This is part of an article series covering VLC’s Objective-C framework, which we provide to allow inclusion of all its features in third party applications as well as VLC for iOS and Apple TV. Currently published: Part 2: Metadata handling. Part 3: Snapshots and thumbnailing VLCKit is a generic library for any audio or video playback needs on both Apple platforms and also supports streaming and media to file conversations on the Mac. It is open-source software licensed under the LGPLv2.1 or later, available in source code and binary form from the VideoLAN website. You can also integrate MobileVLCKit easily via CocoaPods. ...

When I started to work on VLC for iOS last summer, it quickly became apparent that it would need to support playback from local media servers announced over the UPnP protocol. I came across a Objective-C++ library named upnpx which suited my use case nicely and which included broad support for all the various UPnP dialects. Regrettably, upnpx was not maintained anymore since a few months, so I started a private fork within VLC for iOS and eventually moved on to github. Nowadays, my fork is officially endorsed by the original developer Bruno Keymolen. ...

Today, we released 2 versions of VLC media player for Mac OS X targeting different client systems. Version 2.1.4 This is a small bug fix release, which improves an important regression regarding DVD playback and improves compatibility with HUffYUV contents by upgrading the respective decoder library. Additionally, a rare issue with some specifically crafted wmv files was fixed and a misleading error message no longer appears during video playback on OS X Mavericks. Grab a copy here or trigger the internal updater if it doesn’t prompt you right away. ...

Today, we released a small update of VLC for iOS. It solves the most important regressions in last week’s 2.2 major release, but also includes a major improvement: full initial support of 64bit aka AArch64 aka arm64 on late 2013’s iPhone and iPad thanks to a close collaboration with the libav team. Additionally, we added enhanced support for a broader set of UPnP servers, notably Twonky 7, Serviio 1.4 and XMBC 12, and resolved an inconvenient memory management issue in the underlying upnp library, which lead to the weird behavior that from a full folder only a single file would actually be played over and over again. ...

Today, we published version 2.2 of VLC for iOS on the App Store. It features a re-designed interface for iOS 7, which we demonstrated in early November last year. Since then, we took the time for further improvements, polishing and most importantly adding features in addition a plain restyling. Notably, we added the following: Google Drive integration and Dropbox streaming, New multitouch gestures, Improved library for TV Shows and Audio, Better UPnP integration, with downloading support, A startup tutorial, New streaming formats and protocols supported, Rewritten WiFi upload, Improved privacy when using Passcode Lock ...

Today, we published VLC media player 2.1.1 for all major desktop operating systems. If you used VLC for Android or for iOS in the last couple of months, you already got in touch with VLC’s 2.1 code base. VLC media player 2.1 was initially published on September 26. However, we didn’t enable VLC’s internal updater since then. Why? We spent extra time on polishing the release, added support for the upcoming major video codec HEVC aka H.265 in MKV and MP4 containers as well as raw files, and lastly improved compatibility with both OS X 10.6 and 10.9. ...

Over the last weeks, I worked closely with Damien Erambert on VLC’s user interface on iOS, rethinking it for iOS 7. I would like to share a small preview today with further iterations pending. Version 2.2 of VLC for iOS will also include various new features and refinements. More on that, at a later point. Any feedback and remarks are strongly welcome.

About 8 weeks passed since the initial re-release of VLC for iOS based upon its entirely re-written code base. Its success outperformed our expectations with more than 2.5 million downloads during the first week. Wow! For the first major update, we listed carefully to the feedback received on the App Stores and through others channels. It adds the following features and improvements: Improved overall stability Newly implemented menu and application flow Added support for subtitles in non-western languages Improved Subtitles support with options to choose font, size, and color Add basic UPNP discovery and streaming for HTTP servers Add FTP server discovery, streaming and downloading Add Bonjour announcements for the WiFi Uploader’s website Add playback of audio-only media Improved VoiceOver and accessibility support Added Deinterlace option (off by default) Device no longer goes to sleep during media downloads Improved video output on external screens Improved Passcode Lock behavior Minor usability improvements New translations to Bosnian, Catalan, Galician, Greek, Marathi, Portuguese, Slovenian Additionally, we took the time finish a complete walkthrough of the app to discover what’s actually included and to answer most questions. ...

So there we are. We have come a long way. Today, it’s my pleasure to announce that VLC for iOS is back on the App Store. It’s available free of charge in any country, requires iOS 5.1 or later and runs on any iPhone, iPad or iPod touch. This is more than an upgrade of the initial version: it’s a full re-write. From the ground-up. Relying on the power of MobileVLCKit and its underlying libvlc, we started with modern video and audio output modules offering faster drawing, full support for 10bit H264 encodings, retina displays and lower latency. ...

Today, we published VLC 2.0.7. This is an important update to VLC’s 2.0 series, which improves the overall stability, fixes minor annoyances and solves certain security implications. It will be available through the internal updater on Mac OS X later today and is already live on our main website for manual downloads. The in-app announcement on Windows will be enabled as soon as the load on our servers allows. Notable changes include: ...