16 ms·

VLC 3.0 release

827 points by jbk 9y ago

Aissen 9y ago
For an Android-specific features breakdown: https://geoffreymetais.github.io/features/vlc-30/ https://geoffreymetais.github.io/features/vlc-30/
z_open 9y ago
Is VLC even worth using these days? When last I stopped using it it seemed to be pretty far behind the other players in terms of HD video playback.
- etix 9y ago
  Give it another try, who knows.
- acdha 9y ago
  Try it - the release notes specifically mentioned HD playback improvements
  - jbk 9y ago
    Yes. This is because, before, VLC did not activate hardware decoding by default.
- floatboth 9y ago
  I use in on windows because it has great windows support (official installer, all the things), but on unix, mpv is the way to go (especially if you prefer GTK apps, there's gnome-mpv).
  - z_open 9y ago
    Yeah I'm on linux so I'm just using vanilla mpv. When I was on Windows, I used MPC with MadVR. Have you tried that?
  - snvzz 9y ago
    You might like mpc-qt.
- dimensi0nal 9y ago
  Only if you want something that "just works".
- SCdF 9y ago
  Out of interest, what are the other options (specifically in my case, for MacOS). For me, VLC has been the most stable and least wonky option for years now, but I'm not sure I'm aware of everything that is out there.
- khedoros1 9y ago
  I like having the same player across systems and haven't ever had problem with HD in it; basically, no incentive to leave VLC. I've probably used it for about 10 years now, and it's always done the job. Why wouldn't it be worth using?
nwah1 9y ago
Why was the release cycle so long?
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- etix 9y ago
  Chromecast support took much more time to implement than we originally expected, that was probably the major reason for the delay.
  - agumonkey 9y ago
    undocumented protocol or overly complex ?
    - etix 9y ago
      We had to redesign a new kind of module called a renderer that has some weird capabilities and of course the Chromecast being kind of undocumented didn't help.
      - pbhjpbhj 9y ago
        Is there a good reason for Google not to help vlc, as it's making the Chromecast more accessible? Chromecast doesn't seem that innovative?
        bubblethink 9y ago
        Chromecast isn't free software. You need google sdk, which obviously a project like vlc can't use.
- jbk 9y ago
  Because we merged the architecture for mobile and desktop, because we changed the decoding API to get GPU 0-copy and CPU 0-copy, because we needed a lot of changes for 4K and HDR. And, of course, ChromeCast.
bpicolo 9y ago
> Can stream to Chromecast devices, even in formats not supported natively So excited to stream media to my TV via a non-crapware application.
- orf 9y ago
  I've found videostream[1] to be amazing. Kind of sucks for the small team making it that VLC has this built in now, but I guess their startup was always on shaky grounds. 1. https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/videostream-for-google-ch/cnciopoikihiagdjbjpnocolokfelagl?hl=en https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/videostream-for-go...
  - bpicolo 9y ago
    I've had issues with Videostream, but it worked ok. I don't think it sucks per se - VLC was always publicly planning to add Chromecast support (it's been out on a couple platforms for a while, just not the ones I care about)
  - doughj3 9y ago
    Yup, I've been using videostream for years now. Seems like Chromecast support in VLC was always just around the corner, glad to see it's finally out there.
- eterm 9y ago
  This is also useful in case the amazon/google spat flares up again. With this I guess it should be possible to daisychain from twitch to chromecast via vlc if they start another game of brinkmanship over access to video.
  - etix 9y ago
    Absolutely. You can play any Twitch stream from VLC and cast it on your TV.
    - book_mentioned 9y ago
avtar 9y ago
I didn't spot this in the release notes but looks like the UI will now accommodate high-DPI displays in Windows: http://bradshacks.com/vlc-3-hidpi/ http://bradshacks.com/vlc-3-hidpi/
- bfred_it 9y ago
  Things like this make wary of moving to Windows. Most OS X apps didn't take long to become retina-ready. VLC is one of the most common Windows software and it still took until 2018 for it to work correctly.
  - leetcrew 9y ago
    there are still a lot of pain points if you have a 4K display. otherwise it's mostly fine.
    - tillinghast 9y ago
      Genuinely curious—so non-4k high-DPI displays work fine then?
      - avtar 9y ago
        In my experience, yes. I tried an Dell XPS 15 for a few weeks and the 4K pain points were evident with apps like Audacity, Photoshop, and VLC. I ended up learning more about Apple's high-DPI approach: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/is-mac-retina-scaling-functionally-identical-to-windows-high-dpi.1811094/#post-20240965 https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/is-mac-retina-scaling-f... Laptops aside I've read that using a large enough display, at least 32", helps work around the Windows scaling issues. I haven't tried this yet.
    - wolfgke 9y ago
      > there are still a lot of pain points if you have a 4K display. otherwise it's mostly fine. I personally love the rather small text and thus the giant amount of screen estate on my 27 inch 4K screen on Windows. But other people might have different preferences or visual acuity.
wolfgke 9y ago
Will there be 64 bit builds for Windows?
- etix 9y ago
  Yes, we had a last minute issue with the 64-bit builds, they will be available in a few hours.
  - skrowl 9y ago
    Are you seeing any performance difference in 32 vs 64? I'd imagine the vast majority of newer Windows PC that ship can do 64, but is there a great reason to run 64-bit VLC?
    - etix 9y ago
      AFAIK we didn't do an actual benchmark but when doing software decoding/encoding there should be small improvements here and there.
    - jbk 9y ago
      64bits gives you more registers (very good for codecs), but has longer pointers, so does not help too much for your cache misses.
sp332 9y ago
What format does ambisonic audio get stored in? I remember over a decade ago they had a method for storing the various harmonics in Vorbis streams in an Ogg container, but I don't remember that going anywhere.
- jbk 9y ago
  It is now mostly in MP4 (https://github.com/google/spatial-media/blob/master/docs/spatial-audio-rfc.md https://github.com/google/spatial-media/blob/master/docs/spa...) or in Opus. But everything is now SN3D/ACN
mtmail 9y ago
From a 2016 interview https://interviews.slashdot.org/story/16/08/26/1338246/the-slashdot-interview-with-videolan-president-and-lead-vlc-developer-jean-baptiste-kempf https://interviews.slashdot.org/story/16/08/26/1338246/the-s... (also https://www.reddit.com/r/europe/comments/7hqusx/this_is_jeanbaptiste_kempf_the_creator_of_the_vlc/ https://www.reddit.com/r/europe/comments/7hqusx/this_is_jean...) "Well, it's important to remind people that we don't make money out of VLC and that there is no business model around it, we're not Mozilla or Facebook. VideoLAN only receives donations and that's not enough to hire someone. VLC developers are either volunteers (the majority since VLC started) or have their consulting business around open source multimedia."
- faitswulff 9y ago
  Their donation page: https://www.videolan.org/contribute.html#money https://www.videolan.org/contribute.html#money
  - e40 9y ago
    Just gave $50. I've been using VLC for years.
    - ztoben 9y ago
      Same here. Honestly didn't realize they had no model for income.
      - moviuro 9y ago
        There are lots of excellent projects that have income issues: GnuPG, OpenBSD to cite the most prominent ones. https://www.gnupg.org/donate/index.html https://www.gnupg.org/donate/index.html (though they are at ~€5k/month now?) http://www.openbsdfoundation.org/campaign2018.html http://www.openbsdfoundation.org/campaign2018.html http://www.openbsdfoundation.org/donations.html http://www.openbsdfoundation.org/donations.html
