VLC 0.8.6 Released 258
h2g2bob writes "VideoLAN yesterday released a new version of VLC media player. A shout out goes to ffmpeg for many of the codec improvements." From the blurb: "Building on feedback from the 29 million downloads of VLC media player 0.8.5, we bring you version 0.8.6 with many bugfixes, as well as a couple of new features we think you will truly enjoy. Most prominent are probably Windows Media Video 9 and Flash Video. Other important changes are improved H.264 decoding, better Windows Unicode support, a Fullscreen controller, and Apple Remote support for Mac OS X."
Hmmm....WMV9 on OS X? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Hmmm....WMV9 on OS X? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Hmmm....WMV9 on OS X? (Score:5, Informative)
Re: (Score:2)
Wow! Look at those pigs flying out of a frozen-over hell!
Now I can finally play those WMV9/AAC Japanese TV rips without playing codec-war games. If they managed to get the softsub driver to be even somewhat useful, then it will have been worth the wait. VLC was notorious for how badly it rendered softsubs.
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Hmmm....WMV9 on OS X? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Hmmm....WMV9 on OS X? (Score:5, Informative)
As for now from ffmpeg documentation:
http://ffmpeg.mplayerhq.hu/ffmpeg-doc.html#SEC23 [mplayerhq.hu]
WMV8 and WMV9 are "not completely working". But I think they may work well for 90% of media files out there.
So kudos for VLC team for another great release.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
Relevant patents are held in a patent pool with at least 15 other companies. The pool is owned by an outfit called MPEG LA [mpegla.com], which also manages patent pools for a number of other video standards. Unfortunately, VC-1 [mpegla.com] is still in their "Programs Under Development" section, so they don't yet have a patent list as they do for other standards such as MPEG-2 [mpegla.com].
Maybe you should complain about MPEG LA not yet posting the list -- it's been a few mont
Re:Hmmm....WMV9 on OS X? (Score:5, Informative)
Um, no. There is no reverse-engineering involved. Windows Media Video 9 (fourcc: WMV3) is the same as VC-1 [wikipedia.org], which is an SMTPE standard, and a reference implementation has been available for a while now. I've been using ffmpeg builds with it for months.
Of course, I can't blame anyone for being confused, given how utterly useless the ffmpeg documentation is.
ffmpeg's WMV9 implementation (Score:5, Interesting)
Incidentally, it looks like the new version is finally available in Universal Binary as well as Intel- and PPC-specific builds. And it seems to load subtitle texts automatically from the get-go without mingling with the preferences settings (yes, I confirmed this by trashing the existing preferences file). I say job well done for the VLC developers.
Why is this under Linux? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
Lots of things are possible. That's one that's possible and not true.
VLC Player is more likely to be the best media player under Windows, where stuff like MPlayer isn't native.
Re: (Score:2)
So no, I would say that it's a matter of opinion whether it's the best player or not. Personally, I think it is.
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Why is this under Linux? (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
VLC is teh woohoo! (Score:5, Interesting)
Woohoo! I've been a tad frustrated with the lack of control while in fullscreen. I suppose I could memorize all of the keyboard shortcuts, but I use several different viewers between the Mac, Linux and Windoze...it just gets too confusing. I can't wait to try this out!
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
You have to do more than just set the deinterlace method.
IIRC:
You have to add the deinterlace filter.
You probably also need to change the default setting for files (there are separate settings for files and for streaming).
I really like vlc a lot, but like a lot of Free software, the user-interface could really benefit from improvement.
Re: (Score:2)
The main beef I had with VLC is that the default keyboard shortcuts seemed deficient, and the navigation shortcuts changed in full screen on Linux. But VLC has rapidly become the best media player out there IMO, and the fact that it's cross-platform is gravy.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
nigthlies is up (Score:5, Informative)
/.ng (Score:5, Funny)
Some help with versioning? (Score:3, Interesting)
For bug fixes I could see a 0.0.1 increase but don't new additions and features generally come with a 0.1.0 increment at least? Maybe the devs are too scared of developing a true 1.0 version? =)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
How about a mirror? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:How about a mirror? (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
This is a list of the mirrors from videolan.org, as seen on Google's cache [72.14.203.104] (or go searching for "cache:http://www.videolan.org/vlc/download-window s.html" - don't forget to remove the spaces inserted by slashdot - on google yourself), with the links edited to be (a) direct mirror download links rather than through videolan.org's redirector and (b) the version number changed from 0.8.5 to 0.8.6.
And yes, it is a damn shame that you
Re: (Score:2)
The one that has a different checksum
Re:How about a mirror? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:How about a mirror? (Score:5, Funny)
I'd go with the mirror from India. The trojan has probably slipped off the executable, and the executable is going to be smaller to boot!
