VLC media player
2.2.2 (iOS ) February 7, 2014
The VLC media player ( initially called " VideoLAN Client " ) is a portable, free media player both for various audio, video codecs and file formats as well as DVDs, video CDs and supports various streaming protocols. It can also be used as a server to stream in unicast or multicast in IPv4 or IPv6 networks or as a transcoder for the supported video and audio formats.
History and Origins
The VLC media player developed by the VideoLAN team since 1996. This consists of students from the French engineering school École Centrale Paris in Chatenay -Malabry near Paris and developers from more than 20 countries, including the United States, the Netherlands, Norway and Germany. The program is available since February 1, 2001 under the GNU General Public License and may be distributed free of charge and therefore improved by anyone.
The graphical user interface of the VLC media player for Windows - and Linux - based version to version 0.8.6 to wxWidgets, since version 0.9.2 the Qt library will be used.
On 7 July 2009, version 1.0.0 was released. A new addition is including support for decoding the formats AES3 (SMPTE 302M ), Dolby Digital Plus (E -AC -3), True HD / MLP, Blu -ray Linear PCM, QCELP ( Qualcomm Pure Voice) and RealVideo ( version 3.0 and 4.0), and for the free Dirac format of the BBC. In addition, the existing decoders have been improved and corrected errors.
Since the end of 2009, a new graphical user interface for the VLC media player is developed under Mac OS X under the project name Lunettes. This is based on the VLCKit. The old Cocoa interface is not currently maintained.
With version 1.1.0 in June 2010, a hardware acceleration mainly for playing HD videos and support for mobile devices (such as mobile phones ) added. It was also working on the support for the VP8 format, and on the translation and the removal of various bugs.
On February 18, 2012 Version 2.0 ( Twoflower ) was released. Innovations are, inter alia, support for BluRay discs (experimental), HD and 10 - bit codecs, and many more improvements in subtitles.
In early November 2012, the VideoLAN project launched an initiative on Kickstarter.com to fund the development of a new version of the VLC media player for the new interface of Windows 8. Overall, the developer accumulated 47 056 pounds. It work two salaried programmer to the new interface. The final version should appear three months later in the " Windows Store for Windows 8 " and still later for Windows RT.
Logo
The developer Antoine Cellerier knows the history of the logo itself only by hearsay: One day a student of network clubs the École Centrale Paris drunk came up with a traffic safety cone home. Later in this club showed the VideoLAN project. When they needed a logo for the program, the choice fell on the cone, since a considerable cone collection already had grown at this time.
Every year at Christmas time wearing the VLC media player a Santa hat in the start screen and the icon. He depends on the system time.
Features
The VLC media player is a part of the complete VideoLAN streaming solution of the teams, so for example, the supply of a university campus with television via a single receiver is possible, which was also the occasion for the development of the programs. Another component of this solution is the VideoLAN Server, but this was replaced by special features of the VLC media player. More on this streaming solution can be found in VideoLAN article.
Particularly noteworthy is the versatility of the program that plays almost any format and any file incomplete or fragmented AVI files, which can be the case for not fully downloaded files for example. In this case, all the standard features of commercial products are available. In addition, various effects may be applied in real-time via the filter. Thus, for example, a video that was shot in portrait orientation, rotated 90 °, and color filters, etc., can be applied. For copyright reasons, the playback of DRM-protected formats is not possible.
The VideoLAN team is developing itself no decoder or encoder ( codec ). The VLC media player is rather to be understood as a social program that diverse - developed separately - codecs united under one user interface. The best known are, inter alia, FFmpeg, x264 and libmpeg2. These are combined with specially designed or through libraries integrated demultiplexers. This reading behavior and fault tolerance are significantly different from other playback programs based on the mentioned codecs. Furthermore, output libraries like SDL can be integrated into VLC.
The VLC media player runs on Android, GNU / Linux, Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, BeOS, Syllable, eComStation. Some other operating systems such as BSD are also supported, for them there are no pre-compiled binary packages. There is also a portable for Microsoft Windows ( from a USB stick without installing executable ) version. Using skins is possible a far-reaching adaptation of the user interface.
Use
The VLC media player comes to home users, schools and universities, but also by professional users to use. Is particularly appreciated the high level of compatibility with a variety of formats and codecs, which almost all video and audio formats can be played back.
Alternative programs
Alternatives to VLC media player are eg KMPlayer, Winamp, Media Player Classic, MPlayer and Xine, but provide comparatively limited streaming options. Many other open source ( "open source" ) programs use the FFmpeg library and thus support a similar number of formats.