VLC media player - the cross-platform media player and streaming server
VLC media player is a highly portable multimedia player for various audio and video formats (MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, DivX, mp3, ogg, ...) as well as DVDs, VCDs, and various streaming protocols. It can also be used as a server to stream in unicast or multicast in IPv4 or IPv6 on a high-bandwidth network.
Features
Video
Rewritten video output core and modules, allowing subpicture blending in GPU.
Shader support in the OpenGL output, for colorspace conversion, including 10bits.
New video outputs for Windows 7, Android, iOS and OS/2.
New debanding, grain, denoising and anti-flickering filters.
New deinterlacing filter, including an Inverse Telecine algorithm.
Audio
New resamplers for higher quality audio.
New dynamic range compressor and karaoke filters.
Simplification of the audio core for faster processing.
New audio outputs for iOS, Android and OS/2.
Formats
Multi-threaded decoding for H.264, MPEG-4/Xvid and WebM.
Support for 10bits codecs, WMV image and some other codecs.
Rewritten support for images, including jpeg, png, xcf, bmp...
Important changes in RealVideo and Real Format support.
CrystalHD cards and Android OpenMAX support for hardware decoding.
Input and Devices
Experimental support for BluRay discs:
- Menus are deactivated in this release (will come soon).
- AACS and BD+ DRM libraries and keys are not shipped, for legal reasons.
Support for SDI capture cards and QTKit devices.
Support for new adaptive streaming protocols, like HLS and DASH.
For Mac Users
Completely new, single window interface:
- Available in 2 colors: Lion grey and QTX black.
- Extensions support and better Lion integration.
Support for all QTKit devices through qtcapture and qtsound modules.
Continued support for X 10.5 and PPC users (1080p and ProRes on Dual-G5!).
For Anime Fans
Vastly improved MKV demuxer.
Rewritten linked segments and ordered chapter files support.
Correct support for FLAC, RV and Hi10p in MKV.
Rewritten seeking support in cue files.
Various ASS subtitles improvements.
For professional Users
Support for ProRes 422 and 4444, AVC/Intra.
Support for Jpeg-2000 and DNxHD/VC-3 in 10bits.
Support for EBU subtitles (stl) and EIA-608.
SDI and HD-SDI card support for input on Linux.
New Dirac/VC-2 encoder, faster than the previous one.
For Developers
libVLC, libVLCcore and libcompat have switched from GPL to LGPLv2.1+.
New libVLC examples are available: media player, photobooth and mediainfo clones.
New JSON requests on the web interface to control running VLC instances.
Implementation of the MPRIS2 interface to control media players.
VLC's web plugins have been rewritten for better integration and stability in all browsers.
Changes between 1.1.13 and 2.0.0:
---------------------------------
Important notes:
* The licenses of libVLC and libVLCcore have changed from GPLv2+ to LGPLv2.1+
* Start/end titles/chapters are now specified with # rather than @ to fix
conflicts with some URLs and file names. For instance, this plays a DVD
from the 2nd chapter of the 1st title up to the 4th chapter of the 3rd
title: vlc dvd://#1:2-3:4
* The 40+ --*-caching options were simplified and dumbed down to 4 options:
- --file-caching specifies caching for local files,
- --network-caching specifies caching for network resources,
- --live-caching specifies caching for capture devices and
- --disc-caching specifies caching for local optical media.
All values are expressed in milliseconds as in previous versions.
* HTTP server IP address, port, and TLS configuration is now centralized:
- The --http-host option sets the address, e.g. "--http-host=[2001:db8::1]".
By default, both :: and 0.0.0.0 are used.
- The --http-port and --https-port options set the port numbers.
By default, 8080 is used for HTTP, and 8443 for HTTPS.
- The TLS credentials are configured with --http-cert (public certificate),
--http-key (private key), --http-ca (optional CA) and
--http-crl (optional CRL).
* RTSP server IP address and port are updated similarly.
Use --rtsp-host and --rtsp-port respectively.
* The --miface-addr option does not exist anymore. To select the multicast
output interface, use --miface instead, e.g. --miface=eth0.
* The Windows version will only work with Windows XP SP2 or later.
Windows 2000 SP4, Windows XP < SP2, Windows 2003 SP0 are now unsupported.
* The Mac OS version will require Quartz Extreme compatible machines.
Important changes for packagers:
* The default builds now assume that the operating system uses UTF-8 for
its file systems and files content (except the Windows port). If this is
not acceptable, pass --enable-non-utf8 to the configure script.
Non-UTF-8 file systems support will be removed in future versions.
* The VLC plugins path can be overridden with the VLC_PLUGIN_PATH environment
variable. The --plugin-path command line option was removed.
* The default tarballs are now compressed with XZ/LZMA: .tar.xz
* OSS support is not compiled on Linux by default, pass --enable-oss to the
configure script if you use OSSv4 or really want to use OSS emulation.