        9y ago
Sir_Cmpwn 9y ago
>VLC 3.0.0 is the first version of "Vetinari" branch of our popular media player. Also: ~ > curl -sI https://www.videolan.org/vlc/releases/3.0.0.html | grep clacks x-clacks-overhead: GNU Terry Pratchett I don't use VLC, but I gained some more respect for them today regardless.
- metalliqaz 9y ago
  I just looked it up and I still don't quite understand what clacks are supposed to be, other than an inside joke for Terry Pratchett fans. Do people actually use clacks for side channel data or is it just a way to keep Terry's name out there?
  - Sir_Cmpwn 9y ago
    The latter.
    - metalliqaz 9y ago
      Alright then. Hard to tell because there are actual draft RFCs out there.
    - adtac 9y ago
      Hey, you're the guy who made sway! Thanks!
      - Sir_Cmpwn 9y ago
        I'm glad you like it :)
  - robotmay 9y ago
    It's inspired by this quote from Going Postal: "A man is not dead while his name is still spoken." - http://www.gnuterrypratchett.com http://www.gnuterrypratchett.com So no technical purpose, just a fun way of keeping Terry's name alive :) In the books, the clacks is a semaphore tower used to communicate, and it's sort of a telegraph/internet system, to compare it to the real world.
thinkMOAR 9y ago
still on osx: VLC 2.2.8 is currently the newest version available. when you check for updates.
- etix 9y ago
  Auto updates are never enabled right after a release in case of critial regression. We usually wait for a week before starting the rollout.
kljuka 9y ago
Yet it's such a shame that on Android phones it's kind of useless because you can't disable screen rotation (for playing a video in bed for example).
- etix 9y ago
  It's been years that this option is available on Android. Look for the lock icon in the overlay.
  - kljuka 9y ago
    Wow... how didn't I notice that. It really does work now. From UI's perspective it would be even better if one could still skip forward/back, change volume and brightness while still having screen rotation locked, but hey - we can't have it all :). Thanks VLC team for all the dedication and good work. You're the best.
    - jbk 9y ago
      Actually, you can. There is an option for that.
      - etix 9y ago
        We do? Such wow.
    - mmastrac 9y ago
      I think you can still do all that stuff by dragging your finger on the screen with rotation locked? Left/right sides are volume/brightness, bottom is seek. EDIT: This only works if you change the preference to set playback orientation to "landscape", not if you lock orientation.
  - hoppelhase 9y ago
    On Windows Phone, the option does not disable auto-rotation (thus, forcing portrait mode). Instead, it locks the screen to the current rotation state, so you can stay in landscape mode even if you rotate your device. Found this to be much better.
ewams 9y ago
Congrats on the release. VLC, or "the cone", as some non-technical people call it is a household name. We have not been able to use it as a verb yet but when you can answer so many questions with "just use VLC" you know you have an amazing product. Thank you for the hard work and keeping VLC relevant.
- redial 9y ago
  The cone. Whomever came up with that icon deserves way more credit and recognition.
  - labster 9y ago
    I love the Santa hat on the icon, too. More projects should be playful with their logos. I hope VLC constructs additional pylons for many years to come.
  - wldcordeiro 9y ago
    Here's the story http://nanocrew.net/2005/06/23/vlc-cone/ http://nanocrew.net/2005/06/23/vlc-cone/ One day, people from the VIA association (VIA is a students’ network association with many clubs … amongst those is VideoLAN.) came back drunk with a cone. They then began a cone collection (which is now quite impressive I must say). Some time later, the VideoLAN project began and they decided to use the cone as their logo.
    - TheKarateKid 9y ago
      +100 respect for VLC and The Cone after reading this.
bhnmmhmd 9y ago
I wish the macOS version were as mature as the Windows one. Many shortcuts are missing, video is stuttering if played from external HDD, audio equalizer settings can't be saved and their values are not shown on the equalizer, etc.
- jbk 9y ago
  3.0 is miles faster on macOS now. We fixed a lot of performances issues and hardware decoding is activated by default. The HDD issue (buffering) should be fixed, and so is the equalizer.
  - bhnmmhmd 9y ago
    Just tried the v3.0 on Mac and still the video is stuttering. I believe the quality even got worse with the same settings compared to the previous version. On the other hand, the UI has been improved a bit which is good.
- eduedix 9y ago
  How did you manage to install it? I double click the vlc-3.0.0.dmg file, but it doesn't get mounted, cannot see the content anywhere.
  - cthulhujr 9y ago
    I can't offer any troubleshooting advice, but I can say that it works for me. On macOS 10.13.3. https://imgur.com/BQqIUsX https://imgur.com/BQqIUsX
micheldlebeau 9y ago
Thanks a lot for the commitment to all the contributors of the project!
book_mentioned 9y ago
I was looking to see if VLC supported resuming stream playback yet, it looks like it might have for a long time. At least I found a new option to try! https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/vlc/+bug/790216 https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/vlc/+bug/790216 (CLI --http-reconnect /or/ Advanced (All) Preferences > Input/Codecs > HTTP(S) > Auto re-connect)
ihuman 9y ago
>BD-Java menus and overlay in Blu-Ray >BluRay text subtitles (HDMV) deocoder Does that mean this version includes libbluray? Right now, if I want to play a BD I need to use an older version of VLC that was compiled with libbluray.
- jbk 9y ago
  Yes, it includes libbluray, by default, on all platforms. No DRM-decryption, though.
  - ihuman 9y ago
    >No DRM-decryption, though. By that, do you mean libaacs?
    - jbk 9y ago
      Either you install libaacs or MakeMKV (and don't use it to do MKV, just as a libaacs replacement).
yakk0 9y ago
Nice! I tried a 1080p mkv video on 2.2.8 before upgrading and it used around 8-9% CPU. After upgrading, played the same clip and it was under 1%. Nice performance increase there!
- jbk 9y ago
  We're happy that you are happy :)
pmoriarty 9y ago
How does VLC on linux compare these days to mpv?
- etix 9y ago
  Have a look here: https://twitter.com/robUx4/status/962006436174708736 https://twitter.com/robUx4/status/962006436174708736
  - boustrophedon 9y ago
    mpv is not the same as mpc-hc
    - Narishma 9y ago
      The comparison includes both.
      - Klover 9y ago
        I tested this with an mpv developer. This depends on a lot of factors, as you might be used to with mpv, but mpv was overall just as power efficient, if not better. This was done months ago with a nightly build of mpv and a nightly build of vlc, I'd be happy to do more extensive testing later if there is interest, but I decided on a particular power friendly configuration for mpv for laptop usage in the end.
  - dimensi0nal 9y ago
    Not shown: MPC/mpv image quality
  - Momquist 9y ago
    This is on Windows. From my own experience, a few months ago, on Linux mpv was still the better choice (more performant, better image quality, some more polished/reliable features like subtitles) as long as you don't mind the minimal UI (or use a front-end).
ausjke 9y ago
3.0 Highlights: * VLC 3.0 "Vetinari" is a new major update of VLC. * VLC 3.0 activates hardware decoding by default, to get 4K and 8K playback! * It supports 10bits and HDR * VLC supports 360 video and 3D audio, up to Ambisoncics 3rd order * Allows passthrough for HD audio codecs * Can stream to Chromecast devices, even in formats not supported natively * Can play Blu-Ray Java menus: BD-J * VLC supports browsing of local network drives and NAS
- malnourish 9y ago
  Now to get HDR monitors
  - byproxy 9y ago
    And a GPU that can output 10-bit color.
- ttoinou 9y ago
