VLC was once the best in class. Not only was it a great piece of legacy software, the Android team were so passionate that they took that reputation and all the expectations that go along with it and exceeded it.
But as time has gone on, it’s just started to languish. If you attempt to rewind a few too many times, the video freezes and you get audio. You can’t play a folder on a NAS without creating a playlist. You play a folder locally without VLC losing its place. Every time the screen goes off, it needs to scan the device anew. And despite being at the forefront of Holo Design and Material Design 1, it’s yet to implement Material You.
It feels like VLC for Android has been forgotten… So what do people recommend as a replacement?
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I recommend lower expectations.
Also - patches are welcome.
Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
https://piped.video/g3psanDLkOo?si=E_Lq8_KBFQx37jOO
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I’m open-source; check me out at GitHub.
I highly recommend VLC
What do you recommend?
VLC
VLC for life.
It still is, but it used to be too
VLC has shown its age for like, the last 9 years now. There are a lot of minor inconveniences with the program that add up and have made me seek out better options. However, I haven’t managed to completely get away from it since it still plays everything and mostly does what I want it to do.
The next best option I’ve found in the last year is KMPlayer. Lots of customization, mostly plays all files (AV1 stuff still crashes my KMP despite me having the codecs installed, whatever), and the video image doesn’t artifact if you seek back and forth a lot like it does in VLC.
Edit: just realized which community I was in. There is a free Android version, though I have never used it. FWIW, I use KMP on desktop with strict firewall filters to block it from doing anything sus.
Afaik KMPlayer on Android uses libVLC, so it’s still just a wrapper of VLCs player library.
mpv
Looks like you have a project for yourself. I look forwards to the Sabre VLC Android fork
😂
The only problem I have with VLC is audio sync for stuff on my SD card 😭
Thank you for asking, I’ve been thinking about this lately. Unfortunately, I don’t have an answer for you
i personally run my own jellyfin server. the interface isn’t quite there yet, but it’s overall more usable. not sure it’d fit your use case though.
I’m not sure what all is going on with it, but mine will randomly start playing the last song I was listening to when I disconnect from a Bluetooth device or turn off Bluetooth. Not always, just sometimes. Even if I haven’t used it for a month 😐
I’d be in to something new, also.
Nova player
I use PotPlayer extracted and run in portable mode.
VLC is still my favorite all around player, and I would recommend supporting them with some funding to fix the bugs. You can try Auxio for local music and MPV for videos. There are many clients for streaming from your own server or others. It just depends on the protocol or platform you want to scrape.