I hate myself...
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
Running a binary downloaded from a random link on slashdot is a really bad idea. A link to a videolan hosted mirror list is a much better idea, then you only have to trust videolan.org, not some random guy on slashdot.
torrent? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2)
It would have been nice that had provided one before making this announcement. Maybe next time?
h264 decoding on vlc player kicks ass! (Score:5, Informative)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Could have changed since I last checked I suppose.
Re: (Score:2)
Ahh, I guess I was wrong.
ateme: 58.78
libav-mplayer: 58.22
moonlight: 55.48
libav-ffdshow: 52.15
libav-ffdshow_old: 52.11
nero: 50.74
elecard: 44.04
ffdshow is in the middle of the pack, behind mplayer/VLC and ahead of Nero. CoreAVC, while not tested there, is considered to be faster than all of the above.
Re: (Score:2)
I am not going to go dig for more recent numbers, but I saw comments in passing on the ffdshow-tryout mailing list about being their latest checkins being comparable to coreavc. Don't remember the specifics though, it could easily have been for one of the profiles that don't matter so much.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
I have also read good reviews about coreAVC on doom9 forums, but VLC player is free and open-source as opposed to coreAVC which is closed.
Re: (Score:2)
What fullscreen controller? (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re:What fullscreen controller? (Score:4, Interesting)
Gack, good! One of the best things about VLC is that there is no annoying "control" eating screen space when you go fullscreen. The keyboard shortcuts remain fully functional, so use those.
I've seen way too many public presentations that begin with the Windows Media Player controls present, then sliding away, not to appreciate the value of VLC.
Never used Media Player Classic? (Score:3, Informative)
> Gack, good! One of the best things about VLC is that there is no annoying "control" eating
> screen space when you go fullscreen. The keyboard shortcuts remain fully functional, so use those.
MPC interface is vastly superior, there is nothing on the screen until you move your mouse, then a nice control bar slides up, that works miles better than the lame one separate one in VLC. Especially since it works really well in MPC when you just click the positin bar anywhere.
Anyway still nothing in VLC, movin
Re: (Score:2)
Agreed, I've found MPC to be better for that in particular and scroll wheel should be for sound, not jumping around in the vid where it's not accurate enough to be useful anyway. Unfortunately VLC seems to have MPC beat when it come
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
Note: Fullscreen controller only in OSX. (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
cloth (Score:2)
And most importantly it will play all your pr0n torrents if you are running OSX. (Comes with free cloth
VLC is a packet-based player (Score:5, Informative)
The only downside I find is that actions are a bit laggy compared to frame-based players. For example, if I hit pause, it doesn't pause instantaneously.
Also, and I'm not sure if it's a limitation of being a packet-based player, but I wish it wouldn't close the video right after it's done playing. I prefer the last frame to stay on the screen.
P.S. For those using VLC under XGL and get a weird green-tinted bar at the top of your videos, change the Video output module to "X11 video output". You'll need to toggle the Advanced Settings checkbox.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Building FC6 RPMS's... (Score:2)
-Michael
Version Number Deflation... (Score:5, Insightful)
Is it just me, or does it make NO SENSE that this is a point.point upgrade? I don't care who you are, 0.0.1 upgrades are for things like bug fixes, small new implimentations, slight library recompiles... fuck: a new ICON. NOT major format additions, a UI overhaul, and a boatload of additional features!
I can understand the concern for version number inflation (Netscape 4 -> Netscape 6 was idiotic, same with Winamp 3 -> Winamp 5), but let's not be overly humble to the point of confusing users. Version Number Deflation looks just as silly.
I remember a time in which anything under 1.0 meant that a program was practically unusable and ONLY for elite users. But I've started to see a trend in the OSS community towards NEVER releasing a 1.0, as if 1.0 means that you're now an evil commercial entity that must be punished. No, 1.0 means "finished to the point of usability and beta tested to a certain level of solidity". Obviously, the finer points of this can be debated and are up to the descresion of the developer, but at a certain point, COME ON! When you've been working on a reasonably small audio player for over 4 years, and haven't even reached your 1.0, this tells me one of two things 1) You don't know how to code, and probably should find a new line of work, or 2) you're using numbers under 1.0 as a symbol of you're elitist OSS community status.
Seriously, I've tried VLC... it crashes sometimes... not as often as Windows... not as often as MPlayer... it's been above a 1.0 for YEARS now, just fucking call it what it is, and cut with the ritualistic, elitist, OSS symbolism bullshit.