* The webplugins have moved to: git://git.videolan.org/npapi-vlc.git
Core:
* Major Video Core and Outputs rework and rewrite:
Subtitles, subpictures and OSD can now be sized and blent inside outputs
x11 (Unix), OpenGL (Unix) and Direct3D (Windows) are such video outputs.
* Almost every video filter can now be transcoded
* Playback rate doesn't get resetted to 1 between items anymore
* Option --sub-filter was renamed --sub-source
* Port to Android, iOS, OS/2 and Win64.
Access:
* Multiple files are now supported inside RAR files
* Experimental support for ClearQam devices in the BDA/DTV module
* DVB-S scanning support on Unix
* DVB-C scanning on Unix scans correct modulation/symbolrate if needed
* Support for freq and video standard selection in DirectShow
* Support for VDR recordings (http://www.tvdr.de/) folders
* Experimental Blu-Ray Discs support using libbluray
* HTTP Live Streaming (IETF draft) playback support
* Blackmagic DeckLink SDI cards input support (Linux only currently)
* Linear Systems (HD-)SDI cards input support (Linux)
* PulseAudio audio input support
* Support for RTP dynamic payload types by specifying the payload format
in an option (no autodetection): only Theora supported for now
* Basic HTCPCP implementation for Coffee Pot control
* Support for all QTKit-compatible video input devices, aka QTCapture
* Support for all QTKit-compatible audio input devices, aka QTSound
* Support for capturing partially hidden windows in the X11 Screen input
* MPEG DASH (Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP) support
* Support for HTTPS is now fixed in the Windows port
Codecs:
* One can now use ffmpeg-mt in conjunction with vlc, to split decoding load
on multiple cores. H.264, VP3, VP8, JPEG-2000, Mpeg-4 ASP/DivX and RV3/RV4
are notably concerned.
* Important fixes for RealVideo 3.0 and 4.0 playback, notably in MKV
* Experimental Hardware decoding using Broadcom CrystalHD cards
* New module for decoding EBU subtitles (.stl)
* Support for 9bits and 10bits H.264/AVC decoding
* Support for 20-bits PCM and DAT-12 (digital magnetic tapes) from RTP
* New module for Dirac encoding, using the faster libschroedinger
The Schroedinger module should be prefered to the Dirac one
* Support for WMV Images, aka WMVP and WVP2, as used by Photo Story
* Support for Lagarith Lossless video codec
* Support for ProRes 422 video codec in 10bits
* Support for DNxHD (VC-3) and JPEG-2000 in 10bits
* EIA-608 closed captions improvements
* Support for JPEG-2000 and Motion JPEG-2000 in the Windows and Mac binaries
* Experimental support of IOMX for OpenMAX IL codecs on Android
* One can use "mp2 " fourcc to encode in mpeg1/2 layer 2
Demuxers:
* New images demuxer supporting jpeg, png, targa, xcf, git, tiff, bmp, pcx, lbm
* C64 SID file playback support of using sidplay2
* Support for images/cover art in wma/wmv/asf files
* Improvements in .ape files metadata reading and writing
* New demuxer module for EBU subtitles (.stl)
* Support for caf, mtv, awb, f4v, amr, vro (DVD-VR) files
* Ogg, flv, mxf, amr seeking improvements
* Major improvements in Matroska (mkv) chapters/segments handling and seeking
* Support for duration and better seeking in Mpeg-TS files (.ts, .m2ts, .mts)
* Mov improvements, notably for aspect-ratio handling and Audio DV tracks
* Improved support of tracker files
* Real Media (.rm and .rmvb) demuxer is now based on libavformat
Interfaces:
* Qt: effects dialogs rework
* Qt: new CoverFlow-like view of the playlist
* Qt: port to MacOS X platform
* Qt: various interface improvements, notably on the seek bar
* Skins2 / Qt: misc improvements and usability fixes
* Skins2: fullscreen controller support, relative placement support
and important cleanups and optimisations
* Mac OS X: re-written Main Window, which also includes the Video Windows
It is available in 2 looks, one grey (Lion style) and one black (QTX style)
* Mac OS X: new Audio Effects panel adding Compressor and Spatializer filters
* Mac OS X: new Track Synchronization panel
* Mac OS X: new Video Effects panel for color and geometry adjustments
* Mac OS X: re-written Open Disc functionality with automatic media detection
* Mac OS X: support for the native fullscreen mode on OS X Lion
* Mac OS X: enhanced AppleScript support
* Mac OS X: support for lua extensions
* The rc and telnet lua interfaces were merged into a new "cli" interface
* lua: the recommended way to run custom interface scripts is now to pass
-I luaintf --lua-intf myscript
* ncurses: heavy refactor of the complete interface
* dbus: Upgrade to an mpris2 compliant interface, see http://www.mpris.org
* dbus: Rewrite of the main loop to use a more efficient poll-based model
* webUI/http: Rewrite of the web interface, using jQuery
