VLC’s next release, version 2.0.2, will include HiDPI / Retina Display support for its video output. This way, both video and subtitles or other overlays will be rendered at the display’s native resolution leading to a greatly improved viewing experience. If you’re one of the lucky guys to have a MacBook Pro with Retina Display already, you’re welcome to check out tomorrow night’s nightly builds (CEST). Click on the screenshots to see the differences more in detail. ...

We will have a booth at LinuxTag in Berlin, Germany this week along with our friends from libav. It’s #167 in hall 7.2a. We are looking forward to show you the latest developments in VideoLAN’s projects and would love to hear your feedback! The booth will be manned by Hugo and Ludovic on Wednesday and Thursday, while I’ll be there on Friday and Saturday. Jean-Paul and Mirsal will be available throughout the week and all of us during LinuxNacht. ...

In VLC 2.0, we introduced a brand new interface, which looks quite different to VLC 1.x. We basically did 2 things here: clean up the code by striping out most of the accumulated hacks of a 10 year old code base introduce a new interface design, which suits the look and feel of nowadays Mac applications However, there are quite a few users, who want to customize the UI, which is easily possible. Let me show you how. For sakes of simplicity, I’ll demonstrate the gray, default appearance only. However, it works exactly the same way if you prefer the dark style. ...

VLC 2.0.2 will include improved support for the media keys on keyboards produced by companies other than Apple, notably the brand Cherry. VLC uses a piece of code called SPMediaKeyTap developed by Spotify AB to provide this functionality. The fix was contributed back, so all the other client applications will benefit as well once they are updated. This would not have been possible without the generous and enormously fast donation by ZF Friedrichshafen AG / Cherry, who delived the boards less than a week after our initial contact.

VLC’s next major release will include support for the VDA decoder API on Mac OS X thanks to Sébastien Zwickert, who added the needed code both to VLC and libav. So, what’s the use? This adds hardware acceleration to H.264 video decoding on Mac OS X 10.6.3 and later! This way, VLC’s CPU load is reduced by up to 40 per cent on supported devices! These include Mac models equipped with the NVIDIA GeForce 9400M, GeForce 320M, GeForce GT 330M, ATI HD Radeon GFX, Intel HD Graphics and others. ...

Update: VLC 2.0.3 is out! Please make sure to get the latest version! Following the previous Q&A post, here’s a new one about VLC 2.0.1. It should explain the most common problems. As usual, feel free to add new questions to the comments since this a living document. When doing snapshots, I get an error message about some encoder issue. What’s wrong? Due to a bug in the underlying libavcodec library, saving snapshots in the JPEG format doesn’t work in this release ( #6415). Saving as PNG works correctly. To change the file format, go to the “Video” category of VLC’s preferences (which you can find in the VLC menu). ...

VLC 2.0.1 is now available on videolan.org and pushed directly to your Mac through VLC’s internal updater. Here are the most important improvements for VLC for the Mac: fixed delay when changing the volume added a way to minimize the playlist option-click on the playlist button, if the video is played within the main window click normally on the playlist button, if the video is played in a detached window or no video is playing at all provided a way to hide the sidebar added playback controls to the detached video window added OSD feedback when changing the volume added accessibility support to the black UI mode resolved fullscreen playback issues on Lion and Snow Leopard the forward / backward buttons are way less sensitive now, so you can skip the movie much more slowly (the speed matches iTunes now) disabled the native fullscreen mode on OS X Lion by default fixed issues with the track synchronization panel fixed playback of multicast UDP / RTP streams on certain setups fixed SAP service discovery on certain setups fixed crop functionality in the main menu and the video effects panel fixed issues with the aspect ratio and subtitles menu items fixed various crashes and minor ui issues progress bar flickering, video window getting larger than the actual screen size, re-appearing “Updating font cache” dialogs, etc. This update includes the following security content: ...

Update: VLC 2.0.1 is out! Please make sure that you updated. A 2.0.1 Q&A is available here. Fullscreen mode doesn’t work on my 2nd monitor anymore… is there a way to fix this? Yes, this is due to the way the fullscreen mode was implemented by Apple for OS X Lion. To get VLC’s own mode back as well as working output on your 2nd screen, disable “Use the native fullscreen mode on OS X Lion” in the Interface category of VLC’s preferences. You can find the preferences in the “VLC” menu next to the “Quit” item. ...

Our new major release was published today. Get it from videolan.org. VLC 2.0 includes the following Mac OS X specific changes: Completely re-written single window interface 2 interface styles: Lion gray and QTX-like black Full access to VLC’s video and audio filters new Audio Effects panel adding Compressor and Spatializer filters new Video Effects panel for color and geometry adjustments, and more A new panel to synchronize audio or subtitle tracks with the video Re-written Open Disc functionality with automatic media detection Native fullscreen support on OS X Lion (can be disabled if desired) enhanced AppleScript support support for VLC’s lua-based extensions, which which allow you to get info about the current movie from Allociné, post to Twitter, fetch subtitles automatically, etc. ...

While preparing VLC’s 2.0 release, I silently updated VLC’s plugin for EyeTV. The new version fixes playback issues with HD content received via DVB through the EyeTV application. The plugin is available for download now and also compatible with earlier releases of VLC.