VLC Media Player 2.0 RC to be released by the end of the week

[+Frank B. Subscriber²]

Get Ready For VLC Media Player 2.0

VLC is one of the most popular third party media players. If you check the download stats on portals such as Softpedia or Betanews, you will notice that it is always listed in one of the top spots. That?s not because of the player?s pretty name but the functionality it provides. VLC plays nearly every media format out of the box, without codec hunting and installation. There are other players, like the excellent SMplayer that offer that functionality as well, but none managed to reach the popularity of VLC.

The developers of VLC Media Player have just announced on their Twitter account that they will release the first release candidate of VLC 2.0 at the end of the week. The latest release version right now is VLC 1.1.11 which is available for Windows, Mac OS X, popular Linux distributions and even other operating systems such as Android or OS/2 (anyone still using that?).

Windows 64-bit version of VLC Media Player running the Spin Demo

Once a suitable release candidate has been found, VLC Media Player 2.0 will be released for all operating systems. Existing VLC users likely want to know what they can look forward to in version 2 of the player. Here is a list of important changes taken directly from the latest nightly build of VLC 2.0.

• Major Video Core and Outputs rework and rewrite: Subtitles, subpictures and OSD can now be sized and blent inside video outputs x11 (Unix), OpenGL (Unix) and Direct3D (Windows) are such video outputs.
  
• Almost every video filter can now be transcoded
  
• Port to Android, iOS, OS/2 and Win64
  
• Multiple files are now supported inside RAR files
  
• Experimental Blu-Ray Discs support using libbluray
  
• You can now use ffmpeg-mt in conjunction with vlc, to split decoding load on multiple cores. H.264, VP3, VP8, JPEG-2000, Mpeg-4 ASP/DivX and RV3/RV4
  
• are notably concerned.
  
• C64 SID file playback support of using sidplay2
  
• Support for WMV Images, aka WMVP and WVP2, as used by Photo Story
  
• New video output based on Direct2D for Windows 7 and Vista (with Platform Update), New video output for iOS platform
  

Probably the biggest improvements are the 64-bit version for Windows, the port to mobile operating systems and Blu-Ray playback support.

You can get a taste of things to come by downloading the latest nightly build from the VLC build server. Remember that nighly versions are not necessarily stable, as they are development builds.

Source: ghacks.net

[HoochieMamma]

Port to Android you say? :shifty:

[tiagosilva29]

Mephistopheles uses OS/2.

[Osiris]

Sweet...the software does exactly what I need it to at the moment, but who doesnt love a new version :)

[joemailey]

Port to iOS? Does that mean there will be an app?

[+KibosJ Subscriber²]

I like the new Mac interface :)

[Malisk]

Haha, awesome with an OS/2 port.

edit: Oh, today I learned there's an alive OS/2 fork with license from IBM - eComStation.

[lalalawawawa]

Will it be able to play 64+ GB files?

Oh, and I hope performance will be improved, it plays some 1080p videos terribly compared to Windows Media Player and MPCHC.

[Miuku.]

I like the new Mac interface :)

That actually looks pretty decent, I wonder if they've improved the performance at all.

[+KibosJ Subscriber²]

That actually looks pretty decent, I wonder if they've improved the performance at all.

I can't actually say if they have or not..... I have a Mid 2010 Mac Mini and it's not the most powerful Mac in the world, I will be upgrading when the next refresh comes though.

However, this is how many full HD 1080p files my mac has struggled with:

None

VLC has played every single 1080p file I have thrown at it and has NEVER stuttered/struggled a single time.

[MS Bob 11]

I hope performance of 1080p video will improve on less powerful graphics hardware - on the same hardware MPC-HC performs better.

[LittleNeutrino Veteran]

wooh, android !!!

[.Neo]

I like the new Mac interface :)

They should use the default window chrome.

[Luis Mazza]

Any links for an Android post-alpha build? :p

[neo1911]

Only one feature request which hopefully is in the RC: subtitles in Lower Letter Box. That is having subtitles below the movie in black area.

[lalalawawawa]

VLC has played every single 1080p file I have thrown at it and has NEVER stuttered/struggled a single time.

Slow performance while playing The Hangover and The Hangover 2... And it didn't even want to open the 64.4GB rip of LotR:RotK.

[ghostrider86]

Looks great. Using 64-bit version. :)

[ArialBlue]

Slow performance while playing The Hangover and The Hangover 2... And it didn't even want to open the 64.4GB rip of LotR:RotK.

Disappointing.

[BetaAddict]

Testing the x64 Jan 18 build right now and no issues so far. The new streamlined default UI looks awesome and great to finally have the GPU hardware acceleration completed rather than "experimental."

[+KibosJ Subscriber²]

They should use the default window chrome.

You can change it :)

[Motoko.]

any support for 10bit encodes?

[ThePitt]

• Port to Android, iOS, OS/2 and Win64
  

[ViperAFK]

Looks like it will be a great release. New interface definitely looks better, and I look forward to the improved video acceleration. I've personally never had issues with VLC's performance.

[c3ntury]

I like the new Mac interface :)

Very pretty!

I'm rather liking how VLC 2.0 has shaped up, here's to hoping they deliver more astounding features in the future.

[+John Teacake MVC]

Experimental BluRay Support.... WOOOP! :-)