  And ProRes 4444 playback. Thanks !!
  - etix 9y ago
    DCP support is there too :)
    - ttoinou 9y ago
      That's great ! Merci Ludovic
  - baldfat 9y ago
    Now can we transcode video into ProRes 4444 (Seriously doubt that since Apple kind of makes it only encoding on MacOS or OS X)
    - ttoinou 9y ago
      VLC doesn't care about US patents
bane 9y ago
This is great! I was trying to play some somewhat obscure media files the other day with foobar and it wasn't doing a great job of it. Then I remembered that VLC must play it and not only did it, it played them almost flawlessly. In the way a smartphone has replaced dozens of other pieces of electronics in most people's lives, VLC kind of replaces many other pieces of software. Sustaining a project like this to 3.0 is a huge accomplishment.
- yjftsjthsd-h 9y ago
  > played them almost flawlessly. Almost?
deanclatworthy 9y ago
Congratulations on the release. VLC has been my player of choice for quite some time now. I've been using the 3.x nightlies for some time now to get hardware decoding of 4k. Is there any way to see whilst a video is playing: a) Is the video being hardware accelerated? b) Is HDR being displayed? Most TV's pop up a little HDR icon in the top right if it is.
petagonoral 9y ago
super! just downloaded it on windows. UI now renders good on 2k screen.
stryk 9y ago
I can't seem to find the 64bit build of the 3.0.0 release on the web nor on the FTP. Is there not one? Further, are there any advantages of using the 64bit versions over the 32bit? Any disadvantages? [edit - just saw this in the changelog: * 64bit version of VLC for Windows is recommended. And there is another post in this thread about it which I did not see, apologies, it looks like they will be arriving in a little while.]
- BuildTheRobots 9y ago
  Just came back to make this comment after failing to find a link. If anyone can advise... Edit: see comments below. They had a build problem and 64bit windows is a few hours behind: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16340935 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16340935
  - donum 9y ago
    Actually, VLC Updater is currently downloading the 64bit windows version for me. Download started 20 minutes ago.
    - BuildTheRobots 9y ago
      Where's VLC Updater? Help -> "Check for Updates" tells me I'm on the latest version even though I've only got 2.2.6 on Win10 (- and I still can't find the x64 build on their page!)
      - stryk 9y ago
        Here you go: ftp://ftp.videolan.org/pub/vlc/3.0.0/win64/
ambicapter 9y ago
Is there chromecast support on MacOS as well?
- etix 9y ago
  Yes, all platforms!
  - nishitd 9y ago
    I am having trouble on MacOS. I have version 10.11.6 When I select Playback > Renderer, it's connected to Chromecast alright, but when I press play, nothing happens. Edit: Ok, it happens to some videos (they are h.264 videos), other videos seem to work fine, but for some reason, changing volume doesn't seem to have any effect on it. Is it by design?
wnevets 9y ago
So glad chromecast support was added.
fs111 9y ago
Thank you, VLC maintainers! Keep up the good work!
c8g 9y ago
How to install it on KDE neon? snap version looks like a virtual machine (mouse pointer??) :) https://i.imgur.com/Lqip3H7.png https://i.imgur.com/Lqip3H7.png
- jbk 9y ago
  File a bug.
- khedoros1 9y ago
  Heh. "sudo snap install vlc" got and installed the snap for me, but "snap run vlc" gets me this: No protocol specified Error: unable to open display :0 VLC media player 3.0.0 Vetinari (revision 3.0.0-0-gef4c265) No protocol specified xcb_connection_has_error() returned true No protocol specified [00000000009d0570] main interface error: no suitable interface module [00000000008f93b0] main libvlc error: interface "globalhotkeys,none" initialization failed [00000000008f93b0] main libvlc: Running vlc with the default interface. Use 'cvlc' to use vlc without interface.
peatmoss 9y ago
VLC is one of those programs that has really proved itself a stalwart of the FLOSS community. I feel like VLC is in a rare category of software that is great because: 1. It's existed for long enough that we know it won't just go away and break our hearts. (I used VLC to play videos on BeOS back in college in the late 90s.) 2. No matter how many iterations it goes through, it's still intelligible to would-be time travelers from the past. I.e. didn't get caught up in the "must change the UX around for change's sake" epidemic that still seems rampant. 3. It's always had acceptable performance, perhaps owing to being born in a time of no goddamned Electron apps. 4. It's dependable across platforms, even platforms that I'm unfamiliar with or don't like. Need to play a video on Windows? I don't even know what crapware to download, because I download VLC, because I know VLC runs on Windows and will greet me as a familiar friend in this strange and foreign land. My hat is off to you, VLC!
- etix 9y ago
  Thanks for your support!
- qubex 9y ago
  I also first used VLC on BeOS!
- djtriptych 9y ago
  #4 really is amazing. vlc is probably the ONLY application that I took with me when switching from Windows to Mac/Linux 10+ years ago. It's as essential to my multimedia computing as vim is to my text editing.
  - sacheendra 9y ago
    If you are still on Mac, you should check out IINA(https://github.com/lhc70000/iina https://github.com/lhc70000/iina). I switched to it when I needed to watch 4k videos on my Macbook and it out-performs VLC. I think VLC's cross-platform compatibility hurts it here as IINA uses some Mac specific APIs.
    - 9y ago
maximedev 9y ago
is the iOS version 3.0 in review? I don't see it on the Apple Store.
- jbk 9y ago
  Yes, it is just approved, so wait 3 hours to get it. (Their CDN is not fast to sync)
  - maximedev 9y ago
    Awesome. I'm actually looking forward the Apple TV version. I currently have Infuse 5 to play 4k HDR content via NFS, it's mostly working. VLC was able to play a movie that none of the other apps were able to play but it was missing HDR. Can't wait to test the new version now.
nkkollaw 9y ago
They are great, but I really wish VLC looked better. You can tell from their website that design isn't their cup of tea.
- imglorp 9y ago
  I don't care about appearance: I get it started and go fullscreen anyway. I care 1000x more about basic solid function, like chromecast and subtitles and dvd menus. Casting to roku maybe. I'm donating now, what they've done needs to continue.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- khedoros1 9y ago
  Hmm. What's wrong with their website? I don't see anything wrong with it, and I'm always a little curious what a design expert sees that I don't.
trackofalljades 9y ago
Happily installed it on my Macs, but sadly still no 3.0 in the iOS store (at least in Canada).
sergiotapia 9y ago
Congratulations VLC team! I remember yours being the first software I used that "just worked" with anything I threw at it. It was incredible. I stopped using VLC because of the whole Rebuilding font cache issue every time I opened it. It soured me a little more every time until I finally just stopped using it. I wonder if that issue is fixed. May be time to revisit VLC 3!
thefounder 9y ago
This looks awesome but I see no decoding for atmos/dts:x/auro.... :(
- etix 9y ago
  Passthrough will work.
poisonborz 9y ago
Most stable player on Windows by far, and the best and feature rich player on Android. I only wish they had the post processing chops of madVR...
manigandham 9y ago
Very nice, congrats to the team for this. The scrubbing speed is still not quite as smooth as mpv but way better than before.
harrisjt 9y ago
This is a great release. I've been using potplayer for a while now and have had great experiences, any reason to switch?
- DrJaws 9y ago
  No, imho potplayer is superior in everything to vlc.
kirankn 9y ago
Many thanks to the VLC folks. Awesome work.
screye 9y ago
I have been using DAUM POT player instead of VLC for a good few years. Can someone who has used both, point me to areas where VLC is better ? (VLC's fast forward has never quite worked well for me) I really like VLC as an organization and its open source nature. But, until now I have found it to be lacking in some areas as compared to POT player.
- Ascetik 9y ago
  I use Pot Player on Windows, and VLC on android. Pot Player is the best media player I've ever used. Started using it 3 years ago and haven't looked back.
- boomboomsubban 9y ago
  Assuming your fast forward problem refers to something that happens when you jump to a new time, that's just a different default than other media players. I think it was jump to time vs jump to frame, but I haven't used it in years. As for why change, personally Kakao doesn't seem trustworthy.
  - screye 9y ago
    Screen tearing and muddy audio were prime problems among them.
mrguyorama 9y ago
Is there any way for someone very much unfamiliar with large C projects to contribute?
- zanny 9y ago
  Bug reports, bug triage, translations, documentation, guides, donations, referrals, or if you are familiar with C++ the GUI / Qt are all C++.
- astura 9y ago
  Monetary donations.
ttoinou 9y ago
What about trying to monetize the software ? Just say that it "cost" 19 USD / year / family and leave the software libre, no license number / checking, nothing. (= Just trust the user and ask them to make a yearly donation for each home)
vinay_ys 9y ago
Streaming h.264 video from Mac OSX to Chromecast is eating 100% CPU. Why is this happening? Is there a setting to not do transcoding?
- jbk 9y ago
  Can you file a bug with this, please? It's probably because of the profile not supported by the Chromecast.
  - vinay_ys 9y ago
    I opened messages and saw a barrage of debug messages about Lua script for metadata fetching failing. I guess that was causing 100% cpu. Did a settings 'reset all' and restarted and that seems to have fixed the issue. But now I cannot open the messages dialog box. Will file a bug.
daveheq 9y ago
Still not as good as dead Winamp for music.
TheKarateKid 9y ago
Can someone explain how VLC is able to skirt around codec licensing issues? How has VLC been able to play mp3s, DVDs, and other media formats natively when other players were forced to pay licensing fees, hence the need to buy media players 10 years ago?
- dpkonofa 9y ago
  I think it might be because they engineered their own solutions for decoding those. Licensing fees usually need to be paid out when you use the decoder made by the company. If you figure out the format and roll your own decoder, though, I think you don't have to pay licensing fees, especially when the software is non-commercial. You can't pay for VLC so there's no damages.
  - eesmith 9y ago
    What you described applies to copyright. Patent licensing is different. There can be damages even for no-cost software because it isn't measured by the profits or earnings from the software but by the market loss on other software profits.
- Signez 9y ago
  The VideoLAN organization behind VLC is based in France; software patents are not recognized in Europe. Problem solved!
  - r00fus 9y ago
    Sure hope that stays intact. VLC is clear example of lack of patents fostering innovation.
  - TheKarateKid 9y ago
    Not quite. If that were the case, piracy sites like TPB would be forever safe in a country that doesn't recognize US copyright. We've all seen how that ends up. I haven't heard of a single attempt of a patent holder to challenge VLC (not that I'm complaining). Also, they're distributing the software to people in countries where those patents are recognized. LAME hasn't included an mp3 encoder for these same reasons, even though its FOSS software. I always assumed the reason no one bothered VideoLAN was a combination of the fact that 1.) VLC truly has remained a non-profit project, unlike many other FOSS software that makes money via some kind of business model (ads, premium support, etc.) and (less likely) 2.) everyone loves VLC so much that even the people possibly affected by the licensing don't care because they use it themselves.
master_ant 9y ago
I've always had great experiences with VLC, on any platform, for as long as I can remember using it. Cheers!
lanius 9y ago
I accidentally selected "always continue playback from where you left off" for audio files instead of restarting from the beginning, how can I undo this change? I don't see any relevant settings in preferences (on macOS 10.12).
- SiVal 9y ago
  On Mac VLC 2.2.8 (I don't have 3.0), go to Preferences, then Interface tab, then in the middle of the list you'll see "Continue playback" with a dropdown menu. That'll fix it.
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
__s 9y ago
I would totally sell my child for 1M. Easy enough to invest in another one
- vanderZwan 9y ago
  Do you have a child? Wait, that is a rhetorical question: you don't. Because if you did you would realise that this statement makes little sense, unless you specifically decided to have children as a form of economic investment, which is unlikely because it's probably the worst economic investment you can make.
  - __s 9y ago
    Would you be a surrogate parent for 1M? What if they wanted to wait a dozen years before adopting from you?
    - vanderZwan 9y ago
      Would you perhaps like to watch the video I linked and spend some time on personal growth, instead of wasting it on attempts at being edgy with extremely predictable hypotheticals?
      - __s 9y ago
        I've taken up your offer, & am watching video you linked to. I'm not interested in the personal growth you're suggesting though; I've already been spending some time thinking about how I can behave empathetically to those around me without being a sociopath since I don't actually feel empathetic towards them. Mostly I've focused on not being aggressively cynical. My life's functioning pretty well as is, but I did recently go through a break up of a 6 year relationship where a part of it had to do with my inability to form deep emotional connections. Which is a part of my life going well: I am happier not being in a relationship I'm incapable of supporting Predictable hypotheticals are predictable because they're based on a simple premise that you yourself are able to consider. The thing about cost is that we can show how much people are willing to be selfish when it's 'sacred' or 'righteous': if children are valuable, why not sell your child for 1M, & then spend that helping a dozen kids from Haiti? https://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/buy-child-10-hours/story?id=5326508 https://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/buy-child-10-hours/story?id... . It's because you've decided your one child is more valuable than 12 others. You care about your child because it's _yours_. An extension of you. So here's shown that you're greatly overvaluing yourself at the sake of others
jimmcslim 9y ago
Wasn’t there some project going on to provide a WebAssembly build of VLC for the benefit of archive.org? Anyone know the progress of that?
- jbk 9y ago
  I have a good demo about this. The issue is that all browsers have disable SharedBufferArray because of spectre...
deep-c 9y ago
cool
marlebone 9y ago
Hrrm. Gave it a spin with a HDR 4K video on a non-HDR screen with default settings. Washed out, over-saturated, unwatchable colors. Tried finding tone mapping options. Apparently, those are only available for the OpenGL for Windows output. Changed to that (automatic is D3D11). Great, nice colors. Full-screened. Then back to windowed. Crash. Happens on many (but not all) 4K HDR MKV files here. So yeah, not really working at all that well. Back to Potplayer for now (I had been using VLC for years, but for 4K videos it just wouldn't work all that well). Nice on the Chromecast features though! :-)
nishitd 9y ago
I noticed that you seem to have made improvements to VLSub as well. Is that true? It's much faster than it used to be.
vram22 9y ago
VLC also has a Python API. Google vlc python api.

827 points by jbk 9y ago

For an Android-specific features breakdown: https://geoffreymetais.github.io/features/vlc-30/ https://geoffreymetais.github.io/features/vlc-30/

z_open 9y ago

Is VLC even worth using these days? When last I stopped using it it seemed to be pretty far behind the other players in terms of HD video playback.

etix 9y ago
Give it another try, who knows.
acdha 9y ago
Try it - the release notes specifically mentioned HD playback improvements
- jbk 9y ago
  Yes. This is because, before, VLC did not activate hardware decoding by default.
floatboth 9y ago
I use in on windows because it has great windows support (official installer, all the things), but on unix, mpv is the way to go (especially if you prefer GTK apps, there's gnome-mpv).
- z_open 9y ago
  Yeah I'm on linux so I'm just using vanilla mpv. When I was on Windows, I used MPC with MadVR. Have you tried that?
- snvzz 9y ago
  You might like mpc-qt.
dimensi0nal 9y ago
Only if you want something that "just works".
SCdF 9y ago
Out of interest, what are the other options (specifically in my case, for MacOS). For me, VLC has been the most stable and least wonky option for years now, but I'm not sure I'm aware of everything that is out there.
khedoros1 9y ago
I like having the same player across systems and haven't ever had problem with HD in it; basically, no incentive to leave VLC. I've probably used it for about 10 years now, and it's always done the job. Why wouldn't it be worth using?

nwah1 9y ago

Why was the release cycle so long?

deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
etix 9y ago
Chromecast support took much more time to implement than we originally expected, that was probably the major reason for the delay.
- agumonkey 9y ago
  undocumented protocol or overly complex ?
  - etix 9y ago
    We had to redesign a new kind of module called a renderer that has some weird capabilities and of course the Chromecast being kind of undocumented didn't help.
    - pbhjpbhj 9y ago
      Is there a good reason for Google not to help vlc, as it's making the Chromecast more accessible? Chromecast doesn't seem that innovative?
      - bubblethink 9y ago
        Chromecast isn't free software. You need google sdk, which obviously a project like vlc can't use.
jbk 9y ago
Because we merged the architecture for mobile and desktop, because we changed the decoding API to get GPU 0-copy and CPU 0-copy, because we needed a lot of changes for 4K and HDR. And, of course, ChromeCast.

bpicolo 9y ago

> Can stream to Chromecast devices, even in formats not supported natively So excited to stream media to my TV via a non-crapware application.

orf 9y ago
I've found videostream[1] to be amazing. Kind of sucks for the small team making it that VLC has this built in now, but I guess their startup was always on shaky grounds. 1. https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/videostream-for-google-ch/cnciopoikihiagdjbjpnocolokfelagl?hl=en https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/videostream-for-go...
- bpicolo 9y ago
  I've had issues with Videostream, but it worked ok. I don't think it sucks per se - VLC was always publicly planning to add Chromecast support (it's been out on a couple platforms for a while, just not the ones I care about)
- doughj3 9y ago
  Yup, I've been using videostream for years now. Seems like Chromecast support in VLC was always just around the corner, glad to see it's finally out there.
eterm 9y ago
This is also useful in case the amazon/google spat flares up again. With this I guess it should be possible to daisychain from twitch to chromecast via vlc if they start another game of brinkmanship over access to video.
- etix 9y ago
  Absolutely. You can play any Twitch stream from VLC and cast it on your TV.
  - book_mentioned 9y ago

avtar 9y ago

I didn't spot this in the release notes but looks like the UI will now accommodate high-DPI displays in Windows: http://bradshacks.com/vlc-3-hidpi/ http://bradshacks.com/vlc-3-hidpi/

bfred_it 9y ago
Things like this make wary of moving to Windows. Most OS X apps didn't take long to become retina-ready. VLC is one of the most common Windows software and it still took until 2018 for it to work correctly.
- leetcrew 9y ago
  there are still a lot of pain points if you have a 4K display. otherwise it's mostly fine.
  - tillinghast 9y ago
    Genuinely curious—so non-4k high-DPI displays work fine then?
    - avtar 9y ago
      In my experience, yes. I tried an Dell XPS 15 for a few weeks and the 4K pain points were evident with apps like Audacity, Photoshop, and VLC. I ended up learning more about Apple's high-DPI approach: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/is-mac-retina-scaling-functionally-identical-to-windows-high-dpi.1811094/#post-20240965 https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/is-mac-retina-scaling-f... Laptops aside I've read that using a large enough display, at least 32", helps work around the Windows scaling issues. I haven't tried this yet.
  - wolfgke 9y ago
    > there are still a lot of pain points if you have a 4K display. otherwise it's mostly fine. I personally love the rather small text and thus the giant amount of screen estate on my 27 inch 4K screen on Windows. But other people might have different preferences or visual acuity.

wolfgke 9y ago

Will there be 64 bit builds for Windows?

etix 9y ago
Yes, we had a last minute issue with the 64-bit builds, they will be available in a few hours.
- skrowl 9y ago
  Are you seeing any performance difference in 32 vs 64? I'd imagine the vast majority of newer Windows PC that ship can do 64, but is there a great reason to run 64-bit VLC?
  - etix 9y ago
    AFAIK we didn't do an actual benchmark but when doing software decoding/encoding there should be small improvements here and there.
  - jbk 9y ago
    64bits gives you more registers (very good for codecs), but has longer pointers, so does not help too much for your cache misses.

sp332 9y ago

What format does ambisonic audio get stored in? I remember over a decade ago they had a method for storing the various harmonics in Vorbis streams in an Ogg container, but I don't remember that going anywhere.

jbk 9y ago
It is now mostly in MP4 (https://github.com/google/spatial-media/blob/master/docs/spatial-audio-rfc.md https://github.com/google/spatial-media/blob/master/docs/spa...) or in Opus. But everything is now SN3D/ACN

mtmail 9y ago

From a 2016 interview https://interviews.slashdot.org/story/16/08/26/1338246/the-slashdot-interview-with-videolan-president-and-lead-vlc-developer-jean-baptiste-kempf https://interviews.slashdot.org/story/16/08/26/1338246/the-s... (also https://www.reddit.com/r/europe/comments/7hqusx/this_is_jeanbaptiste_kempf_the_creator_of_the_vlc/ https://www.reddit.com/r/europe/comments/7hqusx/this_is_jean...) "Well, it's important to remind people that we don't make money out of VLC and that there is no business model around it, we're not Mozilla or Facebook. VideoLAN only receives donations and that's not enough to hire someone. VLC developers are either volunteers (the majority since VLC started) or have their consulting business around open source multimedia."

faitswulff 9y ago
Their donation page: https://www.videolan.org/contribute.html#money https://www.videolan.org/contribute.html#money
- e40 9y ago
  Just gave $50. I've been using VLC for years.
  - ztoben 9y ago
    Same here. Honestly didn't realize they had no model for income.
    - moviuro 9y ago
      There are lots of excellent projects that have income issues: GnuPG, OpenBSD to cite the most prominent ones. https://www.gnupg.org/donate/index.html https://www.gnupg.org/donate/index.html (though they are at ~€5k/month now?) http://www.openbsdfoundation.org/campaign2018.html http://www.openbsdfoundation.org/campaign2018.html http://www.openbsdfoundation.org/donations.html http://www.openbsdfoundation.org/donations.html
      - 9y ago

Sir_Cmpwn 9y ago

>VLC 3.0.0 is the first version of "Vetinari" branch of our popular media player. Also: ~ > curl -sI https://www.videolan.org/vlc/releases/3.0.0.html | grep clacks x-clacks-overhead: GNU Terry Pratchett I don't use VLC, but I gained some more respect for them today regardless.

metalliqaz 9y ago
I just looked it up and I still don't quite understand what clacks are supposed to be, other than an inside joke for Terry Pratchett fans. Do people actually use clacks for side channel data or is it just a way to keep Terry's name out there?
- Sir_Cmpwn 9y ago
  The latter.
  - metalliqaz 9y ago
    Alright then. Hard to tell because there are actual draft RFCs out there.
  - adtac 9y ago
    Hey, you're the guy who made sway! Thanks!
    - Sir_Cmpwn 9y ago
      I'm glad you like it :)
- robotmay 9y ago
  It's inspired by this quote from Going Postal: "A man is not dead while his name is still spoken." - http://www.gnuterrypratchett.com http://www.gnuterrypratchett.com So no technical purpose, just a fun way of keeping Terry's name alive :) In the books, the clacks is a semaphore tower used to communicate, and it's sort of a telegraph/internet system, to compare it to the real world.

thinkMOAR 9y ago

still on osx: VLC 2.2.8 is currently the newest version available. when you check for updates.

etix 9y ago
Auto updates are never enabled right after a release in case of critial regression. We usually wait for a week before starting the rollout.

kljuka 9y ago

Yet it's such a shame that on Android phones it's kind of useless because you can't disable screen rotation (for playing a video in bed for example).

etix 9y ago
It's been years that this option is available on Android. Look for the lock icon in the overlay.
- kljuka 9y ago
  Wow... how didn't I notice that. It really does work now. From UI's perspective it would be even better if one could still skip forward/back, change volume and brightness while still having screen rotation locked, but hey - we can't have it all :). Thanks VLC team for all the dedication and good work. You're the best.
  - jbk 9y ago
    Actually, you can. There is an option for that.
    - etix 9y ago
      We do? Such wow.
  - mmastrac 9y ago
    I think you can still do all that stuff by dragging your finger on the screen with rotation locked? Left/right sides are volume/brightness, bottom is seek. EDIT: This only works if you change the preference to set playback orientation to "landscape", not if you lock orientation.
- hoppelhase 9y ago
  On Windows Phone, the option does not disable auto-rotation (thus, forcing portrait mode). Instead, it locks the screen to the current rotation state, so you can stay in landscape mode even if you rotate your device. Found this to be much better.

ewams 9y ago

Congrats on the release. VLC, or "the cone", as some non-technical people call it is a household name. We have not been able to use it as a verb yet but when you can answer so many questions with "just use VLC" you know you have an amazing product. Thank you for the hard work and keeping VLC relevant.

redial 9y ago
The cone. Whomever came up with that icon deserves way more credit and recognition.
- labster 9y ago
  I love the Santa hat on the icon, too. More projects should be playful with their logos. I hope VLC constructs additional pylons for many years to come.
- wldcordeiro 9y ago
  Here's the story http://nanocrew.net/2005/06/23/vlc-cone/ http://nanocrew.net/2005/06/23/vlc-cone/ One day, people from the VIA association (VIA is a students’ network association with many clubs … amongst those is VideoLAN.) came back drunk with a cone. They then began a cone collection (which is now quite impressive I must say). Some time later, the VideoLAN project began and they decided to use the cone as their logo.
  - TheKarateKid 9y ago
    +100 respect for VLC and The Cone after reading this.

bhnmmhmd 9y ago

I wish the macOS version were as mature as the Windows one. Many shortcuts are missing, video is stuttering if played from external HDD, audio equalizer settings can't be saved and their values are not shown on the equalizer, etc.

jbk 9y ago
3.0 is miles faster on macOS now. We fixed a lot of performances issues and hardware decoding is activated by default. The HDD issue (buffering) should be fixed, and so is the equalizer.
- bhnmmhmd 9y ago
  Just tried the v3.0 on Mac and still the video is stuttering. I believe the quality even got worse with the same settings compared to the previous version. On the other hand, the UI has been improved a bit which is good.
eduedix 9y ago
How did you manage to install it? I double click the vlc-3.0.0.dmg file, but it doesn't get mounted, cannot see the content anywhere.
- cthulhujr 9y ago
  I can't offer any troubleshooting advice, but I can say that it works for me. On macOS 10.13.3. https://imgur.com/BQqIUsX https://imgur.com/BQqIUsX

micheldlebeau 9y ago

Thanks a lot for the commitment to all the contributors of the project!

book_mentioned 9y ago

I was looking to see if VLC supported resuming stream playback yet, it looks like it might have for a long time. At least I found a new option to try! https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/vlc/+bug/790216 https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/vlc/+bug/790216 (CLI --http-reconnect /or/ Advanced (All) Preferences > Input/Codecs > HTTP(S) > Auto re-connect)

ihuman 9y ago

>BD-Java menus and overlay in Blu-Ray >BluRay text subtitles (HDMV) deocoder Does that mean this version includes libbluray? Right now, if I want to play a BD I need to use an older version of VLC that was compiled with libbluray.

jbk 9y ago
Yes, it includes libbluray, by default, on all platforms. No DRM-decryption, though.
- ihuman 9y ago
  >No DRM-decryption, though. By that, do you mean libaacs?
  - jbk 9y ago
    Either you install libaacs or MakeMKV (and don't use it to do MKV, just as a libaacs replacement).

yakk0 9y ago

Nice! I tried a 1080p mkv video on 2.2.8 before upgrading and it used around 8-9% CPU. After upgrading, played the same clip and it was under 1%. Nice performance increase there!

jbk 9y ago
We're happy that you are happy :)

pmoriarty 9y ago

How does VLC on linux compare these days to mpv?

etix 9y ago
Have a look here: https://twitter.com/robUx4/status/962006436174708736 https://twitter.com/robUx4/status/962006436174708736
- boustrophedon 9y ago
  mpv is not the same as mpc-hc
  - Narishma 9y ago
    The comparison includes both.
    - Klover 9y ago
      I tested this with an mpv developer. This depends on a lot of factors, as you might be used to with mpv, but mpv was overall just as power efficient, if not better. This was done months ago with a nightly build of mpv and a nightly build of vlc, I'd be happy to do more extensive testing later if there is interest, but I decided on a particular power friendly configuration for mpv for laptop usage in the end.
- dimensi0nal 9y ago
  Not shown: MPC/mpv image quality
- Momquist 9y ago
  This is on Windows. From my own experience, a few months ago, on Linux mpv was still the better choice (more performant, better image quality, some more polished/reliable features like subtitles) as long as you don't mind the minimal UI (or use a front-end).

ausjke 9y ago

3.0 Highlights: * VLC 3.0 "Vetinari" is a new major update of VLC. * VLC 3.0 activates hardware decoding by default, to get 4K and 8K playback! * It supports 10bits and HDR * VLC supports 360 video and 3D audio, up to Ambisoncics 3rd order * Allows passthrough for HD audio codecs * Can stream to Chromecast devices, even in formats not supported natively * Can play Blu-Ray Java menus: BD-J * VLC supports browsing of local network drives and NAS

malnourish 9y ago
Now to get HDR monitors
- byproxy 9y ago
  And a GPU that can output 10-bit color.
ttoinou 9y ago
And ProRes 4444 playback. Thanks !!
- etix 9y ago
  DCP support is there too :)
  - ttoinou 9y ago
    That's great ! Merci Ludovic
- baldfat 9y ago
  Now can we transcode video into ProRes 4444 (Seriously doubt that since Apple kind of makes it only encoding on MacOS or OS X)
  - ttoinou 9y ago
    VLC doesn't care about US patents

bane 9y ago

This is great! I was trying to play some somewhat obscure media files the other day with foobar and it wasn't doing a great job of it. Then I remembered that VLC must play it and not only did it, it played them almost flawlessly. In the way a smartphone has replaced dozens of other pieces of electronics in most people's lives, VLC kind of replaces many other pieces of software. Sustaining a project like this to 3.0 is a huge accomplishment.

yjftsjthsd-h 9y ago
> played them almost flawlessly. Almost?

deanclatworthy 9y ago

Congratulations on the release. VLC has been my player of choice for quite some time now. I've been using the 3.x nightlies for some time now to get hardware decoding of 4k. Is there any way to see whilst a video is playing: a) Is the video being hardware accelerated? b) Is HDR being displayed? Most TV's pop up a little HDR icon in the top right if it is.

petagonoral 9y ago

super! just downloaded it on windows. UI now renders good on 2k screen.

stryk 9y ago

I can't seem to find the 64bit build of the 3.0.0 release on the web nor on the FTP. Is there not one? Further, are there any advantages of using the 64bit versions over the 32bit? Any disadvantages? [edit - just saw this in the changelog: * 64bit version of VLC for Windows is recommended. And there is another post in this thread about it which I did not see, apologies, it looks like they will be arriving in a little while.]

BuildTheRobots 9y ago
Just came back to make this comment after failing to find a link. If anyone can advise... Edit: see comments below. They had a build problem and 64bit windows is a few hours behind: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16340935 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16340935
- donum 9y ago
  Actually, VLC Updater is currently downloading the 64bit windows version for me. Download started 20 minutes ago.
  - BuildTheRobots 9y ago
    Where's VLC Updater? Help -> "Check for Updates" tells me I'm on the latest version even though I've only got 2.2.6 on Win10 (- and I still can't find the x64 build on their page!)
    - stryk 9y ago
      Here you go: ftp://ftp.videolan.org/pub/vlc/3.0.0/win64/

ambicapter 9y ago

Is there chromecast support on MacOS as well?

etix 9y ago
Yes, all platforms!
- nishitd 9y ago
  I am having trouble on MacOS. I have version 10.11.6 When I select Playback > Renderer, it's connected to Chromecast alright, but when I press play, nothing happens. Edit: Ok, it happens to some videos (they are h.264 videos), other videos seem to work fine, but for some reason, changing volume doesn't seem to have any effect on it. Is it by design?

wnevets 9y ago

So glad chromecast support was added.

fs111 9y ago

Thank you, VLC maintainers! Keep up the good work!

c8g 9y ago

How to install it on KDE neon? snap version looks like a virtual machine (mouse pointer??) :) https://i.imgur.com/Lqip3H7.png https://i.imgur.com/Lqip3H7.png

jbk 9y ago
File a bug.
khedoros1 9y ago
Heh. "sudo snap install vlc" got and installed the snap for me, but "snap run vlc" gets me this: No protocol specified Error: unable to open display :0 VLC media player 3.0.0 Vetinari (revision 3.0.0-0-gef4c265) No protocol specified xcb_connection_has_error() returned true No protocol specified [00000000009d0570] main interface error: no suitable interface module [00000000008f93b0] main libvlc error: interface "globalhotkeys,none" initialization failed [00000000008f93b0] main libvlc: Running vlc with the default interface. Use 'cvlc' to use vlc without interface.

peatmoss 9y ago

VLC is one of those programs that has really proved itself a stalwart of the FLOSS community. I feel like VLC is in a rare category of software that is great because: 1. It's existed for long enough that we know it won't just go away and break our hearts. (I used VLC to play videos on BeOS back in college in the late 90s.) 2. No matter how many iterations it goes through, it's still intelligible to would-be time travelers from the past. I.e. didn't get caught up in the "must change the UX around for change's sake" epidemic that still seems rampant. 3. It's always had acceptable performance, perhaps owing to being born in a time of no goddamned Electron apps. 4. It's dependable across platforms, even platforms that I'm unfamiliar with or don't like. Need to play a video on Windows? I don't even know what crapware to download, because I download VLC, because I know VLC runs on Windows and will greet me as a familiar friend in this strange and foreign land. My hat is off to you, VLC!

etix 9y ago
Thanks for your support!
qubex 9y ago
I also first used VLC on BeOS!
djtriptych 9y ago
#4 really is amazing. vlc is probably the ONLY application that I took with me when switching from Windows to Mac/Linux 10+ years ago. It's as essential to my multimedia computing as vim is to my text editing.
- sacheendra 9y ago
  If you are still on Mac, you should check out IINA(https://github.com/lhc70000/iina https://github.com/lhc70000/iina). I switched to it when I needed to watch 4k videos on my Macbook and it out-performs VLC. I think VLC's cross-platform compatibility hurts it here as IINA uses some Mac specific APIs.
  - 9y ago

maximedev 9y ago

is the iOS version 3.0 in review? I don't see it on the Apple Store.

jbk 9y ago
Yes, it is just approved, so wait 3 hours to get it. (Their CDN is not fast to sync)
- maximedev 9y ago
  Awesome. I'm actually looking forward the Apple TV version. I currently have Infuse 5 to play 4k HDR content via NFS, it's mostly working. VLC was able to play a movie that none of the other apps were able to play but it was missing HDR. Can't wait to test the new version now.

nkkollaw 9y ago

They are great, but I really wish VLC looked better. You can tell from their website that design isn't their cup of tea.

imglorp 9y ago
I don't care about appearance: I get it started and go fullscreen anyway. I care 1000x more about basic solid function, like chromecast and subtitles and dvd menus. Casting to roku maybe. I'm donating now, what they've done needs to continue.
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
khedoros1 9y ago
Hmm. What's wrong with their website? I don't see anything wrong with it, and I'm always a little curious what a design expert sees that I don't.

trackofalljades 9y ago

Happily installed it on my Macs, but sadly still no 3.0 in the iOS store (at least in Canada).

sergiotapia 9y ago

Congratulations VLC team! I remember yours being the first software I used that "just worked" with anything I threw at it. It was incredible. I stopped using VLC because of the whole Rebuilding font cache issue every time I opened it. It soured me a little more every time until I finally just stopped using it. I wonder if that issue is fixed. May be time to revisit VLC 3!

thefounder 9y ago

This looks awesome but I see no decoding for atmos/dts:x/auro.... :(

etix 9y ago
Passthrough will work.

poisonborz 9y ago

Most stable player on Windows by far, and the best and feature rich player on Android. I only wish they had the post processing chops of madVR...

manigandham 9y ago

Very nice, congrats to the team for this. The scrubbing speed is still not quite as smooth as mpv but way better than before.

harrisjt 9y ago

This is a great release. I've been using potplayer for a while now and have had great experiences, any reason to switch?

