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Portable VLC Media Player 0.8.4a Test Release

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February 1, 2006 - 11:46pm
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John T. Haller
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Portable VLC Media Player 0.8.4a Test Release

UPDATE 4/12: Portable VLC Media Player has been officially released:
https://portableapps.com/apps/audio_video/media_players/portable_vlc

As promised, I posted the release of VLC I had been working on so you guys can check it out. It's a tad different from Rob's. The files are UPXed so the install size is down to 10MB. I was still playing with the splash screen timings. (I try to test local, fast key and slow key to get a good feel)

Download Size: 8MB
Install Size: 10.2MB
MD5 Checksum: 0e42a2f7a9dddd5114dac23337e95d03

Download link:
http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/portableapps/portable_vlc_0.8.4a_beta...

I'm not calling this a public release at the moment, so please don't spread it outside the forums.

PS - And I'll start posting stuff earlier on in the development process so Angel others can contribute code and ideas (b) we don't have any more duplicated effort and (c) it'll be fun...

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February 2, 2006 - 12:16am
Rob Loach
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Superb

Thanks a lot, John. I'll check it out when I'm back on my Windows machine (on Ubuntu right now) and see how I can improve my NSIS script writing. I'll let you know what application I plan on taking on next time around so that we don't butt heads Wink .

Rob Loach [Website] [Projects]

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February 3, 2006 - 3:52am
Ryan McCue
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Download size?

What is the download size of this?
----
R McCue

"If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate."

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February 3, 2006 - 9:35am
(Reply to #3)
John T. Haller
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It's right there

Re-read the original post. It's right there.

Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!

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February 3, 2006 - 9:55am
(Reply to #4)
T1ny (not verified)
I installed over my old VLC

I installed over my old VLC install on the USB drive with yours since it's smaller. Smile

Basically everything I've been doing I'm still able to do so it seems solid and gets a work out previewing commercials and crazy ideas to some clients.

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February 3, 2006 - 4:41pm
(Reply to #5)
Ryan McCue
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oops

Sorry Blum Better read it properly next time
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R McCue

"If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate."

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February 3, 2006 - 11:57am
Deuce
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To save some space....

For those that are space minded on their USB drives. I deleted the local and skins folders. THis saves a total of 3.35MB. While this might be against the program creators license, I do not need the language files as I only need english for me.

It might be a good idea to allow the local files as downloaded add-ons to save space on the usb. What do you all think?

Deuce

"Portable Software: Just the beginning..."

Deuce
Portable Software: Just the beginning.

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February 3, 2006 - 12:26pm
(Reply to #7)
John T. Haller
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Not a huge difference

I don't want to remove the extra skin as that is an expected part of VLC. And the language files are only 2.48MB, which isn't a huge difference (unlike, say, Gaim which is 1/2 the size when English-only).

I try to keep every app as close as possible to the standard version.

Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!

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February 3, 2006 - 2:10pm
(Reply to #8)
Deuce
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That's is what I figured, I

That's is what I figured, I was only commenting for the space-minded people.

Smile

Deuce

"Portable Software: Just the beginning..."

Deuce
Portable Software: Just the beginning.

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February 3, 2006 - 4:55pm
(Reply to #9)
justin
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nice!

I love this app. It has an easy to use interface and is well suited for what I need. This app should be released as soon as possible. The only thing that I find wrong with it is that the timing of the splash screen is a little off. It should be earlier.

-Justin

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February 3, 2006 - 7:42pm
(Reply to #10)
gao0nline
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More deleting...

got it down to 5.93, and it still works

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February 14, 2006 - 6:00pm
Abecedarian
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Suggestions

I like it! I'm very glad that this is being tackled.

In the spirit of beta testing, I do have two suggestions.

(1) Skins and Plugins

Perhaps move these folders into either \ or \settings? Makes upgrading much easier.

(2) Settings

As picky as this sounds, giving some the file "vlcrc" in \settings some sort of filetype - like .txt or .ini - would be appreciated. You may also want to include info noting that when editing this file one must remove the "#" in front of changes to make them active and that anything that has a # added in front of it will revert to the default value.

I personally prefer having a commented out section explaining what the default is, with the option of using/editing the following line for the changed setting variable. That way one can play around and comment out past changes without having them overwritted. For example, one might want to experiment using different hotkeys and manually toggle between the two they are considering via the use of #s.

Also, I've found that for some setting changes I have to edit vlcrc as the program refuses to save some settings edited through the GUI. For example, to have "Advanced options" be checked by default.

That is pretty much it. Seems to be working fairly well although I've only lighting tested it so far!

~Abecedarian

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February 14, 2006 - 10:23pm
(Reply to #12)
John T. Haller
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Can't do most...

Thanks for the suggestions, but...

Skins has to be a subdirectory of the EXE. Same with plugins. This is just the way VLC works.

The settings files are just using their default names for consistency. Same with the actual content of the settings files. Most users won't be altering them, anyway.

As with my other apps, I try to remain as true to the original as possible while adding in some handy portable stuff. I agree that having movable skins directories or better commented config files may be handy, but I'm using an unaltered copy of VLC... so it is what it is.

Regards,
John

Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!

