VLC launches version 2.0

VideoLAN have finally rolled out version 2.0 of VLC and it is available for download here. Mac users will see a big change in the user interface and both Mac and Windows users will have Blu-Ray playback support, although this support is currently experimental. Version 2.0 also brings faster decoding on multi-core, GPU and mobile hardware. More file formats are also supported, including professional, HD and 10bits codecs. The version is called “Twoflower” and comes with a rendering pipeline for video, better quality subtitles and new filters for enhancing video. Twoflower also fixes numerous bugs in more than 7,000 commits from 160 volunteers.

VLC 2.0’s new Mac interface

In terms of the new interface for Mac, users will be able to use VLC in 2 colours, Lion Grey and QTX Black. There will be more extension support and better Lion integration. All users will be able to have rewritten video output core and modules, allowing subpicture blending in GPU and shader support in the OpenGL output, for colourspace conversion, including 10bits. There are also new video outputs for Windows 7, Android, iOS and OS/2. There is rewritten support for images, including jpeg, png, xcf and bmp. In addition to Blu-Ray support, menus are deactivated in this release and AACS and BD+ DRM libraries and keys are not shipped, for legal reasons. There is support for SDI capture cards and QTKit devices and support for new adaptive streaming protocols, like HLS and DASH.

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VLC version 2.0 is available for Windows and Mac versions OS X 10.6 and 10.7. Mac users with OS X 10.5 (Intel) and OS X 10.5 (PowerPC) can also download VLC version 2.0.