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.

Since the release of VLC 2.0 is approaching, I thought it was time to publish its final interface design by Damien Erambert. Jean-Baptiste Kempf and me started to collect ideas for this interface in the summer of 2008. After slightly chaotic approaches and a few near death experiences for VLC’s Mac OS X port, we’re really proud of the result. The interface of VLC for Mac as you know it dated back to the 0.7.0 days with various additions until the 0.8.6 release (in 2008!). Since then, it was more or less unchanged with minor optimisations here and there. A re-write called Lunettes appeared in late 2009 and finally converged in VLC for iOS. ...

Due to packaging errors, the builds for Intel did not perform as described in the last post. They do so now. Thus, the crashes on Snow Leopard when using the 64bit build and on Leopard when using the 32bit build are gone. The downloads are still located at the same place. (link withdrawn due to actual release) Happy testing!

VLC 2.0 reached the Release Candidate milestone. RC1 builds for Mac are available here (links withdrawn due to actual release). Please note the following: You use Mac OS X 10.6 or 10.7 on a Core2Duo, Xeon or Intel i3/i5/i7? Get the " intel64" binary. You still use Mac OS X 10.5 on Intel or a CoreDuo CPU (first Intel-based machines introduced by Apple a few years ago)? Get the " intel32" binary. ...