Beta of VLC for Windows 8 comes out

The team at VLC has released a first beta of the VLC app for Windows 8. Much of the basic functionality is there, but some functionality is missing, such as hardware acceleration and stream playback.

The app works on both Windows 8 and Windows 8.1, writes a developer of VLC on his own blog. According to the developer, Jean-Baptise Kempf, it was by far the most difficult VLC port to date, but he won’t elaborate on that. Kempf also emphasizes that this is a beta and that not all functionality works well. Also, the app does not yet work on Windows RT, the version of Windows 8 for ARM CPUs. That will eventually come, together with a Windows Phone version, Kempf promises.

The app can play all formats that the desktop version of VLC can handle, but the application is still slow at the moment, the developer warns. There is no hardware acceleration yet and subtitle support is still mediocre; loading external files with subtitles, for example, is not yet possible. In addition, the sound output does not yet work, there is no support for playlists and playing streams yet, and the application is not yet very stable.