For many people there’s only one media player you need on your desktop and that is of course the open source wonder – VideoLan Client (VLC) Media Player. The inclusion of codecs within the player make it the number one choice for a broad swathe of the computing world, and according to Lead OSX and iOS developer Felix Paul Kühne, the Desktop as well as iOS and Android Apps will see Chromecast support soon.
According to Kühne, the iOS app will see the update first, with a release expected in the next 4-6 weeks. Android will follow next, and then support for desktops will be looked at last. Kühne explained the slower expansion of Chromecast support on desktops is due to Google not releasing an SDK for native Windows, Linux and Mac apps yet.
Of course VLC is currently still in Beta. Jean-Baptiste Kempf, VideoLAN president, Startup founder and of course, VLC developer explained on his blog that even now, they have issues getting their releases beta tested: ‘we still don’t have enough people testing the prebuilt and release candidates versions..’. If you’re interested in helping VLC out with Beta testing their app, which would probably include Chromecast support when it comes, head over to the VLC Forum.
There are of course major video playing apps on Android, such as the popular MX Player looking at building Chromecast support, as well as All Cast, which already supports it. Of course competition in the space means constant improvement all round. At this stage, the best advice would be to join the VLC for Android Beta testers group, to find out more.
I’ve been playing around with my new Dick Smith Chromecast.
I haven’t quite settled on a good setup yet. A Chomecast enabled VLC or MX Player would be a big help.
Avia seems to lack some codecs. Plex… I need buy a better PC to run that as my DLNA Video Server.
What I need is something that is Windows Networking friendly that can play anything, including attaching subtitle files, and can also Chromecast. Not there yet.