Improved media key support

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.

VDA decoder support

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.

More technical information is available on Sébastien’s github page.

You can find an initial pre-release build here, based upon VLC’s current development branch. Please note that this build is not made for production environments, could hurt your kittens and could do all the other bad stuff pre-alpha software is known for to your Mac and its surroundings.

Note that VDA decoding isn’t enabled by default. To enable it, go to Preferences (VLC menu), click on “Show all” on the bottom left, choose “Input/Codecs” -> “Video codecs” -> “FFmpeg” on the left hand side and scroll down on the right until you see the checkbox labelled “Hardware decoding”. Check it. That’s it. Make sure to restart the playback, if applicable.

VLC 2.0.1 Q&A (updated)

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).

This issue affects the binaries both on Mac OS X and MS Windows. It will be fixed in the 2.0.2 release through a codec update.

Make sure to restart VLC after changing this option!

 

VLC doesn’t open in fullscreen mode anymore on launch. Can I do something to solve this?

This issue will be fixed in VLC 2.0.2 (#6464). As a work-around, you can enable the native fullscreen mode of OS X Lion if you run this version of Mac OS X or get a nightly build.

This issue does only affect the Mac OS X platform.

Make sure to restart VLC after changing this option!

 

Some Asian subtitles are displayed as a thick white line instead of characters… What to do?

As a work-around, press command-1 after starting the video playback (#6427). This will slightly resize the window and will allow the text renderer to draw these characters correctly. Only a small number of subtitles included in MP4 container files is affected.

This issue does only affect the Mac OS X platform and will be fixed in VLC 2.0.2.

 

There are colored lines and stripes across the video when running VLC on MS Windows XP, but previous versions ran nicely. Is there a fix?

VLC 2.0 includes a new video output module on MS Windows, which is not compatible with a certain number of graphics card drivers on MS Windows XP (#6501, #6469). You can re-enable the previous output module in VLC’s preferences (Tools menu): in the “Video Settings”, you’ll find a switch for the “output module”, which you want to set to “DirectX”.

This issue does only affect the MS Windows platform and will be resolved in VLC 2.0.2.

Make sure to restart VLC after changing this option!

 

The playback control buttons don’t seem to work on my Mac. What to do?

On a small number of VLC installations on Mac OS X, the preferences corrupted during the upgrade to VLC 2 leading to the mentioned result. To fix this, go to the preferences dialog (VLC menu), click on “Show All”, select “Interface” -> “Main Interfaces” on the left hand side and disable “Mac OS X Interface” in the “Extra interface modules” list on the right.

This issue does only affect the Mac OS X platform and will be resolved in VLC 2.0.2.

Make sure to restart VLC after changing this option!

 

Can I follow the progress of VLC 2.0.2?

Sure. Have a look at our bug tracker.

 

My issue isn’t listed here. Can I report it somewhere?

Sure. Open a ticket in our bug tracker. Note that you don’t need to register to do so. Any OpenID account including your Google login will work.

Update: VLC 2.0.3 is out! Please make sure to get the latest version!

VLC 2.0.1 out now

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:

  • Updated libpng to 1.5.9 (CVE-2011-3026)
  • Updated freetype to 2.4.9 (CVE-2012-1126 up to CVE-2012-1144)
  • Fixed MMS stack overflow (VideoLAN-SA-1201)
  • Fixed RealRTSP heap overflow (VideoLAN-SA-1202)

Additionally, VLC 2.0.1 includes the following cross-platform improvements:

  • Access:
    • fixed and improved the CDDB information retrieval
    • fixed the samba module compilation
    • improved HTTP Live Streaming support
    • multiple fixes for HLS support, notably on Windows and for encryption
    • multiple fixes for Bluray discs playback
    • improved DVD playback on some RPC-I drives
  • Codecs:
    • Support for MXPEG files
    • limited auto-detected threads to 4 in avcodec module
    • fixed the use of QuickTime audio codecs in RTSP streams
  • Muxers:
    • FIxed OGM header creation
  • Demuxers:
    • Fixed multi-file splitted RAR archive support
    • Fixed a crash when seeking in mka
    • Improved MKV multi-video tracks support
  • Audio filters:
    • limited spatializer filter distortions
    • Use the fastest SinC algorithm for the samplerate module
  • Web interface:
    • fixed mobile display for remote control mode
    • support for .drc and .3ga extensions
  • Service discovery:
    • fixed SAP discovery, where an item was added multiple times
    • Updated Jamendo selections

 

Furthermore, VLC 2.0.1 includes these improvements for Windows and Linux:

  • Audio output:
    • Fixed S/PDIF passthrough with ALSA
    • Removed flawed ALSA channels autodetection.
      • The available ALSA channels MUST be configured now (stereo by default)
  • Video filters:
    • Fixed gradfun unloading on Windows
  • Qt interface:
    • allow a native seek slider instead of the blue one
    • fixes in the playlist, the addons dialog, the menus, the main toolbar, the open dialogs and preferences
    • fix for the fontconfig cache dialog when rebuilding ASS fonts
  • Skins interface:
    • fixed menu display
    • Addition of $R to display the current playback speed
    • documentation update
  • Miscellaneous:
    • Fixed DBus crash
    • Fixed build issues on BSD, Linux/PPC and Linux/SPARC
    • Fixed a crash on VLM close

VLC 2.0 Q&A

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.

