The guys at VideoLAN have updated their hugely popular VLC media player app with a host of improvements and Retina graphics for the new MacBook Pro with Retina Display. VLC has been download over 1 billion times across Mac, Windows, and Linux computers, and version 2.0.2 is out now and available for free.
As a formidable QuickTime replacement, the latest VLC media player improves video playback, adds more video output options, includes multiple bug fixes, and more for Mac users.
Besides the Retina graphics for the mid-2012 MacBook Pro, the app’s “go automatically to fullscreen” feature has been added back in version 2.0.2. There’s also support for the latest version of Growl and the ability to drag and drop items between the playlist, services, and media library.
VLC has always been the go-to video player when QuickTime can’t recognize a certain kind of file or play a video properly. Widely considered to be the Swiss Army Knife of video players for the Mac, VLC is a necessary download for anyone who deals with multiple types of video formats on a regular basis. The app can be download for free on the VideoLAN website.
There are a host of new features and improvements in this latest update, so here’s the full list of changes:
- Enabled drag and drop of playlist items between the temporary playlist and the persistent media library
- Various video output improvements, notably for crop, zoom, osd and menu support
- Enabled import of playlist items taken from the service discovery modules to the media library or the temporary playlist
- Added media key support for keyboards by other manufacturers than Apple. This fix was facilitated through a hardware donation by ZF Friedrichshafen AG manufacturing keyboards under the brand “Cherry”.
- Added HiDPI / Retina Display save UI artwork
- Restored the preferences’ fullscreen options, which allows the user to start videos directly in fullscreen mode
- Keep Aspect Ratio when resizing is back
- Added controls to manipulate the Subtitles Duration to the Track Synchronization panel
- Hidden items in the sidebar are being retained for the next launch now
- Fixed crash when trying to open an Audio CD by drag & drop
- Improve reliability when opening DVDs or BDs by drag & drop
- Fixed a crash when attaching harddrives with multiple partitions while VLC is running
- Improved OSD rendering in fullscreen mode
- Improved fullscreen behavior when using a smartphone remote based upon VLC’s http interface
- The selected audio device is retained throughout multiple VLC sessions now
- Since running the Mac OS X interface as an Extra Interface or Control Interface can lead to undefined results, the respective options will be automatically reset on the first launch, if needed.
- This fixes issues with unresponsive playback controls and crashes on quit.
- Updated Growl plugin supporting Growl 1.3.
- Improved reliablity in detecting VIDEO_TS folders when opened through the “Open Disc” panel.
- Re-implemented the “Window Decorations” option, which, if disabled, hides all the UI elements from the video output window to give you the cleanest experience possible.
- Improved the window title behavior when using the dark interface mode. It correctly responds to right and double-click events now.
- Miscellaneous minor interface improvements
Video Output
- PCs running Windows XP will use the DirectX mode by default now, like in VLC’s 1.1.x release due to a fast number of broken drivers
- More accurate colorspace conversions for YUV->RGB in OpenGL
- Misc fixes in the OpenGL module, on all platforms
- Fixed video output on PowerPC-based Macs equipped with an ATI Radeon 7500, an ATI Radeon 9200 or a NVIDIA GeForceFX 5200 Ultra.[1]
- Fixed video output of 10bit encoded contents on Intel-based Macs equipped with an Intel GMA 950 chipset running OS X 10.6 or later.[2]
Access
- Reworked Digital TV module for Windows. DVB-T and DVB-C work again
- Fixes for RAR compressed files
- Fixed DirectShow crashes on exit
- Improved PulseAudio input latency
- Fixes for HTTP access through a proxy
- v4l2 webcam outputting H264 can now be used directly (use –v4l2-chroma=h264)
- Fixed Subtitle auto-detection in subfolders
- IE http proxy is no longer used by VLC on Windows
- Accepts more extensions for DVD images
- Fixed crash in VC1 packetizer
Codecs
- Fixed crashes in AAC decoder on channels changes, notably in ISDB streams
- Fixed compilation with multiple FFmpeg and libav versions
- Fixed G726 support
Demuxers
- Fixes for MKV segments and MKV title display
- Fixed some mp4, voc, midi and au crashes
- Fixed Real .ram and .ra files support
- Fixed DVB channel file support
- Fixes for alac, vorbis, DTS, VC-1 and Dirac in mp4
Encoders
- Fix for MPEG audio encoding. Use Layer2 for the FOURCCs “mp2 ” and “mp2a”
- Fixed JPEG generation when doing snapshots
Audio filters and output
- Limitation of the Spatializer output volume
- Fixed DirectSound device selection
- Correct PulseAudio volume control
- Fixed Directsound volume initialization
- Volume level is no longer applied to the file output
- Fixed sampling rate for the JACK output
Lua Scripts
- Fixes for stdin/stdout and for different locale issues
Qt interface
- Fixed preferences for audio devices on Windows
- Fixed various crashes
- Fixed multiple issues in the Open Disc dialog
- Fixed playlist search and selector behavior
- Miscellaneous fixes in preferences, buttons, EPG, playlist and customize dialog
- Fixed tags and file names display
Skins2
- Fixed mousewheel on Windows
- Fixes for key events and focus loss
Web interface
- Fixed display of some buttons
- Fixed listing of files in the Open interface
Source: VideoLAN blog