* webUI/http: some requests are now supported in JSON in addition to XML
* webUI/http: path values for input and output are deprecated in favour of uri
* Qt/Win32: the update system now downloads the updates in the temp folder
* Qt: preferences are now searchable
* Qt: the fullscreen controller is now stackable, full-width, at the bottom
Video Output:
* New video output based on Direct2D for Windows 7 and Vista (with Platform Update)
* New video output for iOS platform
* Experimental work in progress on a video output using EGL
* Adaptation of the OpenGL layer for OpenGL ES 1.1
* Various vmem improvements
* OpenGL video output now accepts YUV as input and uses fragment programs for
chroma conversion between YUV and RGB
* New video output for Android platform, based on Surface
* Support for 9/10bits output in the OpenGL output
* Updated OpenGL video output for Mac, requires a Quartz Extreme capable machine
* New video output based on kva API for OS/2
Audio Output and Filters:
* New audio output based on AudioQueue API for iOS
* New audio output in memory (amem)
* Important simplification and improvements in the core audio output
* New audio output based on OpenSL ES API for Android
* New audio resampler using Speex (DSP)
* New audio resampler using the Secret Rabbit Code (a.k.a. libsamplerate)
* New Compressor filter, a dynamic range compressor
* New simplistic Karaoke filter
* New audio output based on kai API for OS/2
* Automatic handover from S/PDIF to PCM with PulseAudio 1.0
Video Filter:
* New gradfun filter for debanding videos using dithering
* Rewrite of the grain filter, faster and with better quality
* New posterize filter for lowering the number of colors
* Atmo ambilight: improve Fnordlicht support up to 254 channels
* New sepia filter for creating sepia effect in videos
* New deinterlacer mode Phosphor, a framerate doubling CRT TV simulator
* New deinterlacer mode IVTC, to do live inverse telecine for NTSC films
* New subsdelay filter to change subtitles delay
* New anti-flickering filter
* New OpenMAX DL IPCS filter for color space conversion and resizing
* New video filter for denoising, based on the famous hqdn3d filter
* Major improvements in the freetype text-rendering module, notably supporting
blackbox and customizable shadow.
NB: The freetype module is now used by default on the Mac OS X instead of
the quartztext module, which can still be enabled manually.
The Win32 font selection was improved too.
Stream output:
* New livehttp-module for HTTP Live Streaming (IETF draft) output
example: vlc inputfile :sout="#transcode{vcodec=h264,acodec=mp3,
venc=x264{profile=baseline},width=320,vb=256,ab=96}:std{
access=livehttp{index=public_html/iphonestream.m3u8,
index-url=http://url-to-iphonestreamfile-###.ts},mux=ts{use-key-frames},
dst=public_html/iphonestreamfile-###.ts}"
* Support for Vorbis and Theora in RTP
* Major rework of VoD support
* New delay module, to introduce delays of one ES, when streaming:
#delay{id=12,delay=500}:standard...
* New setlang, setid modules to change lang or id of one ES, when streaming:
#setid{id=12,new-id=42}:std...
* New langfromtelx module, to change lang of one ES, when streaming, based on
a telextex page: #langfromtelx{id=12,magazine=7,page=0x99,row=1}:std...
* New select module, to replace an existing ES with another ES in the same track
#duplicate{dst=bridge-out{id=1},select=video,dst=bridge-out{id=0xa3},select=audio}
#transcode{...}:bridge-in{id-offset=0}:select{disable=0}:setid{id=0,newid=0xa3}:autodel:std{...}
* New libavformat/avio access_output module for network streaming
Services Discovery:
* Search API to be able to query distant search APIs from the interfaces
* Upnp module was ported to Win32
libVLC:
* New capabilities for libVLC:
** libvlc_media_player_navigate for DVD navigation
** libvlc_audio_filter_list_get, libvlc_video_filter_list_get to get the
list of available audio and video filters
** libvlc_audio_set_format, libvlc_audio_set_format_callbacks,
libvlc_audio_set_callbacks
allow grabbing audio data from a chosen memory location in real-time.
Removed modules:
* asademux, subsass: use libass
* fake, invmem: use the new image demuxers
* hal, v4l, gapi, omapfb, hd1000a, hd1000v: obsolete unmaintained modules
* id3tag: use taglib
* upnp: use upnp_intel
* removal of old telnet interface in favor of the new lua CLI
* removal of http interface in favor of luahttp
* removal of the noise filter
* removal of the SDL audio output, use the native outputs
* growl_udp: use Growl for local notifications on the Mac. UDP support will be
removed in Growl's next release, too.
* removal of the OSSO screensave module, use the MCE one
Translations:
* Update of translations for most languages.
* New Telugu and Kurmanji translations.
