Time to say VLC goodbye?

General Topics
1

Howdy malware fighters,

Although VLC is one of the most popular media players around, yet again a serious hole was found up in the software. This time attackers could take over the OS via a specially prepared Real Media file, given the victim opens this file. Be it not in May and September last, but during every other month recently a new version had to be released to protect users of VLC: http://www.videolan.org/security/sa0811.html

“Users should actually consider switching to another media player, while it is true that the network and streaming functions of VLC are unique, for users that can go without these and use their media players just to see downloaded films, an alternate player may be a better choiceer”, according to Heise Security:
http://www.heise-online.co.uk/security/Another-vulnerability-in-VLC-media-player--/news/112110
For those that do not want to switch, download VLC 0.9.7 and install. Users of Secunia PSI 1.0 were alerted and might already made the transition to a secure version: http://www.videolan.org/
download: http://www.videolan.org/vlc/download-sources.html

polonus

P.S. An alternative may be Plex. This XBMC-project clone, also known ass OSXBMC, plays nearly all kind of media and takes all sort of storage solutions.

Alas not suitable for a “quick launch and opening up a stream”…

Pros and cons

+Remarkably good file format support
+Remote control use
+Smooth user interface
+Network features
+Script support (YouTube & Apple.com trailers)
+Appearance and skins

-UI complexity
-DVD playback support
-Intel and Leopard mandatory
-Occasional hiccups

Download link:
http://elan.plexapp.com/2008/11/25/release-plexseven-071-onwards-and-upwards/

Damian

2

I just use Windows Media Player 11 with FFdShow. Occasionally i have to isntall Matroxa Demuxer but thats pretty much it. FFdShow plays everything and also keeps subtitle support. WMP11 docks to taskbar nicely so i can do other things while watching.
Best combo there is for me. I’ve tried others but they all generally suck.

3

I Tried VLC some time ago and didn’t like the experience at all, so it was back to JetAudio although that is a nice player I don’t like the way I can’t kill one of the windows that basically displays ads.

So I’m trying the latest version of WinAmp.

4

You do know that Plex is a Mac Application right?

5

::slight_smile: Plex seems to be based on XBMC.

6

K-Lite Codec Pack for me with ffdshow playing most of the stuff and the default media player i use for most files is BSPlayer. Media Player Classic for QuickTime, RealTime and Flash files. Then there’s PowerDVD for dvd’s and sometimes i also use WMP11 or Winamp. That’s it. ;D
VLC i keep installed just in case all the others fail to play something but that hasn’t happened so far, so i almost never use it.

7

VLC is the ultimate video player and its ability to play every single video file with the exception of original Blu-ray discs is unmatched. Couple that with zero codec and/or driver installation and you get a legendary video player, and you get it for free.

Epic in proportions, highly efficient in performance, the VLC player is the natural choice.

Post Scriptum: If you are worried about exploits, just make sure you update the application at www.videolan.org, or simply disconnect your network while watching a movie.

8

VLC is great. A new one to try out for music is Songbird by Mozilla. It is open source and works on Linux, OS X, and Windows. In the future it could prove to be a replacement for iTunes, if Apple allows Songbird to sync with iPods.

9

Apple allows any program to sync with the iPod. My brother used to have an iPod mini that he synced with WMP.

What Apple will not allow other programs to do is use its FairPlay DRM Technology. So if you bought music/movies from iTunes you must use iTunes as its the only program that supports it (as is true with most DRM schemes, only one program supports the DRM).

This is why we need to get rid of DRM altogether :slight_smile: