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(disclaimer: president of VideoLAN here and old VLC dev) What's interesting in this article (quite accurate, for once) is the focus on the size of the team, w

by jbk 7y ago

(disclaimer: president of VideoLAN here and old VLC dev) What's interesting in this article (quite accurate, for once) is the focus on the size of the team, which is quite small; and on the development process. And how the team are now friends more than co-developers... In fact, VLC is ported - and maintained - in a very large number of platforms (probably more than Firefox, Chrome, Office or Libreoffice) with Android (+TV), ChromeOS, iOS/iPadOS, AppleTV, WinRT&Xbox, Windows (XP+), macOS (10.7+), Linux, Unixes, BSD, OS/2. While the core team has always been around 5 persons, and always less than 10. And most developers have been working on their free time... The VideoLAN non-profit needs also to maintain quite a bit of infra (updater, crash reporter, bugtracker, forum, wiki, ml, gitlab, git) for a lot of projects (not only VLC, but things like x264 and dav1d) and do support, appstores, PR, translations and partnerships (the only way to get support from MS, Google or Apple). Sure, VLC is probably not always the best for your usecase, and there are probably better solutions for each platform, but we are consistent, completely open source and open process, therefore people can trust the project and the brand: VLC will be around in 5 years, and we will do our best to port on all platforms, in an open way. A lot of players come and go, but the project is structured so it can last. Since HN is a technical crowd, we're currently working on 2 fun projects: VLC.js and integrating sandboxing inside VLC :)

saagarjha 7y ago
Could you expand a bit on the two projects, or send me a link to a place where I can learn more?
- jbk 7y ago
  VLC.js is porting the full VLC in wasm, to be able to play everything inside a webpage. Sandboxing is a way of securing VLC, so that when it crashes, the machine is not compromised. It's a bit more complex than simple sandboxing, since simple sandboxing is not useful (we have access to everything).
gen3 7y ago
Thank you for staying a nonprofit; I'm sure you have received many offers in the past. I'm glad to have been a user of VLC since I first got a computer. I happily install / recommend it to family and friends. It does what it needs to do very well, and without bloat.
- Stratoscope 7y ago
  Here's a discussion of one such offer: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15372048 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15372048
  - inthewings 7y ago
    We still get shady offers every week
giancarlostoro 7y ago
Curious are there open discussions or articles about VLC.js? Is it possible this may include decoders in some form? I sort of hope VLC.js isnt just Emscripten. Would be nicer if the open web benefits. I have been using the audio and video HTML tags lately and am disappointed by how limited they are and how cubbersome styling them is. You literally hide the out of the box components instead of being able to style those directly.
- inthewings 7y ago
  That's full VLC in wasm.
isaacdl 7y ago
Yeah, huge thanks so much for a really phenomenal tool! In my group of (admittedly fairly technical) friends, "download thyself a traffic cone" is a fairly common thing to hear when encountering an AV issue :)
gjs278 7y ago
your software arbitrarily restricts root usage. no other software does.
- michaelmrose 7y ago
  There are probably more people accidentally running vlc with root privileges than people who run a gui login as root. It should be hard to do poorly thought out things.
- jbk 7y ago
  You have a wrapper if you know what you are doing, that is shipped besides the binary.
xmichael999 7y ago
Thank you for all the time and energy you put into this amazing project!
tahdig 7y ago
> Sure, VLC is probably not always the best for your usecase VLC is both consistent and almost always the best media player for the platform. I especially love your Android UI/UX. It has been my go-to player for ~14 years now, installed it on my high school desktop windows, my university linux and now work MBP and personal Android never disappointed me. Thanks for keeping up the quality work, I give you as example of good quality open-source project when the topic comes up. Do you have any "need" for a fullstack/infra kind of person? Or any place we can see what know-how needs you have at the moment? Would love to get involved with my limited capacity. Also thanks for staying open source and privacy conscious.
- jbk 7y ago
  > Do you have any "need" for a fullstack/infra kind of person? Yes, we do. Both web (JS for VLC and for our website), backend (Go) and infra are needed. And currently, people who are able to write Ruby to improve gitlab upstream.
  - f3ndot 7y ago
    > people who are able to write Ruby to improve gitlab upstream. This I am able to do. How can I help? I've contributed in very small ways previously (getting libdav1d into Handbrake[1], designing the dav1d logo[2]). Would love to be able to offer my time in a domain I'm skilled in. [1]: https://github.com/HandBrake/HandBrake/pull/1864 https://github.com/HandBrake/HandBrake/pull/1864 [2]: https://code.videolan.org/videolan/dav1d/merge_requests/681 https://code.videolan.org/videolan/dav1d/merge_requests/681
- jokowueu 7y ago
  Their vlc UI on Android is an issue for me because it overlaps the ANDROID ui buttons (home back etc )
  - jbk 7y ago
    This is a bug in your Android ROM, not in VLC. We try to work-around those bugs, but we need to do that, one by one. It is tricky. What ROM do you have?
8bitsrule 7y ago
Besides using VLC to watch my video collection, and listen to albums, I use this program daily to organize and stream a plethora of internet radio stations. It's almost always running. It's an incredibly useful creation, and very much appreciated. Merci beaucoup!
ynx 7y ago
What kind of sandboxing, and what are the most relevant source files to look at? I don't know much about sandboxing but I've been interested in learning more for a while. It would be cool to see how a Real Project(tm) approaches it.
- inthewings 7y ago
  Sept 2017 Talk about sandboxing https://vimeo.com/269079774 https://vimeo.com/269079774
- jbk 7y ago
  > What kind of sandboxing Sandboxing between the different stages of VLC, because each require different control needs.
vonseel 7y ago
What’s the est development burden to add support for Split Screen in Mac OS? I noticed VLC doesn’t support this yet and wasn’t sure if it’s going to be a huge thing to add or not.
- jbk 7y ago
  The official API mandates using AVPlayer to use it. You can hack it, but it's not supported, so we're not sure if we should do it or not.
bluetwo 7y ago
I give you folks a lot of credit for building a professional ecosystem on top of a brilliant but constantly moving target (FFMPEG). Well done.
- jbk 7y ago
  We also support FFmpeg, in the way we can (infra and sponsoring of new features).
js2 7y ago
VLC is the only thing I can use on my AppleTV to access my local Plex server when my Internet connection is down. It's almost the only time I use VLC but so worth it when I need it. Thank you and the team for all your work over the years.
- ShamelessC 7y ago
  Wait, you can access Plex from VLC?
  - voltagex_ 7y ago
    via DLNA, I assume.
  - jbk 7y ago
    Yes, https://code.videolan.org/videolan/vlc-ios/tree/master/SharedSources/ServerBrowsing/Plex https://code.videolan.org/videolan/vlc-ios/tree/master/Share...
    - unixhero 7y ago
      Whoa! The plot thickens. Thanks for the insight!
ddingus 7y ago
Thanks for what you do and how you do it. I love, use and recommend VLC constantly.
S-E-P 7y ago
I remember, years ago, when VLC was fairly unknown and my dad asked if I knew what VLC was... he was convinced it was adware as he had never seen it before and when you clicked on it, nothing really happened. I looked it up after he uninstalled the nothing-burger of an application. Found your website and decided to download it. I remember malware would masquerade as real software a lot back then and it wasn’t that far out. Installed it and ever since has been my favorite for watching anything, and helped streaming files and the like. VLC is awesome and I haven’t stopped using it since.
markosaric 7y ago
Thanks for all the work you guys are doing in keeping it open source and human-friendly! I recently moved from Mac to Linux and VLC was one of those friendly apps that I had to install there too so thanks for making sure it's available on all platforms too. Runs so fast and always just works!
paggle 7y ago
Probably not the best for my usecase? What sublime properties of optimal media players have I been missing out on by using exclusively VLC for more than a decade?
dakom 7y ago
Hey - around ~3 years ago or so I was dabbling with writing a libVLC module to handle custom encryption and jumped on the IRC channel to get help. Was a great experience all around! Curious about VLC.js - is there a recommended way to get updates on that project? I'm particularly interested in if/how you plan to integrate encryption via the browser's built-in EME stuff. (also, fwiw, I think libVLC is not famous enough, considering how popular VLC is!)

