VideoLAN Won't Open/Run in Win98

[Ensign]

I have downloaded VideoLan (vlc-0.8.6e-win32.exe) and I can't get it to run.

Now before you answer, I do know that VideoLan need Unicode to work under Win98.

And I have downloded it and have installed the 2 Unicode files in my Windows\System directory.

And VideoLAn is listed in my Start directory.

But, when I click on any VideoLan application, or on any video file since they are now tied to VideoLAN, I get the folowing:

wxWidgets Fatal Error
This Program uses Unicode and requires Windows NT/2000/XP
Program Aborted

And I want to know why?

Does this version of VideoLan work win Win98?

The Website, as long as I have Unicode, said it should.

Or is there an older version of VideoLAN that I need.

[redwudz]

I haven't used W98 in a long time, but there are older versions of VLC in the FTP archive: http://download.videolan.org/pub/videolan/vlc/

It looks like about 0.3.0/ are the first versions to support Windows. That's from 2005, so it may be worth a try. But if you are still having problems, I would go to the VLC forum and see if you can find some help there.

I did see this post there about the latest versions not being compatible with W98: http://forum.videolan.org/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=44738&start=0&st=0&sk=t&sd=a

[Johnson Nguyen]

There are older versions but first and foremost, you should probably upgrade your 98 to atleast a 2000. I use to play my VLC on there to watch BMW movies and that's when I recall it working fine.

[Ai Haibara]

VLC doesn't necessarily need Unicode to work under Win9X/ME. If you don't encounter tags in your MP3s or videos with Unicode text, or Unicode-formatted subtitles, for example, you won't need it.

Here's what the VideoLan website says about Win98/ME support (from http://www.videolan.org/vlc/download-windows.html):

Windows 95/98/Me users: Please note that these versions of Windows are not officially supported. No VideoLAN developer uses any of these systems, which makes them hard to support. VLC should mostly work with them, but some incompatibilities might appear. You might need to download The Microsoft Layer for Unicode on Windows 95/98/Me Systems. The two MSLU files need to be put in the C:\Windows\System\ folder.

What that means, is that since none of the developers use Win98/ME, they make NO guarantee that new releases will continue to work on Win98 or ME.

(I personally have two Win98 towers running fine in another room, but they're probably not powerful enough to run the latest versions of VLC. )