VLC is a free and open source cross-platform multimedia player and framework that plays most multimedia files as well as DVDs, Audio CDs, VCDs, and various streaming protocols. Version 4.0 introduces a new user interface, media library browser, VR support, 3D video support, and revised video output functions. This new version also introduces new rendering pipeline for audio, with better efficiency, volume and device management, to improve VLC audio support.

Support for many new devices inputs, formats, and metadata have been introduces along with next-gen codecs. For subtitles in VLC you can download VLSub.

Why is VLC so popular?

VLC Media Player has grown its user base over the years thanks to its simplicity, wide support for a variety of formats, and features which allow all sorts of video manipulation and enhancements.

Is VLC compatible with Windows 11?

VLC media player is compatible with all versions of Windows, including Windows 11. VLC player is a cross-platform media player, so it's also available for macOS, Linux and Android.

What does VLC stand for?

VLC stands for VideoLAN Client. VLC media player, as it's now called, began to exist around 1996 as a project from the École Centrale Paris consisting of a client and server designed to stream videos.

What video formats does VLC support?

VLC offers support for the following video formats: MPEG-1/2, DivX (1/2/3/4/5/6), MPEG-4 ASP, XviD, 3ivX D4, H.261, H.263 / H.263i, H.264 / MPEG-4 AVC, Cinepak, Theora, Dirac / VC-2, MJPEG (A/B), WMV 1/2, WMV 3 / WMV-9 / VC-1, Sorenson 1/3, DV, On2 VP3/VP5/VP6, Indeo Video v3 (IV32), Real Video (1/2/3/4).

What audio formats does VLC support?

VLC player offers support for the following audio formats: MPEG Layer 1/2, MP3 - MPEG Layer 3, AAC - MPEG-4 part3, Vorbis, AC3 - A/52, E-AC-3, MLP / TrueHD>3, DTS, WMA 1/2, WMA 3, FLAC, ALAC, Speex, Musepack / MPC, ATRAC 3, Wavpack, Mod, TrueAudio, APE, Real Audio, Alaw/µlaw, AMR (3GPP), MIDI, LPCM, ADPCM, QCELP, DV Audio, QDM2/QDMC, MACE.

Can VLC play DVDs?

VLC can play all kinds of DVDs, including discs with protection. However, the legality of using VLC to play protected DVDs depends on where you are located.

Features

Audio

  • Rewritten audio core, allowing better volume and device management.
  • Rewrite of the audio modules, to adapt to the new core.
  • Correct support for multi-channel layouts in all formats: 5.1, 6.1 and 7.1
  • New audio outputs for Windows Vista, Android, iOS, OpenBSD and OSSv4.
  • New remapping, gain, stereo widening, downmixing effects.
  • Higher samplerate, precision, live configuration in the core.
  • Numerous new audio metadata format supported.

Video

  • Port the OpenGL output to OpenGL ES.
  • Support color conversion shaders in glsl on Android and iOS.
  • New outputs for OpenMax IL on mobile and Decklink Blackmagic.
  • New video outputs for iOS using OpenGL ES2.
  • Support for deinterlacing for higher bit depth and XYZ colorspace.
  • New anaglyph filter for side-by-side 3D.
  • 4K-ready :)

Codecs

  • Add hardware decoding for OS X using VDADecoder.
  • Add hardware decoding for Android using MediaCodec.
  • Add hardware decoding for GNU/Linux using VDPAU.
  • Add hardware encoding for Windows using Intel QuickSyncVideo.
  • Support for G2M4, MSS1, MSS2, TSCC2, CDXL, Ut, VBLE video codecs.
  • Support for Ulead DV audio, Indeo Audio Coder, RealAudio Lossless audio.
  • Support for SCTE-27 and complete EIA-608 subtitles.

Formats

  • Support for fragmented MP4, Wave/RF64 files.
  • Extended metadata tags and cover art support in Ogg, AVI, MP4 and MKV.
  • Support FLAC, Atrac, ADPCM, DV Type 1, 12bits DV audio in AVI.
  • Extended support for AVI, MKV and MJPEG streams.
  • Better recording of AVI and MKV format.
  • Audio fingerprinting using AcoustID.

Input and Devices

  • Support for screen input on OSX Lion and later.
  • Support for Microsoft Smooth Streaming, developed by Viotech.net
  • New RTMP input module, using libavformat!
  • Support for VNC/rfb and Remote Desktop view-only modes.
  • Important improvements on Blu-Ray, Dash, v4l2 and HTTP inputs.
  • New AVFoundation OS X and shm framebuffer inputs.

For Anime fans

  • New 6.1 downmixer to 5.1 and Stereo from MKV/Flac 6.1.
  • Correct YUV->RGB color matrix in the OpenGL shaders.
  • Improved MKV support for seeking, and resiliancy.
  • Editions support in MKV.
  • Better subtitles and metadata support from MKV.
  • Various ASS subtitles improvements.

