VLC blocks downloads from Huawei devices following a slew of negative reviews

[Polycount]

VideoLAN, the company behind popular cross-platform media player VLC, is none too pleased with Huawei at the moment.

According to VideoLAN, new Huawei devices are killing all background apps except the smartphone maker's own proprietary software, a policy VideoLAN calls "ridiculous."

If true, this would certainly be problematic for an app like VLC - like many audio playback apps, it relies on background functionality to play sound when another app (such as a web browser) is in focus. By killing the app, Huawei's devices could be breaking VLC's audio entirely.

If VideoLAN's frustrated tweets are to be believed, that's precisely what is occurring now. It seems Huawei device users have become so frustrated by audio breakage that they're giving the VLC app 1-star reviews, unaware that their device may be to blame.

PSA: @HuaweiMobile phones are now blacklisted and cannot get VLC on the Play Store.
Their ridiculous policy of killing all background apps (except their own) breaks VLC audio background playback (of course).
See https://t.co/QzDW7KbV4I and many other reports...@HuaweiFr

— VideoLAN (@videolan) July 25, 2018

In response to these negative and possibly ill-informed reviews, VideoLAN has decided to block some of Huawei's most recent devices from downloading VLC on the Google Play Store. It's not clear whether or not existing VLC users will be impacted by this change, however.

Whether you feel VideoLAN's decision is justified or a bit of an overreaction, users aren't too happy about it. Responding to one particularly-frustrated user, VideoLAN said the following (translated from French), referencing Huawei's decision:

If an app [plays audio], it's normal for it to be in [the] background. Blocking the normal operation of Android is totally abnormal. Otherwise, just kill all the apps, and [don't] turn on the phone, it saves even more battery!

Huawei has not responded to the matter yet, though it's not clear if VideoLAN has reached out to the company to resolve the issue. At any rate, if you own one of Huawei's newest devices, you may have to find another audio player to suit your needs.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/75671-vlc-blocks-downloads-huawei-devices-following-slew-negative.html

 

[Jon Tseng]

Meh. Guess it makes sense. Shouldn't be that hard to get a copy from APKMirror if you really do want VLC tho...

 

[Lifeispossible]

I updated it on pc like 2 months ago and it got really really slow. vlc used to be good what happened

 

[Aus spot]

I updated it on pc like 2 months ago and it got really really slow. vlc used to be good what happened

Change settings to remove hardware acceleration. Fixed for me

 

[texasrattler]

I updated it on pc like 2 months ago and it got really really slow. vlc used to be good what happened

nothing happened, its called user error. software updates all the time, it helps if you pay attention to whats updated.

 

[Aus spot]

nothing happened, its called user error. software updates all the time, it helps if you pay attention to whats updated.

I think that is a bit harsh. Vlc has a reputation to just work in standard form. It should not need tweeking as it has not needed it in the past. The forum has many comments on this error.

 

[Morphine Child]

Idk, for occasional listening I just use built in app. Basic but it works. When I want something more powerful I use AIMP, never had any issues whatsoever.

 

[EClyde]

VLC on PC is good. On Android it stinks

 

[Digitalzone]

Just another reason why to want as clean as possible Android. I had only one Huawei and it was crippled too, the possibility to move apps to SD was disabled (unless root). And GUI is ugly asf.

 

[regiq]

I've never been a fan of the PC version of VLC. Hard to tweak and poor playback quality (things like deinterlacing, display refresh rate sync, audio resampling/dac sampling frequency switching). On windows MPC-HC is a lot better choice.
But on android VLC is the only app I know that plays media from a SMB share on my home network.

 

[Badvok]

Seems strange that only VLC is affected by this, other non-Huawei apps manage to play audio in the background just fine.

 

[JordLevy]

I updated it on pc like 2 months ago and it got really really slow. vlc used to be good what happened

I use PotPlayer because VLC for some reason can't even stream a 1GB file over my network (cat6) from a NAS. PotPlayer has yet to skip a beat. I agree, something recently has made VLC lackluster.

 

[mbrowne5061]

I dropped VLC from my lineup of software back in 2010 after I discovered MPC and its various codec packs.

 

[Digitalzone]

Yeah, on PC, I haven't liked VLC either. Not so good performance, glitches, lots of possible tweaks. But on Android, its the best for me. It provies folder view, library view, can play from network like SMB shared drive, has a shutdown timer...

 

[EClyde]

I use PotPlayer because VLC for some reason can't even stream a 1GB file over my network (cat6) from a NAS. PotPlayer has yet to skip a beat. I agree, something recently has made VLC lackluster.

I won't use Pot Player just cause it has a dumb name. Good reason, huh?

 

[cliffordcooley]

I won't use Pot Player just cause it has a dumb name. Good reason, huh?

I'm with you on that note for sure. I'm not a pot head. And I don't want my choice of applications, putting me in the spotlight of a potential user.

 

[lazer]

I use VLC on all of my devices and love it. Never had a problem, but then I do not have Huawei....

BTW, I never do 'auto-upgrade' - found it ends up ruining too many good programs...

 

[JordLevy]

I won't use Pot Player just cause it has a dumb name. Good reason, huh?

It's a silly name for sure, but it's a great piece of software. Other than that I use streaming services to consume media.

 

[geckopico]

OK, so the article probably should have mentioned that this behaviour can be easily addressed by making a change in the battery settings for the app. Simply go to apps in Android settings and find the program and look for settings related to battery or power management and check the option to allow the app to run in the background. This can be done for any app that requires background processes (think chat apps, audio apps etc)

 

[texasrattler]

OK, so the article probably should have mentioned that this behaviour can be easily addressed by making a change in the battery settings for the app. Simply go to apps in Android settings and find the program and look for settings related to battery or power management and check the option to allow the app to run in the background. This can be done for any app that requires background processes (think chat apps, audio apps etc)

You are replying to a 4 yr old article that no one probably cares about anymore. May help to pay attention to that in the future.