[Update: As noted by one of our readers, it appears the non-beta VLC for Android app has already been removed from the Google Play Store. Even weirder.]
The makers of the popular open source, cross-platform media player VLC launched a non-beta version of the app [removed] in the Google Play Store. The beta version appeared in July of 2014, and remains in the Google Play Store.
Weird, right?
There doesn’t appear to be any official information available from VideoLan’s website. In fact, the only Android app listed on the website is the beta version.
From the app’s summary, it appears that the major difference is that the full version, which launched Feb. 4, 2015 but was subsequently removed, is a port of the desktop program. The beta version, which was last updated Dec. 9, 2014, is a dedicated app for Android, designed specifically for mobile devices.
The full version included the following additional features not included in the beta app:
“All formats are supported, including MKV, MP4, AVI, MOV, Ogg, FLAC, TS, M2TS and AAC. All codecs are included with no separate downloads.”
MX Player is still the most popular media player for Android. However, now that VLC for Android includes all codecs, it may gain some attention.
Via Android Police
MX Player already plays everything I’ve loaded up on my tablet, so I guess there’s no particular reason for me to try this.
For me, BS-Player still plays more of my media and provides the most functionality than MX Player, VLC, or VLC Beta.
Link seems to work for me.
Also, the screenshots and the actual app UI do not line up.
Oh, and annoyingly both the beta and non-beta are simply labeled VLC once installed…
Thanks for your feedback. How long ago did you visit the Google Play store link when it worked for you? Currently, when I click on the link in the post above, it redirects me to the Google Play Store search page. When I try to search for it directly, it does not appear. When I look for it from the Video Labs (dev) Google Play Store page, it is not there.
Less than a minute before posting. Could be that they turned on a region lock because of some patent issues or something.
That makes sense. What region are you located?
Norway at present.
I used to use an Android tablet to watch videos,
but found that they either didn’t support the files that
I had a lot of, or had a hard time playing them (VOB,
MPEG1), and forced me to convert anything
to H.264 mp4 to view it.
Since Windows 8.1 tablets have appeared,
I’ve switched to Windows and use the desktop version
of VLC (which plays VOB and MPEG1), as well as
DVDFab’s media player. The latter supports H.265,
which desktop VLC doesn’t. I’m now slowly converting
everything to H.265.
HandBrake provides VOB to H.265 conversion. H.265 is the
successor to H.264 and enables higher resolution
video, including 4K. Unfortunately, Android media
players don’t support H.265 either. I suppose VLC
will eventually be updated to handle H.265.
I actually originally used VLC for Android Beta on my Android devices, but I eventually gave in and switched to MX Player when I purchased my MINIX NEO X8-H, since it seems to have a better time with some file types than VLC does.
I had to add it to my phone through the google play web page.
A tip for those using a microSd card, by default VLC only showed me my internal storage. In preferences select Directories, add a custom path, and type /storage. Now you can access all your stuff.
It seems its not there anymore
Does the Android version handle DVD .ISOs?
I love that about the windows version.