Filed under: Multimedia, Software, Video
VLC 1.0.0 released
While being a useful tool for several years now, VLC has finally reached that first pinnacle of software development: 1.0.
VLC is an alternative media player for Mac, Windows and Linux that handles a wide variety of media file formats without requiring additional software (like Perian) to be installed on your system. It can also be used as a server to stream video on higher-bandwidth networks.
Personally, I think it's handy for things like making still frame images of DVDs, or capturing video from your EyeTV tuner. Anytime I have to send QuickTime or MP4 video to PC or Linux users, I recommend they download and install VLC to watch it.
The software isn't for everyone: If you're already familiar with VLC, the upgrade is a solid one. Performance is good, and the feature list is tough to beat. If you've never used VLC and you're happy with QuickTime Player (thank you very much), then feel free to pass this one by.
Binaries for VLC 1.0 are available for Intel-based Macs running Mac OS X Leopard (and developer previews of Snow Leopard). Source code and other, older packages for PowerPC and earlier versions of Mac OS X are also available.
Thanks, Chris!
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
lancelott said 1:50PM on 7-07-2009
Actually, there is NO reason for a Mac user NOT to have VLC. It's free and supports every major (and most obscure) formats.
Even those ugly .wmv files your friends send you in those "funny" e-mails.
If you don't want it to be the default player (I don' use it as default) then that's fine... but more than optional it's needed.
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Drifter71 said 1:55PM on 7-07-2009
I agree. I made all my family members get it. Plus, Handbrake did/does need it for ripping DVD's. Fantastic Program
NutMac said 2:36PM on 7-07-2009
Although VLC is free and works with a wide range of codecs, so are Perian and MPlayer. I have all three because some tend to handle certain codecs better than the other, but by and large, the gap is pretty small. I find Perian (with QuickTime) to have best usability of all 3, but MPlayer comes in a close second, especially when watching subtitled contents. VLC is my fallback player for rare contents other two can't playback properly.
brian said 3:59PM on 7-07-2009
"There is NO reason for a Mac user NOT to have VLC."
Sadly, VLC 1.0.0 is for 10.5 only.
hansning said 2:06PM on 7-07-2009
Robert,
You mentioned that it's useful for streaming, but when I compare QT to VLC, I still prefer QT whenever I can use it. My preferance isn't scientific by any means, but VLC often stops to buffer(?) but not QT.
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Tyler R. said 2:22PM on 7-07-2009
I've had similar experiences with VLC and streaming. Even over my 802.11n network at home, VLC with stutter and stop streaming much more often than Quicktime does. I'm hoping this is something that the 1.0 release addresses, because I prefer VLC.
hansning said 2:25PM on 7-07-2009
very glad to know it's not just me.
On the other hand, I was wondering if there was a optimal way to stream media. I basically just open a network folder, and open the chosen file.
Jaroslav said 2:16PM on 7-07-2009
Apparently VLC 1.0 has Airtunes support as a feature. Has anybody tried this yet? Does it sync audio with video?
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Marcos said 2:34PM on 7-07-2009
I will try this the minute I get home.
Marcos said 11:22PM on 7-07-2009
I couldn't figure it out, and the forum+wiki are disabled for the moment.
edgar wong said 2:17PM on 7-07-2009
quicktime takes forever to open wmv files. sometimes a minute or two for large hd vids. VLC plays them instantly and looks great.
Must have software :)
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SpyBoyCH said 2:24PM on 7-07-2009
On their site, they says it has HD codecs including Blu-ray. Does this mean it will be able to play blu-ray discs naively, or do i have to rip them and play that way? not exactly sure what the difference in method would have to do with it, but he real question is: Can i finally play Blu-ray on my mac without a boot-camp partition?
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jeffedsell said 6:46PM on 7-08-2009
Why/how do you use VLC with EyeTV? I'm intrigued. Do you use it instead of the EyeTV software?
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SAPO!! said 7:37AM on 7-08-2009
what about movist? http://code.google.com/p/movist/
seems good enough so far.
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TeMc said 9:11PM on 7-10-2009
I've got VLC aswell installed since one of the early versions and use it for a lot of reasons.
However, QuickTime (Pro) + Perian is still my personal favorite and set as default.
Whenever there's a rare codec, or when I'm exporting/encoding a video in QuickTime Pro I pick VLC as a good second option.
Only situation I also prefer VLC is when having a video in a wrong aspect ratio (VLC's Video-menu == awesome !)
On Windows though VLC is the default for me with no doubt.
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bromblor said 12:06PM on 7-11-2009
"VLC is an alternative media player for Mac, Windows and Linux that handles a wide variety of media file formats without requiring additional software" - without requiring 'additional software?' VLC -is- 'additional software.' Really baffled by that statement, especially since using a plugin like Perian -feels- less like 'additional software,' more transparent to the user.
That said, I keep VLC around for when I need it, but these days it's pretty rare.
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