VLC alternative for KDE

[texaswriter]

That's hilarious... Wish Ubuntu would be more considerate of its sister projects...

[dmeyer]

To be fair, it isn't kubuntu packaging that makes VLC bloated, but Ubuntu packaging. Kubuntu doesn't re-package VLC, but since Ubuntu does package it, they set it up for use with Ubuntu. That said, as others have pointed out, disabling the "install recommends" eliminates all of the excess packages. You can do it from the commandline or one of the settings in the muon package manager (if done in the package manager, it is turned off for all installs, not just VLC).

My preference is to always disable "install recommends" and when installing something review the recommended packages and choose what, if anything, I want to install from the recommended list.

I said it was Ubuntu to blame. Disabling install recommends is a good idea but often with KDE apps, one really must allow the recommended stuff for full functionality. You take a very clever approach which although a little inconvenient is still very pragmatic.

[vw72]

Yeah as others have pointed out VLC is a QT app. It is only the *buntu and hence Kubuntu packaging that is so incredibly bloated. Other distros don't suffer from this.

Also, if you haven't yet,

sudo apt-get install phonon-backend-vlc

and change the default phonon backend Its literally light years ahead of gstreamer. Dolphin video previews work and so much more.

To be fair, it isn't kubuntu packaging that makes VLC bloated, but Ubuntu packaging. Kubuntu doesn't re-package VLC, but since Ubuntu does package it, they set it up for use with Ubuntu. That said, as others have pointed out, disabling the "install recommends" eliminates all of the excess packages. You can do it from the commandline or one of the settings in the muon package manager (if done in the package manager, it is turned off for all installs, not just VLC).

My preference is to always disable "install recommends" and when installing something review the recommended packages and choose what, if anything, I want to install from the recommended list.

[dmeyer]

Yeah as others have pointed out VLC is a QT app. It is only the *buntu and hence Kubuntu packaging that is so incredibly bloated. Other distros don't suffer from this.

Also, if you haven't yet,

sudo apt-get install phonon-backend-vlc

and change the default phonon backend Its literally light years ahead of gstreamer. Dolphin video previews work and so much more.

[verndog]

I installed VLC and it works as good as any other installation of VLC. Thanks for replies. The interface I'm use to and most of the time I use minimal anyway.

[Rog132]

VLC & Recommended

VLC

The default interface - http://wiki.videolan.org/Interfaces

The Qt Interface (qt) is the default interface on Linux and Windows starting with version 0.9.0...

Depends & Recommends

The VLC (with Raring - http://packages.ubuntu.com/raring/vlc ):

:~$ apt-cache show vlc
...
Depends: fonts-freefont-ttf, vlc-nox (= 2.0.6-1), libaa1 (>= 1.4p5), libavcodec53 (>= 6:0.8.3-1~) | libavcodec-extra-53 (>= 6:0.8.6), libavutil51 (>= 6:0.8.3-1~) | libavutil-extra-51 (>= 6:0.8.6), libc6 (>= 2.15), libcaca0 (>= 0.99.beta17-1), libfreetype6 (>= 2.2.1), libfribidi0 (>= 0.19.2), libgcc1 (>= 1:4.1.1), libgl1-mesa-glx | libgl1, libqtcore4 (>= 4:4.8.0), libqtgui4 (>= 4:4.7.0~beta1), libsdl-image1.2 (>= 1.2.10), libsdl1.2debian (>= 1.2.11), libstdc++6 (>= 4.6), libtar0, libva-x11-1 (>> 1.0.15~), libva1 (>> 1.0.15~), libvlccore5 (>= 2.0.0), libx11-6, libxcb-composite0, libxcb-keysyms1 (>= 0.3.9), libxcb-randr0 (>= 1.1), libxcb-shm0, libxcb-xv0 (>= 1.2), libxcb1 (>= 1.6), libxext6, libxinerama1, libxpm4, zlib1g (>= 1:1.2.3.3)
Pre-Depends: dpkg (>= 1.15.6~)
Recommends: vlc-plugin-notify (= 2.0.6-1), vlc-plugin-pulse (= 2.0.6-1), xdg-utils

vlc-plugin-notify: http://packages.ubuntu.com/raring/vlc-plugin-notify
Libnotify: https://developer-next.gnome.org/libnotify/

Older bug report - VLC brings lots of GNOME dependencies on Kubuntu: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+s...fy/+bug/435751

The VLC can be installed without the recommend packages:

http://pastebin.com/sdfih9eu :

sudo apt-get install --no-install-recommends vlc
...
0 upgraded, 63 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.

Need to get 22.9 MB of archives.

After this operation, 81.1 MB of additional disk space will be used.

'Normal installation' - http://pastebin.com/bt7j1kae :

sudo apt-get install vlc
...
0 upgraded, 73 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.

Need to get 24.9 MB of archives.

After this operation, 89.4 MB of additional disk space will be used.

Note - The Installation data is with the (small) KDE desktop, not with the Kubuntu desktop.


Alternatives

Media Players: http://www.kubuntuforums.net/showthr...-Media-Players

[SteveRiley]

First, install mplayer2. It's a fork of the venerable MPlayer with certain improvements. This will give you a command-line media player (whose executable is still mplayer, BTW), which can be handy sometimes.

Next, install smplayer. It's a QT4 front-end to MPlayer2. I like SMPlayer's UI better than VLC.

[kdeputer]

Kaffeine and KPlayer?

[verndog]

I have been spoiled with VLC on Ubuntu.
I went to install it on Kubuntu and found out it is gargantuan is size. Need all that gtk stuff.

Is there a alternative that works as well as VLC? The thing about VLC is I can drop almost anything it way and it just works.
For example I can drop the parent folder to any VIDEO_TS and it starts playing. Does Kaffiene work that good.
Amarok got all hosed up its jock strap and starting playing some music unrelated to the video.

Edit: My bad. I guess the huge download is all libraries and not gtk stuff. Maybe I'll try to install VLC after all.