by jbk 7y ago

saagarjha 7y ago

Could you expand a bit on the two projects, or send me a link to a place where I can learn more?

jbk 7y ago
VLC.js is porting the full VLC in wasm, to be able to play everything inside a webpage. Sandboxing is a way of securing VLC, so that when it crashes, the machine is not compromised. It's a bit more complex than simple sandboxing, since simple sandboxing is not useful (we have access to everything).

gen3 7y ago

Thank you for staying a nonprofit; I'm sure you have received many offers in the past. I'm glad to have been a user of VLC since I first got a computer. I happily install / recommend it to family and friends. It does what it needs to do very well, and without bloat.

Stratoscope 7y ago
Here's a discussion of one such offer: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15372048 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15372048
- inthewings 7y ago
  We still get shady offers every week

giancarlostoro 7y ago

Curious are there open discussions or articles about VLC.js? Is it possible this may include decoders in some form? I sort of hope VLC.js isnt just Emscripten. Would be nicer if the open web benefits. I have been using the audio and video HTML tags lately and am disappointed by how limited they are and how cubbersome styling them is. You literally hide the out of the box components instead of being able to style those directly.

inthewings 7y ago
That's full VLC in wasm.

isaacdl 7y ago

Yeah, huge thanks so much for a really phenomenal tool! In my group of (admittedly fairly technical) friends, "download thyself a traffic cone" is a fairly common thing to hear when encountering an AV issue :)

gjs278 7y ago

your software arbitrarily restricts root usage. no other software does.

michaelmrose 7y ago
There are probably more people accidentally running vlc with root privileges than people who run a gui login as root. It should be hard to do poorly thought out things.
jbk 7y ago
You have a wrapper if you know what you are doing, that is shipped besides the binary.

