VideoLAN, the company behind the popular open source media player VLC, rolled out the long-awaited beta version of its VLC for Windows 8 app on Thursday.
The app allows users to watch videos in almost every format, including MKV, FLAC and Ogg files.
[seealso slug="movie-streaming-apps"]
The app is the result of a successful Kickstarter campaign that raised £40,000 ($66,704) in December 2012. Since its funding, the development of the Windows 8 app has been hampered by delays.
VLC's developer, VideoLAN, says the beta version of the Windows 8 app does have some limitations. "As this is a beta, some features are still not perfectly stable, but we are working on that," said Jean-Baptiste Kempf, VideoLAN's president, in a message to Kickstarter backers.
Other than overall stability issues, Kempf said other limitations of the beta version include slow video decoding, poor subtitles support, no support for playlists and streams in the app's user interface and audio that doesn't work in all configurations.
The company did not reveal when users might see a Surface version of the app. During the initial Kickstarter campaign, the company said a Surface version of VLC would be part of a second release.
Kempf confirmed a Windows Phone 8 version is also in the works, in an interview with Neowin. "We already have a design for WP8, and a working proof of concept," he said, adding that he would have more details after the Microsoft Build Conference in April.
VLC for Windows 8 is available in the Windows Store.