Popular open source media player VLC has
almost hit version 1.0. The developers are in the process of pushing out a release candidate for version 1.0 of the cross-platform media player. There's little information about the latest version on the main
VLC web site, but you can download the Windows version
from FileHippo.
Here are just a few of the latest features:
- Instantaneous pausing
- Frame by frame playback
- Finer speed control
- New and fixed audio and video decoders
- On they fly zip file decompression and browsing
- On the fly gzip and bzip2 file decompression (ecept for on WIndows)
- Support for DVB-S and ATSC cards on Windows
- Experimental Blu-Ray disc and AVCHD folder support
There are also a number of interface improvements and other tweaks. And as always, VLC can open and play almost any multimedia file you care to throw at it.
VLC is available for Mac, Windows, and Linux.
Tags: opensource, vlc, vlc-1.0-rc
Comments
8
Subscribe to commentssupernova_hqMay 12th 2009 4:12PM
Does the blu-ray plugin work in Linux?
RuamrudeeMay 12th 2009 3:35PM
Experimental
RocketboyMay 12th 2009 4:20PM
Is this much better then Classic Media Player?
Ntw1103May 12th 2009 4:31PM
It is different. mediaplayer classic uses external codecs, while VlC uses internal codecs. I don't use mediaplayer classic anymore because I think it is ugly, but I use the k-lite codec pack with the KMPlayer. I have found that this combination is better at playing everything than VLC except for partially broken avi files. In every other case the playback seems smoother with external codecs.
http://dreamphase.wordpress.com/2009/01/20/how-to-play-anything/
hazardMay 13th 2009 6:23AM
"Is this much better then Classic Media Player?"
Depends. If you apprecitiate hassle free playback then yes. If you are after the best possible image quality then no. There are a bucket load of other factors .. I bet if you install VLC you'll end up using it at some point, it's the "Swiss Army knife" of media players.
@Ntw1103 .. I don't use KMPlayer on principle after finding out about it's GPL breaches
lbMay 12th 2009 8:56PM
no real need for this with windows 7 media player
hazardMay 13th 2009 6:22AM
I'm quite impressed with the format support with WMP in Win7 RC but it's weak subtitle support is a let down. The only format it's had trouble with [that I use on a regular basis] is flv.
KateMay 14th 2009 7:06AM
I've been using GOM Player. It plays everything VLC does, and it looks a lot nicer, both its default skin and the many nice ones that can be downloaded from the website. The image quality is also very nice. I watch all my movies and tv shows on it at fullscreen and they look great.
The developers of VLC should really consider de-uglying their app; I think more people might try it. This may seem like a trivial or superficial consideration, but the way an application looks really does make a difference to most users. I installed VLC on my mom's computer about a year ago so that she could play some videos that WMP wouldn't play, and the first thing she commented on was VLC's lackluster appearance in comparison to the admittedly very pretty (but very crappy) Windows Media Player 11. I installed GOM player for her a few weeks ago and she hasn't stopped using it since. Link: http://www.gomlab.com/eng/