DrJaws 9y ago
No, imho potplayer is superior in everything to vlc.

kirankn 9y ago

Many thanks to the VLC folks. Awesome work.

screye 9y ago

I have been using DAUM POT player instead of VLC for a good few years. Can someone who has used both, point me to areas where VLC is better ? (VLC's fast forward has never quite worked well for me) I really like VLC as an organization and its open source nature. But, until now I have found it to be lacking in some areas as compared to POT player.

Ascetik 9y ago
I use Pot Player on Windows, and VLC on android. Pot Player is the best media player I've ever used. Started using it 3 years ago and haven't looked back.
boomboomsubban 9y ago
Assuming your fast forward problem refers to something that happens when you jump to a new time, that's just a different default than other media players. I think it was jump to time vs jump to frame, but I haven't used it in years. As for why change, personally Kakao doesn't seem trustworthy.
- screye 9y ago
  Screen tearing and muddy audio were prime problems among them.

mrguyorama 9y ago

Is there any way for someone very much unfamiliar with large C projects to contribute?

zanny 9y ago
Bug reports, bug triage, translations, documentation, guides, donations, referrals, or if you are familiar with C++ the GUI / Qt are all C++.
astura 9y ago
Monetary donations.

ttoinou 9y ago

What about trying to monetize the software ? Just say that it "cost" 19 USD / year / family and leave the software libre, no license number / checking, nothing. (= Just trust the user and ask them to make a yearly donation for each home)

vinay_ys 9y ago

Streaming h.264 video from Mac OSX to Chromecast is eating 100% CPU. Why is this happening? Is there a setting to not do transcoding?

jbk 9y ago
Can you file a bug with this, please? It's probably because of the profile not supported by the Chromecast.
- vinay_ys 9y ago
  I opened messages and saw a barrage of debug messages about Lua script for metadata fetching failing. I guess that was causing 100% cpu. Did a settings 'reset all' and restarted and that seems to have fixed the issue. But now I cannot open the messages dialog box. Will file a bug.

daveheq 9y ago

Still not as good as dead Winamp for music.

TheKarateKid 9y ago

Can someone explain how VLC is able to skirt around codec licensing issues? How has VLC been able to play mp3s, DVDs, and other media formats natively when other players were forced to pay licensing fees, hence the need to buy media players 10 years ago?

dpkonofa 9y ago
I think it might be because they engineered their own solutions for decoding those. Licensing fees usually need to be paid out when you use the decoder made by the company. If you figure out the format and roll your own decoder, though, I think you don't have to pay licensing fees, especially when the software is non-commercial. You can't pay for VLC so there's no damages.
- eesmith 9y ago
  What you described applies to copyright. Patent licensing is different. There can be damages even for no-cost software because it isn't measured by the profits or earnings from the software but by the market loss on other software profits.
Signez 9y ago
The VideoLAN organization behind VLC is based in France; software patents are not recognized in Europe. Problem solved!
- r00fus 9y ago
  Sure hope that stays intact. VLC is clear example of lack of patents fostering innovation.
- TheKarateKid 9y ago
  Not quite. If that were the case, piracy sites like TPB would be forever safe in a country that doesn't recognize US copyright. We've all seen how that ends up. I haven't heard of a single attempt of a patent holder to challenge VLC (not that I'm complaining). Also, they're distributing the software to people in countries where those patents are recognized. LAME hasn't included an mp3 encoder for these same reasons, even though its FOSS software. I always assumed the reason no one bothered VideoLAN was a combination of the fact that 1.) VLC truly has remained a non-profit project, unlike many other FOSS software that makes money via some kind of business model (ads, premium support, etc.) and (less likely) 2.) everyone loves VLC so much that even the people possibly affected by the licensing don't care because they use it themselves.

master_ant 9y ago

I've always had great experiences with VLC, on any platform, for as long as I can remember using it. Cheers!

lanius 9y ago

I accidentally selected "always continue playback from where you left off" for audio files instead of restarting from the beginning, how can I undo this change? I don't see any relevant settings in preferences (on macOS 10.12).

SiVal 9y ago
On Mac VLC 2.2.8 (I don't have 3.0), go to Preferences, then Interface tab, then in the middle of the list you'll see "Continue playback" with a dropdown menu. That'll fix it.

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]

__s 9y ago

I would totally sell my child for 1M. Easy enough to invest in another one

vanderZwan 9y ago
Do you have a child? Wait, that is a rhetorical question: you don't. Because if you did you would realise that this statement makes little sense, unless you specifically decided to have children as a form of economic investment, which is unlikely because it's probably the worst economic investment you can make.
- __s 9y ago
  Would you be a surrogate parent for 1M? What if they wanted to wait a dozen years before adopting from you?
  - vanderZwan 9y ago
    Would you perhaps like to watch the video I linked and spend some time on personal growth, instead of wasting it on attempts at being edgy with extremely predictable hypotheticals?
    - __s 9y ago
      I've taken up your offer, & am watching video you linked to. I'm not interested in the personal growth you're suggesting though; I've already been spending some time thinking about how I can behave empathetically to those around me without being a sociopath since I don't actually feel empathetic towards them. Mostly I've focused on not being aggressively cynical. My life's functioning pretty well as is, but I did recently go through a break up of a 6 year relationship where a part of it had to do with my inability to form deep emotional connections. Which is a part of my life going well: I am happier not being in a relationship I'm incapable of supporting Predictable hypotheticals are predictable because they're based on a simple premise that you yourself are able to consider. The thing about cost is that we can show how much people are willing to be selfish when it's 'sacred' or 'righteous': if children are valuable, why not sell your child for 1M, & then spend that helping a dozen kids from Haiti? https://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/buy-child-10-hours/story?id=5326508 https://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/buy-child-10-hours/story?id... . It's because you've decided your one child is more valuable than 12 others. You care about your child because it's _yours_. An extension of you. So here's shown that you're greatly overvaluing yourself at the sake of others

jimmcslim 9y ago

Wasn’t there some project going on to provide a WebAssembly build of VLC for the benefit of archive.org? Anyone know the progress of that?

jbk 9y ago
I have a good demo about this. The issue is that all browsers have disable SharedBufferArray because of spectre...

deep-c 9y ago

cool

marlebone 9y ago

Hrrm. Gave it a spin with a HDR 4K video on a non-HDR screen with default settings. Washed out, over-saturated, unwatchable colors. Tried finding tone mapping options. Apparently, those are only available for the OpenGL for Windows output. Changed to that (automatic is D3D11). Great, nice colors. Full-screened. Then back to windowed. Crash. Happens on many (but not all) 4K HDR MKV files here. So yeah, not really working at all that well. Back to Potplayer for now (I had been using VLC for years, but for 4K videos it just wouldn't work all that well). Nice on the Chromecast features though! :-)

nishitd 9y ago

I noticed that you seem to have made improvements to VLSub as well. Is that true? It's much faster than it used to be.

vram22 9y ago

VLC also has a Python API. Google vlc python api.