Help Bring VLC to Windows 8

Update: The VideoLAN team has met their Kickstarter goal, but you can still contribute to help fund their efforts. Read on….

VideoLAN, the team that built and maintains the Swiss Army Knife equivalent of media playback tools, VLC, is hoping to bring VLC to Windows 8 as a Windows Store (a.k.a. “Metro”) app. This would potentially bring playback of multiple additional video formats that are not natively supported on Windows RT tablets or in the modern UI—including DVD!

The team has shared a video and initial screen mockups from the contract designer they’re engaging to create the user interface. And from what we’ve seen so far, we’re impressed!

You can help the VideoLAN team build VLC for Windows 8 by contributing to their Kickstarter project before Saturday December 29, 7:54am EST. They’re trying to raise £40,000, and they’re still working to hit that target. Since VLC is typically a freeware product, don’t expect any fabulous goodies for your pledge, but isn’t adding versatile media playback capabilities to your Windows tablet reward enough?

The fine print: Remember that if you pledge to a Kickstarter project, you’re only charged if they hit their fundraising goal (of course, we’re hoping that VideoLAN does). Kickstarter projects are essentially crowd-sourced venture investments. While a company may have every intention of completing the project with the raised funds, it’s entirely possible that some projects will not be completed and you will not see any product for your investment.