VideoLan Client version 0.8.6 just went live over at videolan.org. The new update includes support for Windows Media Video 9 and Flash Video, improved H.264 decoding, better Windows Unicode support, a Fullscreen controller, and support for the Apple Remote.
Other improvements include "vastly improved" playlist support, with Shoutcast TV listings, last.fm/Audioscrobbler support, and "live search"--which I'm going to have to play with to figure out what that means. The interface has been updated bigtime and the Linux and Windows UIs are brand new. The OS X interface uses custom artwork by Simon Damkjar Andersen. New hotkeys for crop and zoom are included as well as snapshot support.
You'll find lots of new video effects including "Adjust", "Invert", "Distort" (such as Wave, Ripple and Gradient) filters and a "puzzle video output" filter, which sounds cool but not very useful.
More details to follow as we get a chance to download and play with the new software. YAY!
Thanks Andrew Eller













Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
12-10-2006 @ 12:16PM
Chris said...
Does anyone know if VLC still changes its own volume instead of system volume, when you change the volume with the Apple remote? It showed this behaviour in the beta, which I found higly annoying...
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12-10-2006 @ 12:20PM
wako said...
Thats awesome! Finally some full screen controls! VLC FTW!
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12-10-2006 @ 12:22PM
Giga said...
Anyone else having problems with just opening VLC? Mounting/Installing went fine but once I tried opening it, it bounced in my dock a for a second and then closed.
Using macbook.
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12-10-2006 @ 12:31PM
Kevin S. said...
WM9 VIDEO SUPPORT FINALLY
Flip4Mac doesn't even play these.
Stupid Microsoft with its crappy codecs...
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12-10-2006 @ 1:02PM
Blair said...
Giga:
Same problem here. Instantaneous crash, not even a bounce. The Universal binary version works fine though, so give that a shot.
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12-10-2006 @ 1:18PM
Julian B said...
#3 That happened to me when I downloaded the Intel installer, but when I subsequently downloaded the Universal binary, all was well ;-)
Julian
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12-10-2006 @ 1:28PM
Arses McGee said...
They screwed up the i386 package - It's missing a library... Use the universal release, though it's a larger file.
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12-10-2006 @ 1:53PM
tony said...
Intel version doesn't work on my iMac C2D.
Seems to be missing a library.
:-(
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12-10-2006 @ 1:57PM
tony said...
It's fixed. Just download the intel file again (you'll notice it weighs in a bit heaver now).
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12-10-2006 @ 2:24PM
Giga said...
DJ fixed the Intel broken build. Works now. :D
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12-10-2006 @ 3:12PM
Vincent said...
To all users who have VLC crashing at startup, consider deleting all previous VLC preferences.
It fixed the problem for me.
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12-10-2006 @ 8:11PM
NKHK said...
Nice - VLC is a great little app.
A question - with WMV9 supported, does this mean that DRM protected WMV9 movies will play on the latest version of VLC? I use mediazone.com to watch rugby out here in Hong Kong, and can only watch it on my fiance's PC (which is a bit old and painful to use).
I'm not entirely sure how the WMV9 + License thing works though - is Mac OS still DRM incompatible? Would I have to somehow transfer over the licenses from the PC?
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12-10-2006 @ 8:25PM
henrrrik said...
@NKHK
No, that won't work.
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12-10-2006 @ 8:29PM
Peter Payne said...
I wonder if these open source dweeb programmers will realize that it's NOT cool for a video program to throw up errors when there's an encoding problem or other problem with the media...that enjoying a movie with errors messages that CANNOT (as of the last version) be permanently turned off is just no fun.
Seriously, I am all over MPlayer OS X and only use this VLC occasionally. The "arrow keys fast forward/rewing 10 seconds" function is fabulous and it plays everything.
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12-10-2006 @ 11:24PM
Eric J said...
big improvement... VLC was choppy on my MBPro when I played vids at fullscreen on the prior release
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12-10-2006 @ 11:49PM
mike said...
wat??? APPLE REMOTE SUPPORT? Awesome! This app is amazing
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12-11-2006 @ 2:27AM
Dexter said...
Peter, I completely agree - those error messages are a total pain in the ass. If you care about this stuff, just open the frickin Messages window.
I cannot seem to find the last.fm support - am I the only one?
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12-11-2006 @ 8:23AM
marc cardwell said...
does any one know if the mac version supports skins? all i see on the skin DL page are directions for windows and linux.
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12-15-2006 @ 2:16PM
Andrew said...
No, Dexter, you're not the only one still looking for the last.fm support. According to a thread on the VLC forums, it may or may not be listed in the control interfaces of the preferences in version 0.9.0:
http://forum.videolan.org/viewtopic.php?p=88283
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