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February 18, 2006 - 11:14am
bobstennett
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Fastone Player

I am using an audio video player called Fastone Player and it is only 756kb with help file and fully portable.
FastStone Player (FSPlayer) is a FREE multimedia player intended to enable users to play all common media files (Windows Media as well as Real Media) within one program with high flexibility and simplicity. It employs a Window-Resource-Explorer user interface to allow ease of media file access. Special but lovable features such as Slow-Motion, Frame-Step, Zoom-In are nicely supported. Track bar controls are used to adjust sound volume, balance and clip position with mouse wheel support easily.
Features

  • Support common media formats: Windows Media and Real Media such as MP3, AVI, MPEG, DivX, xVid, ASF, WMV, WMA, RM, RMA, RMVB and others
  • Slow Motion
  • Frame Step – View the video Frame by Frame for detail and motion observation
  • Video Zoom In
  • Random Play, Lock Play, and Full Screen
  • One Click to switch between Pause and Continue
  • Mouse Wheel Support
  • Skins Support
  • And Much more
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    February 18, 2006 - 11:49am
    (Reply to #14)
    John T. Haller
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    Several Caveats / Not Really Portable

    The overall rating of FastStone Player is pretty poor on Download.com (1.5 out of 5 Stars). The player doesn't actually include the codecs, so you need them installed locally to actually be able to play the media. So, if you try to run the portable version of FastStone Player on a PC without Real Media, it won't play Real Media fies. Same for the other formats. So, it isn't really an all-in-one player... just a shell that uses installed codecs. Installed locally, where you can also install Real Media Player, DivX, etc, it's probably handy. But it wouldn't be as useful portably.

    In contrast, VLC Media Player actually includes all the necessary codecs built in... even on the portable version. So, you don't have to worry whether something is installed on the local PC or not.

    Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!

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    February 25, 2006 - 3:32am
    SHADOW-XIII
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    very good, even if it takes

    very good, even if it takes 10MB it's great ...
    but one thing bothers me, probably unchageable: path to mp3 on playlist is hardcoded not realitve, isn't it ?

    btw. how it would kill my pen drive to watch movie ~700mb from USB ?

    Embrace your dreams

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    February 25, 2006 - 4:51am
    (Reply to #16)
    mikee385
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    Can be changed

    With most playlists, you can manually change the path to be relative. Since m3u's (and most other types of playlist files) are just simple text files, you can just open it up in a text editor and change the hardcoded entries to relative ones. I've got a simple little program I wrote for for myself goes in and changes them for me.

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    February 25, 2006 - 6:24am
    (Reply to #17)
    SHADOW-XIII
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    but I'm talking about

    but I'm talking about built-in-VLC playlist, not about files ...
    I do not want to create another files for music, I've got everything sorted in directories

    oh and is there any way to make VLC saving playlist while quitting program !?

    Embrace your dreams

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    February 26, 2006 - 4:05am
    (Reply to #18)
    mikee385
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    But, while the flash drive

    But, while the flash drive is plugged in, the drive letter isn't going to change, and therefore, it doesn't matter whether the playlist paths are relative or hard-coded. The only time it would matter is if you save the playlist as an m3u file before quitting the program and then open it up when you want to use it again. If you just modified the m3u file from hard-coded locations to relative locations after it was saved, you would have solved the problem of needing relative locations. It doesn't require you to create anything more than you would be creating normally.

    Isn't this the behavior that you're looking for, or am I misunderstanding what you're asking?

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    February 26, 2006 - 9:44pm
    DigeratiPrime
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    MUPI - frontend for MPlayer

    I just want to reccomend this app. Its fully portable, 2 files, about 3mb total, and plays more or less what vlc does and does a better job imo. MPUI is the 'mpc' like frontend for mplayer. Try it.

    http://mpui.sourceforge.net/index.php

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mplayer

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    February 26, 2006 - 11:34pm
    (Reply to #20)
    John T. Haller
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    Needs codecs

    Actually, it needs the codecs, too (about 20MB) otherwise it can only play files for codecs installed for whatever machine it is running on. Start a new thread for MPlayer. I like what I see from MPUI and MPlayer so far. I can't figure out where to put the codecs, but don't reply here, start a new thread. Otherwise noone will find this discussion.

    Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!

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    February 26, 2006 - 11:42pm
    (Reply to #21)
    DigeratiPrime
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    ok, i will start a new

    ok, i will start a new thread. i removed wmp and codecs from windows using nlite, and i do not have any codecs or directshow filters installed. so i dont know about needing extra codecs, maybe for wmv9, otherwise everything works fine.

    [edit] new post here:
    https://portableapps.com/node/1003

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    February 27, 2006 - 12:07am
    (Reply to #22)
    ixolib
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    Any other related projects?

    I'm curious, have you checked out any of the the other Win32 GUI interfaces on the Related Projects page:
    http://www.mplayerhq.hu/design7/projects.html#unofficial_packages

    I was just wondering how you arrived at choosing MUPI.
    I've been messing with MUPI/MPlayer tonight and so far I think it's better than VLC.

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    February 27, 2006 - 12:33am
    (Reply to #23)
    John T. Haller
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    Continue Here

    Please continue all MPlayer-related discussion here:
    https://portableapps.com/node/1003

    No point diverging this thread and making it harder for people to find.

    Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!

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    March 16, 2006 - 4:32am
    monkey
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    it work really good

    I like it it work great!!!!!!!

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    March 16, 2006 - 1:21pm
    InvisoSniper
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    Love It

    Great work! Not a hitch so far...
    not that i expect one...
    But It would make for interesting conversation...
    Overall Great Job on Everything...
    You have made a great contribution to man kind...
    And Thats that.(Period)

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    March 17, 2006 - 7:21am
    reggae (not verified)
    it's brilliant!

    I have a whole added suite with PortableWackGet, Skype, etc (Thank you Rob and John), and now VLC too. It works perfectly fine, except for the vlcrc file which the app generates in both the settings folder and OUTSIDE the PortableApps folder. Will this be a problem?

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