Slashdot Mirror
VLC Passes 3 Billion Downloads (venturebeat.com)
VLC has reached a rare milestone: It has been downloaded more than 3 billion times across various platforms, up from 1 billion downloads in May 2012. VentureBeat reports of the milestone and the new features coming to the media player: VLC today rolled out a minor update -- v3.0.6 -- that adds support for HDR videos in AV1, an emerging video format. But in the coming months, VLC has bigger things planned. First up is a major update to VLC's Android app in about a month, which will introduce support for AirPlay. This will enable Android users to beam video files from their Android phones to the Apple TV. [Jean-Baptiste Kempf, the president and lead developer of VLC's parent company VideoLan] then plans to update the VR app, which will enable native support for VR videos. He said his team reverse-engineered popular VR headsets so that developers no longer need to rely on the SDKs offered by vendors. The app will also receive support for 3D interactions and stereo sound, and add a virtual theater feature.
After that, a major update will be pushed to VLC across all popular platforms. The update, dubbed version 4.0, will offer playback improvements in scaling and video quality of HDR video files. But that's not all. Kempf says he plans to bring VLC to more platforms. He said he is thinking about bringing the media player to Sony's PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, and Roku devices. Kempf participated in Slashdot's interview a couple of years ago, offering some insight into how he's able to keep VLC sustainable (since VideoLan is a nonprofit that runs entirely on donations) and the various projects that were in the works at the time, among other things.
After that, a major update will be pushed to VLC across all popular platforms. The update, dubbed version 4.0, will offer playback improvements in scaling and video quality of HDR video files. But that's not all. Kempf says he plans to bring VLC to more platforms. He said he is thinking about bringing the media player to Sony's PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, and Roku devices. Kempf participated in Slashdot's interview a couple of years ago, offering some insight into how he's able to keep VLC sustainable (since VideoLan is a nonprofit that runs entirely on donations) and the various projects that were in the works at the time, among other things.
no actual link to download vlc in the summary. I didn't see one in the linked article either.
https://www.videolan.org/vlc/
There's way more in vlc than just playing videos.
I wonder when VLC will add support for stepping through videos frame by frame?
Their latest nightly of 4.0 still plays MKV files for me. Where are you getting this info from?
Smooth seeking in a keyframe based CODEC is choppy- who'd have thunk it. Low IQ dribblers (the only people who think Slashdot is worth visiting for any reason other than propaganda watching) are always too thick to inform themselves on subjects very well covered on multiple internet resources.
Most modern CODECs are keyframe based and mono-directional. Editors with smooth seeking re-encode the video clips in a per frame form (essentially each frame becomes its own JPG picture). Either the re-encoded pictures are low rez or the system has to have a LOT of memory. Of course edit operations are applied to the original video data, not the re-encode.
VLC player is many things, but an editor it is not. It COULD offer an option to re-encode for seeking purposes, but that would take an unpredictable time based on source rez and CODEC. The same dribbler who 'wants' VLC player to smooth seek is not going to want to wait maybe minutes before the video can even play, while a re-encode for seeking purposes is created.
PS VLC player, unlike most commercial players, has the support of every CODEC as an essential feature. This means UI optimising for the possibility of a given CODEC won't happen. By design. Even a Slashdot dribbler should be able to work out why.