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VLC 3.0 Adds Chromecast Support and More as the Best Free Media Player Gets Even Better (pcworld.com)

Posted by msmash on from the major-updates dept.

Ian Paul, writing for PCWorld: The best free media player is getting even better. After three years of development, VLC 3.0 'Ventari' is rolling out to all platforms, and it's packed full of goodies such as Chromecast support. The latest version of VLC contains a lot of great additions, as well as a tweaked UI. Chromecast discovery tops the list. It's only available on Windows desktop and Android right now, but Videolan says the feature's coming to VLC's iOS and the Windows Store apps in the future. [...] VLC 3.0's refreshed UI isn't a fresh, new look from previous versions, but it is noticeably different. The icons at the bottom of the window are cleaner, and the small icons used within menu items are also new. Version 3.0 also adds support for 360-degree video and 3D audio, readying features for a VR version of VLC slated to roll out in mid-April. The new VLC also adds hardware decoding across all platforms for better performance and less CPU consumption, especially when dealing with more resource-intense video.

7 of 131 comments (clear)

  1. Availability by Translation+Error · · Score: 4, Informative

    It seems to be available for MacOS too.

    --
    When someone says, "Any fool can see ..." they're usually exactly right.
  2. Re:Has the UI gotten any better? by xxxLCxxx · · Score: 4, Informative

    As far as I can tell, the playback UI is missing obvious features like X second skip forward/back, slow motion, etc, ...

    As far as I remember, it's customizable: Tools => Customize Interface

    ... and isn't at all touch screen friendly.

    You just won't believe this, but it has support for different skins too! Just use a search engine and look for something like: vlc touchscreen skin. ;-)

  3. Availability Not Yet Complete by DERoss · · Score: 1, Informative

    The home page for VideoLAN at https://www.videolan.org/ still indicates the current version is 2.2.8. The downloads page at http://download.videolan.org/v... does show a version 3.0.0. For Windows, however, there is no x64 version yet. Since I usually use VLC for listening to streaming broadcasts of classical music, I will wait for an x64 Windows version.

    1. Re:Availability Not Yet Complete by BitterOak · · Score: 4, Informative

      Since I usually use VLC for listening to streaming broadcasts of classical music, I will wait for an x64 Windows version.

      Does classical music sound better when played on a 64 bit application than it does on a 32 bit? Remember, these "bits" aren't bits of resolution in the digitized audio signal, but rather they're simply the architecture of code: 64 bit code can in theory do more in less time. Streaming of classical music, even at high definition rates of 96kHz sampling frequency and 24 bits per channel of audio should work just fine even in a 32 bit application on any modern CPU.

      --
      If I can be modded down for being a troll, can I be modded up for being an orc, or a balrog?
  4. Re:It's not out yet by DERoss · · Score: 4, Informative

    And it's been years since the last version of VLC was released. We've been waiting for WebM WebVTT subtitle support for that entire time.

    It has NOT been years since the last version of VLC. Version 2.2.8 was released for OS X and Windows (both x32 and x64) less than three months ago.

  5. Re: Seems to be an ad by c6gunner · · Score: 3, Informative

    Yes, it is.

  6. Re: It's not out yet by Shirley+Marquez · · Score: 1, Informative

    Different players have different strengths. One of the nice things about VLC is that it will play just about everything, even ancient weird formats that nobody has used for years. That's something that the alternatives can't do.