Unofficial VLC build for Android devices ready for download.

Media players are that software category that get a lot of attention from users. Now VLC is one of the most popular media players on the desktop and there are those who stand by it, no matter how many alternatives come up. VLC Player has made a landing on the mobile platform, but that was on iOS and the player was removed from the app store following some licensing issues that arose between the developers of the program. VLC 2.0 was launched recently for the desktop and there has been talk about a mobile version coming again for both iOS and Android devices. The source for the program is available online, so some of the coders over at XDA Developers have gone ahead and compiled the app and made it available for download.

Now, the app may not be fully ready for use but you can visit the forum and download the APKs for your device, if you want to take an early look at itThe app is based on the VLC 2.0 source and it uses native VLC libraries to decode the various media formats. Like VLC on the desktop, it’s safe to assume that the mobile app will also run all formats, flawlessly, except for DTS, MPEG2 and Theora, which haven’t been implemented, yet. Hardware acceleration is part of the feature set as well, so phones that support hardware acceleration for media can take advantage of this. However, if your phone doesn’t support it, it’s recommended that you turn off hardware acceleration.

There’s no support for streaming media, as of now, but if and when it does get implemented, it will open up a whole world of possibilities. Users should be able to stream content over the web and even use VLC at home to stream videos from their PCs to their mobile phones and tablets. The app is available for three variants for different hardware - ARMv6/ARM11, ARMv7a/Cortex-A8/NEON and ARMv7a/Cortex-A9. The app supports Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) and also the latest Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) OS.