With just an academic project started back in 1996, VLC hit 1.0 version in 2009 and now after 485 million downloads of VLC 1.1.x versions, the VLC and VideoLAN development team has reached VLC 2.0 “Twoflower” version – one of the best major release which comes with faster decoding on multi-core, GPU and mobile hardware and ability to open more formats, HD and 10bits codecs – Twoflower fixes many hundreds of bugs.
There is a change in User Interface in OS X, the decoding of the app is now improved on multi-core and mobile systems which is enhanced alongside of GPU support – the version 2.0 availability is now for Windows (XP SP2, Vista and 7), OS X (10.5 or 32-bit and 64-bit Intel machines), and Linux – the iOS and Android versions are still under-development and will be released soon. For downloads, click here.
More information on the release notes below. (Via MacStories)
VIDEO
- Rewritten video output core and modules, allowing subpicture blending in GPU.
- Shader support in the OpenGL output, for colorspace conversion, including 10bits.
- New video outputs for Windows 7, Android, iOS and OS/2.
- New debanding, grain, denoising and anti-flickering filters.
- New deinterlacing filter, including an Inverse Telecine algorithm.
AUDIO
- New resamplers for higher quality audio.
- New dynamic range compressor and karaoke filters.
- Simplification of the audio core for faster processing.
- New audio outputs for iOS, Android and OS/2.
FORMATS
- Multi-threaded decoding for H.264, MPEG-4/Xvid and WebM.
- Support for 10bits codecs, WMV image and some other codecs.
- Rewritten support for images, including jpeg, png, xcf, bmp…
- Important changes in RealVideo and Real Format support.
- CrystalHD cards and Android OpenMAX support for hardware decoding.
INPUT AND DEVICES
- Experimental support for BluRay discs: Menus are deactivated in this release (will come soon) and AACS and BD+ DRM libraries and keys are not shipped, for legal reasons.
- Support for SDI captures cards and QTKit devices.
- Support for new adaptive streaming protocols, like HLS and DASH.
FOR MAC USERS
- Completely new, single window interface: Available in 2 colors: Lion grey and QTX black and Extensions support and better Lion integration.
- Support for all QTKit devices through qtcapture and qtsound modules.
- Continued support for X 10.5 and PPC users (1080p and ProRes on Dual-G5!).
FOR ANIME FANS
- Vastly improved MKV demuxer.
- Rewritten linked segments and ordered chapter files support.
- Correct support for FLAC, RV and Hi10p in MKV.
- Rewritten seeking support in cue files.
- Various ASS subtitles improvements.
FOR PROFESSIONAL USERS
- Support for ProRes 422 and 4444, AVC/Intra.
- Support for Jpeg-2000 and DNxHD/VC-3 in 10bits.
- Support for EBU subtitles (stl) and EIA-608.
- SDI and HD-SDI card support for input on Linux.
- New Dirac/VC-2 encoder, faster than the previous one.
FOR DEVELOPERS
- libVLC, libVLCcore and libcompat have switched from GPL to LGPLv2.1+.
- New libVLC examples are available: media player, photobooth and mediainfo clones.
- New JSON requests on the web interface to control running VLC instances.
- Implementation of the MPRIS2 interface to control media players.
- VLC’s web plugins have been rewritten for better integration and stability in all browsers.