Please note that you need to restart VLC after changing this setting!

 

Is there a way to see the both playlist and video at the same time?

Yes, disable the “Show video within the main window” option in the Interface category of VLC’s preferences. You can find the preferences in the “VLC” menu next to the “Quit” item.

Please note that you should stop the current video playback prior to changing this setting!

 

Can I disable the media library?

No, you can’t. However, if you decide not to use it, it’s just a small entry in the sidebar, which takes no processing power and a few kilobytes of memory only.

 

You introduced a new playlist… can I disable it?

Actually, the playlist was introduced in VLC 0.5.0 nine years ago. Every single file you watched with VLC since then was added to the playlist for playback. Possibly you didn’t notice. That’s due to the fact the playlist is emptied on quit. On the next run, there is no way to find out what you played (except for the “Recent files..” menu, which can be optionally disabled).

 

The time line slider looks weird or draws incorrectly. What to do?

This is a minor bug in VLC 2.0, which is already fixed for VLC 2.0.1.

 

The crop menu does strange stuff. It definitely doesn’t crop. What to do?

This is a major bug, which wasn’t reported prior to our final release of VLC 2.0. In the current version, both the aspect ratio menu and the crop menu perform the same action. It will be fixed in VLC 2.0.1.

 

Why is there this annoying “creating font cache” dialog?

When using VLC 2.0 for the first time, we need to check your installed fonts to display subtitles and other On-screen graphics. The short re-appearance of this panel when starting a 2nd clip is already fixed for VLC 2.0.1.

 

Your main window is really big now. How can I make it as small as it used to be?

In VLC 2.0, you can’t. We will include a fix for that in VLC 2.0.1.

 

It seems like I cannot use my accessibility tools with VLC 2.0. What can I do?

Use the gray interface style instead of the black. In fact, the gray style is enabled by default and fully supports common accessibility tools. We added support for these tools to the black interface style in VLC 2.0.1.

 

I’ve got a problem with a tool called Handbrake. What to do?

Please check the vendor’s website. They got a new version of their software as well as documentation on how to solve your issues.

 

So, when will VLC 2.0.1 be out, since it seems to fix all the issues I got?

Probably within the next 8 to 10 days from now (monday, Feb 20).

Update: we had to delay the release slightly. It should be available in week 10, probably friday night.

 

Is there a way to track the progress on VLC 2.0.1?

Sure! Have a look at the 2.0.1 milestone in our bug tracker!

 

I noticed a bug which is NOT mentioned here. What to do?

Have a look at the 2.0.1 milestone in our bug tracker. If your problem isn’t listed there, create a ticket please. To do so, you can log in using any OpenID account including your Google account, so there is no need to register. Please describe your problem as detailed as possible and feel free to attach screenshots or testing material if appropriate. Thank you for your support!

 

Update: VLC 2.0.1 is out! Please make sure that you updated. 
A 2.0.1 Q&A is available here.

VLC 2.0 Twoflower released

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.

On all desktop platforms, VLC 2.0 includes these major enhancements:

  • multi-threaded video decoding based upon ffmpeg-mt
  • greatly enhanced Matroska / MKV playback
  • updated codecs including 10bit support
  • re-written video output with major speed improvements
  • enhanced subtitle display
  • and much much more

 

VLC 2.0 for Mac requires Mac OS X 10.5 or later. We provide separate packages for PowerPC-based Macs. For Intel-based Macs, there are 3 packages available: separate 32bit and 64bit packages plus a Universal Binary including both variants. Note that the 64bit binary requires Mac OS X 10.6 or later.

Get it here!

Edit: I’ve just published a Q&A article answering the most questions regarding this new version. Click here!

 

Here a few more screenshots:

There are even more screenshots available on flickr.

Final design of VLC 2.0 for Mac

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.

VLC 2.0’s interface for Mac is dramatically different from its previous revision, both technically and usage-wise. Playlist and video output share the same window, service discovery modules can be easily accessed through a sidebar and various audio + video filters are available through the respective panels. Besides that, the interface is noticeably faster and easily expandable. Speaking of that, we also added support for VLC’s lua-based extensions, which allow you to get info about the current movie from Allociné, post to Twitter, fetch subtitles automatically, etc.

For the main window, you’ll have the choice between a gray and a black window style.

VLC 2.0 will be available later this week on videolan.org. Enjoy!

NB: Development of the interface wouldn’t have been possible without a stipend from Google Inc. as part of Google Summer of Code 2011, which allowed me to work on it fulltime without worries.

VLC 2.0 on Lion:

 

 

 

 

VLC 2.0 on Snow Leopard and Leopard:

VLC 2.0-RC1 for Mac

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.

You want to use VLC on a PowerPC-based Mac? Get the “powerpc” binary.

The “intel32” binary will also run on Mac OS X 10.7, but you’ll miss a few features, so be sure to get the “intel64” package.

Of course, the actual release will handle this selection automatically for the non-tech savvy users.

To have a look at the changes and new features, check this list!

Please also note that the execution of VLC 2.0 on so-called Hackintosh devices and within virtualized Mac OS X installations will likely fail due the lack of hardware graphics acceleration (called “Quartz Extreme”).

Enjoy this preview release and feel free to file bugs or regressions in the comments or on our bug tracker. There are a few known issues left. Prior to reporting, please check this list.