Re:Version Number Deflation... (Score:5, Interesting)
When you call it 1.0, there is no going back. It's kind of scary for some projects. Look at the difference in press in a project like firefox. When it hit 1.0 it started getting flack for a poor upgrade mechanism and such, while before that no one cared much if it only came in
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
I think the difficulty of going from 0.x.x to 1.0 is that it may turn out that, after slowly adding feature after feature and fixing bug after bug to the point it'd deserve to be called 1.0, you're at something like 0.4.6 and as much as you'd like to call it 1.0 there's no way your program would deserve this huge incrementation over nothing. Just look at VLC or eMule, when should they have moved to 1.0? After 0.7.2 for VLC and 0.42e for eMule maybe?
You see, I just think that when your program evolves in a c
Re:Version Number Deflation... (Score:4, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Version numbers mean whatever you want it to mean. Ubuntu using year.month, many closed source applications just forget the whole bother and call it $foo 2006. That doesn't telling you any-fucking-thing about how big an upgrade is or how stable it is. It's neat if it makes some sort of sense that a +1.0.0 contains this, +0.1.0 this and +0.0.1 this, but it's entirely optional if you ask me. Want 1.0 to be "perfe
Thank you VideoLAN for VLC from a Mac user (Score:5, Insightful)
FLV? (Score:2)
Sooooo pretty. (Score:5, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2)
I have no idea how the (ffmpeg/libav) codecs could accomplish that, unless there was some serious bug in the past.
Sounds more likely due to VLC changing something like the video output method, or enabling postprocessing.
Rrr (Score:3)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Clicking on the slider bar bumps the slider in the direction toward the mouse pointer. But if you want to move to a specific spot, click on the slider, hold the button, and drag the slider to wherever you want it.
Oops... gotta go. The VLC 0.8.6 download just finished.
Plays DVDs & CDs from ISO images (Score:3, Interesting)
Question: (Score:3, Interesting)
Dwight Shrute.
A great video player (Score:3, Insightful)
1. The OS X version shows the video with controls in the same window as the video, but ALSO shows a separate controller window. This is redundant. All the necessary options should be able to fit into the video window.
2. There is a stop button that afaics just closes the video window. Why the need for this redundant option?
3. Skip buttons have been combined with the fast forward button in almost any interface by now. Just do that in VLC as well.
2. and 3. gets rid of three redundant buttons in the interface.
4. The equaliser is not important enough to warrant a button of it's own. The menu is fine.
5. There is an awful lot of so-called "unbreak me" options. Options to make things work if your system is somehow weird. Just check this automatically. I know this can be a lot of effort from the programmer, so I can understand a Free Software project not doing to much about it. Nevertheless, there are too many weird options that clutter up the interface.
6. The preferences window has a "Reset All", "Cancel" and "Save" button. These are completely out of place in a program in OS X. Instant apply and a reset button would be better.
Re: (Score:2, Offtopic)
Videolan is a university project and I believe they have to pay for their hosting.
Re:How is this news? (Score:5, Insightful)
When Microsoft Windows Media Player, QuickTime or Real Player release a new version, it makes the front page of CNN, MSNBC, The New York Times. So, when a free, open-source player releases a new version, is it not appropriate for a promoter of open-source software to announce it?
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Don't tell me you also just looked at the version number increase.
Re: (Score:2)
Re:How is this news? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:How is this news? (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
The kernel uses a major and minor revision scheme, some projects only increment the version numbers for major releases. Neither is incorrect.
It's news. (Score:5, Insightful)
This version introduces a number of new and long-requested features, beyond what the point-release number upgrade would lead you to believe.
In many ways, I'd say that a new release of VLC is probably more significant than the latest "marketing department" release of Quicktime Player or Windows Media Player.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Actually, I'd say that it isn't particularly significant for Linux users. In terms of featues and maturity, VLC is a step backwards compared to mplayer. However, mplayer has a lot of posix/linux kernel/gcc optimization tricks. It is designed and tested on Linux.
VLC, on the other hand, works fine with pretty much all of its features even on Windows and Mac, and it's portable - i.e. you can put it on
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
I'm grateful for the news myself as some of these features were pretty substantial.
Don't stare yourself blind at the version number.
Re:slashdotted with no comments (Score:5, Informative)
http://ftp.snt.utwente.nl/pub/software/videolan/v
http://videolan.kn.vutbr.cz/vlc/0.8.6/ [vutbr.cz]
Re:slashdotted with no comments (Score:4, Informative)
Took me a while to figure that one out...
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Mirrors (Score:3, Informative)
I used the
Re:Anyone know the changelog? (Score:4, Informative)
Wish I knew how to make shuffle default to off
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
The version I'm using is 0.8.6-svn20061012.debian-1ubuntu1 from Ubuntu Edgy.
Re:And it still doesn't support multipart rar's... (Score:4, Funny)