xmichael999 7y ago

Thank you for all the time and energy you put into this amazing project!

tahdig 7y ago

> Sure, VLC is probably not always the best for your usecase VLC is both consistent and almost always the best media player for the platform. I especially love your Android UI/UX. It has been my go-to player for ~14 years now, installed it on my high school desktop windows, my university linux and now work MBP and personal Android never disappointed me. Thanks for keeping up the quality work, I give you as example of good quality open-source project when the topic comes up. Do you have any "need" for a fullstack/infra kind of person? Or any place we can see what know-how needs you have at the moment? Would love to get involved with my limited capacity. Also thanks for staying open source and privacy conscious.

jbk 7y ago
> Do you have any "need" for a fullstack/infra kind of person? Yes, we do. Both web (JS for VLC and for our website), backend (Go) and infra are needed. And currently, people who are able to write Ruby to improve gitlab upstream.
- f3ndot 7y ago
  > people who are able to write Ruby to improve gitlab upstream. This I am able to do. How can I help? I've contributed in very small ways previously (getting libdav1d into Handbrake[1], designing the dav1d logo[2]). Would love to be able to offer my time in a domain I'm skilled in. [1]: https://github.com/HandBrake/HandBrake/pull/1864 https://github.com/HandBrake/HandBrake/pull/1864 [2]: https://code.videolan.org/videolan/dav1d/merge_requests/681 https://code.videolan.org/videolan/dav1d/merge_requests/681
jokowueu 7y ago
Their vlc UI on Android is an issue for me because it overlaps the ANDROID ui buttons (home back etc )
- jbk 7y ago
  This is a bug in your Android ROM, not in VLC. We try to work-around those bugs, but we need to do that, one by one. It is tricky. What ROM do you have?

8bitsrule 7y ago

Besides using VLC to watch my video collection, and listen to albums, I use this program daily to organize and stream a plethora of internet radio stations. It's almost always running. It's an incredibly useful creation, and very much appreciated. Merci beaucoup!

ynx 7y ago

What kind of sandboxing, and what are the most relevant source files to look at? I don't know much about sandboxing but I've been interested in learning more for a while. It would be cool to see how a Real Project(tm) approaches it.

inthewings 7y ago
Sept 2017 Talk about sandboxing https://vimeo.com/269079774 https://vimeo.com/269079774
jbk 7y ago
> What kind of sandboxing Sandboxing between the different stages of VLC, because each require different control needs.

vonseel 7y ago

What’s the est development burden to add support for Split Screen in Mac OS? I noticed VLC doesn’t support this yet and wasn’t sure if it’s going to be a huge thing to add or not.

jbk 7y ago
The official API mandates using AVPlayer to use it. You can hack it, but it's not supported, so we're not sure if we should do it or not.

bluetwo 7y ago

I give you folks a lot of credit for building a professional ecosystem on top of a brilliant but constantly moving target (FFMPEG). Well done.

jbk 7y ago
We also support FFmpeg, in the way we can (infra and sponsoring of new features).

js2 7y ago

VLC is the only thing I can use on my AppleTV to access my local Plex server when my Internet connection is down. It's almost the only time I use VLC but so worth it when I need it. Thank you and the team for all your work over the years.

ShamelessC 7y ago
Wait, you can access Plex from VLC?
- voltagex_ 7y ago
  via DLNA, I assume.
- jbk 7y ago
  Yes, https://code.videolan.org/videolan/vlc-ios/tree/master/SharedSources/ServerBrowsing/Plex https://code.videolan.org/videolan/vlc-ios/tree/master/Share...
  - unixhero 7y ago
    Whoa! The plot thickens. Thanks for the insight!

ddingus 7y ago

Thanks for what you do and how you do it. I love, use and recommend VLC constantly.

S-E-P 7y ago

I remember, years ago, when VLC was fairly unknown and my dad asked if I knew what VLC was... he was convinced it was adware as he had never seen it before and when you clicked on it, nothing really happened. I looked it up after he uninstalled the nothing-burger of an application. Found your website and decided to download it. I remember malware would masquerade as real software a lot back then and it wasn’t that far out. Installed it and ever since has been my favorite for watching anything, and helped streaming files and the like. VLC is awesome and I haven’t stopped using it since.

markosaric 7y ago

Thanks for all the work you guys are doing in keeping it open source and human-friendly! I recently moved from Mac to Linux and VLC was one of those friendly apps that I had to install there too so thanks for making sure it's available on all platforms too. Runs so fast and always just works!

paggle 7y ago

Probably not the best for my usecase? What sublime properties of optimal media players have I been missing out on by using exclusively VLC for more than a decade?

dakom 7y ago

Hey - around ~3 years ago or so I was dabbling with writing a libVLC module to handle custom encryption and jumped on the IRC channel to get help. Was a great experience all around! Curious about VLC.js - is there a recommended way to get updates on that project? I'm particularly interested in if/how you plan to integrate encryption via the browser's built-in EME stuff. (also, fwiw, I think libVLC is not famous enough, considering how popular VLC is!)