site but obviously not deep enough.

How would this help? (And I'm actually asking, not disputing.)

I don't have an iPad. Does Apple allow you to load your own app (as in an app you write or at least compile for yourself) onto your own iPad, or do you have to load everything through the store, which requires getting Apple's approval?

If you can't directly load your own app (which is my, perhaps mistaken, impression), how would having the source help? If you can, then that sounds like a potential solution.

Yes you can run your own code. Otherwise development would be very difficult, because with every small tweak you would have to get the code approved by Apple.

Not to mention VLC 2.0 it breaking the helper libs needed for DVD backup. The fix should have been automatic:

http://www.macworld.com/article/1165549/fix_handbrake_dvd_ri...

Sorry, but we aren't responsible for 3rd apps who try to use VLC's functionality in a completely unsupported way. Stuff within an application bundle is considered private and can change anytime.

Anyway, we informed the Handbrake devs about a month prior to VLC's 2.0 release, which is why they came up with a fix in their latest version shortly after.

There are only two programs I reversed a version update:

- Skype back to 2.8

- VLC back to 1.1.12

You mean that giant pill shaped toolbar ?

If so I hate it too. Raised a bug report for it being too large and one of the developers told me to buy a Retina Mac and that my 17inch MacBook Pro has too small a resolution.

In the public forums the devs have been very defensive about the UI redesign. I don't criticize easily, but it really does seem to stem from arrogance.

This will be fixed in VLC 2.0.2 :)