14 DAY TRIAL // VLC continues to be one of the top multimedia players on the market, so the Metro port that runs in the Modern UI of Windows 8.1 enjoys pretty much the same success as the desktop sibling does, at least among those who have already installed this particular OS version.
A new version of the application was officially released in the store today, bringing an important collection of bug fixes that are supposed to make the whole experience faster and more stable.
In terms of looks, there’s nothing different as compared to the previous version, so most of the changes implemented in this version are made under the hood for better performance.
Unfortunately, the application continues to work exclusively on x86 and x64 versions of Windows 8.1, so there’s no chance to get it to work on Windows RT devices, such as Microsoft’s own Surface RT.
Exclusively available on Windows 8.1
The previous VLC release was addressed exclusively to Windows 8.1 users, and the changes it brought were only available on this particular OS version.
Today’s update follows the same rules and comes with improvements for the decoding speed and fixes for “numerous bugs and crashes,” as the developing team mentions in the official release notes.
Otherwise, VLC for Windows 8.1 should work pretty much in the same way as its predecessors did, but VideoLAN says that it’s mandatory for those running the application to update as soon as possible to make sure that all bugs are fixed on their computers.
Another thing that’s worth taking into account is the fact that VLC for Windows 8.1 is still in beta development stage, so a number of issues could still exist.
Support for the majority of multimedia formats
Probably the best thing about VLC, no matter if we’re talking about the Modern version or the standard desktop client, is the rich support for media files, as this application can be used for opening almost any video or audio file out there.
This is the case of the Metro client as well, as it inherits this rich support for media files from its desktop sibling, while also bringing a fully optimized for the touch interface.
Of course, the app can also play MKV and FLAC files and comes with support for subtitles, but it still lacks Windows RT compatibility, which means that you still can’t use it on some tablets out there, such as Microsoft’s own Surface RT or Surface 2.
A new VLC update is in the Windows Store. Please let me know if you have any problems with it.
— Thomas Nigro (@ThomasNigro) October 16, 2014
