VLC media player [previously the VideoLAN Client and commonly known as simply VLC] is a free and open-source, portable, cross-platform media player software and streaming media server developed by the VideoLAN project. VLC is available for desktop operating systems and mobile platforms, such as Android, iOS and iPadOS. VLC is also available on digital distribution platforms such as Apple's App Store, Google Play, and Microsoft Store.
VLC supports many audio- and video-compression-methods and file-formats, including DVD-Video, Video CD, and streaming-protocols. It is able to stream media over computer networks and can transcode multimedia files.
The default distribution of VLC includes many free decoding and encoding libraries, avoiding the need for finding/calibrating proprietary plugins. The libavcodec library from the FFmpeg project provides many of VLC's codecs, but the player mainly uses its own muxers and demuxers. It also has its own protocol implementations. It also gained distinction as the first player to support playback of encrypted DVDs on Linux and macOS by using the libdvdcss DVD decryption library; however, this library is legally controversial and is not included in many software repositories of Linux distributions as a result. It is available on iOS under the MPLv2.
History[edit]
The VideoLAN software originated as a French academic project in 1996. VLC used to stand for "VideoLAN Client" when VLC was a client of the VideoLAN project. Since VLC is no longer merely a client, that initialism no longer applies. It was intended to consist of a client and server to stream videos from satellite dishes across a campus network. Originally developed by students at the École Centrale Paris, it is now developed by contributors worldwide and is coordinated by VideoLAN, a non-profit organization. Rewritten from scratch in 1998, it was released under GNU General Public License on February 1, 2001, with authorization from the headmaster of the École Centrale Paris. The functionality of the server-program, VideoLan Server [VLS], has mostly been subsumed into VLC and has been deprecated. The project name has been changed to VLC media player because there is no longer a client/server infrastructure.
The cone icon used in VLC is a reference to the traffic cones collected by École Centrale's Networking Students' Association. The cone icon design was changed from a hand drawn low resolution icon to a higher resolution CGI-rendered version in 2005, illustrated by Richard Øiestad.[citation needed]
In 2007 the VLC project decided, for license compatibility reasons, not to upgrade to the just-released GPLv3. After 13 years of development, version 1.0.0 of VLC media player was released on July 7, 2009. Work began on VLC for Android in 2010 and it has been available for Android devices on the Google Play store since 2011. In September 2010, a company named "Applidium" developed a VLC port for iOS under GPLv2 with the endorsement of the VLC project, which was accepted by Apple for their App Store. In January 2011, after VLC developer Rémi Denis-Courmont's complaint to Apple about the licensing conflict between the VLC's GPLv2 and the App store's policies, the VLC had been withdrawn from the Apple App Store by Apple. Subsequently, in October 2011 the VLC authors began to relicense the engine parts of VLC from the GPL-2.0-or-later to the LGPL-2.1-or-later to achieve better license compatibility, for instance with the Apple App Store. In July 2013 the VLC application could be resubmitted to the iOS App Store under the MPL-2.0. Version 2.0.0 of VLC media player was released on February 18, 2012. The version for the Windows Store was released on March 13, 2014. Support for Windows RT, Windows Phone and Xbox One were added later. As of 2016 VLC is the third in the sourceforge.net overall download count, and there have been more than 3 billion downloads.
Version 3.0 was in development for Windows, Linux and macOS since June 2016 and released in February 2018. It contains many new features including Chromecast output support [except subtitles], hardware-accelerated decoding, 4K and 8K playback, 10-bit and HDR playback, 360° video and 3D audio, audio passthrough for HD audio codecs, BD-J menu support, and local network drive browsing.
In December 2017 the European Parliament approved a budget that funds a bug bounty program for VLC to improve the EU's IT infrastructure.
Release-history[edit]
Starting with version 1.1.0, VLC release codenames refer to characters from Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels; an exception is release 2.2.1, which came out shortly after Pratchett's death on March 12, 2015 and which was codenamed Terry Pratchett in honor of the author himself.
Version Codename Release date 1.0.0 Goldeneye 2009-07-07 1.0.1 2009-07-28 1.0.2 2009-09-22 1.0.3 2009-10-31 1.0.4 2009-12-10 1.0.5 2010-01-31 1.0.6 2010-04-21 1.1.0 The Luggage 2010-06-22 1.1.1 2010-07-21 1.1.2 2010-07-29 1.1.3 2010-08-18 1.1.4 2010-08-27 1.1.5 2010-11-13 1.1.6 2011-01-23 1.1.7 2011-02-01 1.1.8 2011-03-23 1.1.9 2011-04-12 1.1.10 2011-06-06 1.1.11 2011-07-15 1.1.12 2011-10-06 1.1.13 2011-12-20 2.0.0 Twoflower 2012-02-18 2.0.1 2012-03-19 2.0.2 2012-07-01 2.0.3 2012-07-19 2.0.4 2012-10-18 2.0.5 2012-12-15 2.0.6 2013-04-11 2.0.7 2013-06-10 2.0.8 2013-07-29 2.0.9 2013-11-05 2.0.10 2014-02-21 2.1.0 Rincewind 2013-09-26 2.1.1 2013-11-14 2.1.2 2013-12-10 2.1.3 2014-02-04 2.1.4 2014-02-21 2.1.5 2014-07-26 2.2.0 Weatherwax 2015-02-27 2.2.1 Terry Pratchett 2015-04-16 2.2.2 Weatherwax 2016-02-06 2.2.3 2016-05-03 2.2.4 2016-06-05 2.2.5.1 2017-05-12 2.2.6 2017-05-24 2.2.7 2017-11-21 2.2.8 2017-12-05 3.0.0 Vetinari 2018-02-09 3.0.1 2018-02-28 3.0.2 2018-04-23 3.0.3 2018-05-29 3.0.4 2018-08-31 3.0.5 2018-12-27 3.0.6 2019-01-10 3.0.7 2019-06-07 3.0.8 2019-08-19 3.0.10 2020-04-28 3.0.11 2020-06-16 3.0.11.1 2020-07-29 3.0.12 2021-01-18 3.0.13 2021-05-10 3.0.14 2021-05-11 3.0.16 2021-06-21 3.0.17 2022-04-19 3.0.18 2022-11-29 3.0.19 2023-09-30 3.0.20 2023-11-01 4.0.x Otto Chriek
Design principles[edit]
Modular design[edit]
VLC, like most multimedia frameworks, has a very modular design which makes it easier to include modules/plugins for new file formats, codecs, interfaces, or streaming methods. VLC 1.0.0 has more than 380 modules. The VLC core creates its own graph of modules dynamically, depending on the situation: input protocol, input file format, input codec, video card capabilities and other parameters. In VLC, almost everything is a module, like interfaces, video and audio outputs, controls, scalers, codecs, and audio/video filters.
Interfaces[edit]
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External links[edit]
This audio file was created from a revision of this article dated 14 August 2019, and does not reflect subsequent edits.