For Mobile

  • Port to Android, from 2.1 to 4.3, on ARMv6, ARMv7, x86 and MIPS.
  • New port to iOS, from iOS 5 to 7, on all iPads and iPhones after 3GS.
  • Partial port to WinRT, for Windows 8, 8.1 and WP8.
  • OpenGL ES optimized outputs.
  • Improvements of OpenMAX IL decoders, encoders and renderers.
  • New audio, video outputs and interfaces for mobiles.

For developers

  • libVLC and most modules are now LGPLv2.1+.
  • libVLC media framework can now be used in all types of applications.
  • libVLC SDK packages now exists, in addition to more examples.
  • Improved libVLC API, for better control.
  • VLC's web plugins now support windowless mode, for smoother integration with HTML elements.

What's New

VLC 3.0.19 RTX Beta Release Notes:

  • VLC 3.0.19 RTX is a custom version of "Vetinari"
  • It activates Super Resolution upscaling by default on nVidia RTX GPU

VLC 3.0.19 RTX features:

Core

  • Network browsing for distant filesystems (SMB, FTP, SFTP, NFS...)
  • HDMI passthrough for Audio HD codecs, like E-AC3, TrueHD or DTS-HD
  • 12bits codec and extended colorspaces (HDR)
  • Stream to distant renderers, like Chromecast
  • 360 video and 3D audio playback with viewpoint change
  • Support for Ambisonics audio and more than 8 audio channels
  • Subtitles size modification during playback
  • Secure passwords storage

Acceleration

  • Hardware decoding and display on all platforms
  • HEVC hardware decoding on Windows, using DxVA2 and D3D11
  • HEVC hardware decoding using OMX and MediaCodec (Android)
  • MPEG-2, VC1/WMV3 hardware decoding on Android
  • Important improvements for the MMAL decoder and output for rPI and rPI2
  • HEVC and H.264 hardware decoding for macOS and and iOS based on VideoToolbox
  • New VA-API decoder and rendering for Linux

Codecs

  • BD-Java menus and overlay in Blu-Ray
  • Experimental AV1 video and Daala video decoders
  • OggSpots video decoder
  • New MPEG-1 & 2 audio layer I, II, III + MPEG 2.5 decoder based on libmpg123
  • New BPG decoder based on libbpg
  • TDSC, Canopus HQX, Cineform, SpeedHQ, Pixlet, QDMC and FMVC decoders
  • TTML subtitles support, including EBU-TT variant
  • Rewrite of webVTT subtitles support, including CSS style support
  • BluRay text subtitles (HDMV) deocoder
  • Support for ARIB-B24, CEA-708
  • New decoder for MIDI on macOS, iOS and Windows

Protocols and devices

  • Full support for Bluray Menus (BD-J) and Bluray ISO
  • Rewrite of Adaptive Streaming protocols support
  • Support for HLSv4 to HLSv7, including MP4 and ID3 cases
  • Rewrite of DASH support, including MPEG2TS and ISOBMFF
  • Support SAT>IP devices, for DVB-S via IP networks
  • Support for HTTP 2.0
  • Support NFS, SMB and SFTP shares, with browsing
  • Support for SRT streaming protocol [full release notes]

VLC 4.0.0 Beta Release Notes:

Platform support changes:

  • 4.0.x requires:
  • Windows 7/2008 R2 or later (with KB2533623 installed)
  • macOS 10.11 or later
  • iOS 9 or later
  • Android 4.1.x or later (API-16)
  • GCC 5.0 or Clang 3.4 (or equivalent)
  • Windows on ARM is now supported
  • Universal Windows is only supported for Windows 10 (not Windows 8 anymore)

Core:

  • New output clock (internal):
  • The input clock (PCR) or the audio output can drive the output clock
  • By default, the audio output will drive the output clock: no more audio resampling or flush when the audio is late or early
  • New medialibrary (vlc_media_library.h)
  • New player (vlc_player.h):
  • Replace the input_thread_t API that is now internal
  • One instance is used to play subsequent medias
  • Allow multiple track selection
  • Fix TOCTOU issues (the player lock is exposed)
  • New mediatree and mediasource (vlc_media_source.h)
  • Browse local network and service discoveries
  • New playlist (vlc_playlist.h)
  • Replace the previous one
  • Flat, new random implementation
  • Can't browse anymore (cf. mediatree)
  • Add support for dual subtitles selection (via the player)
  • Support of HTML help (via the vlc_plugin.h:set_help_html macro)

Audio output:

  • ALSA: HDMI passthrough support. Use --alsa-passthrough to configure S/PDIF or HDMI passthrough.
  • Remove the DirectSound plugin (API obsolete after Windows 7) Demuxer:
  • Support for HEIF image and grid image formats
  • Support for DASH WebM
  • Support for DVBSUB in mkv
  • Support for DAV video files
  • Improved Bluray menus, clips and stream selection
  • Support chapters in mp3 files
  • Support for DMX audio music (MUS) files Codecs:
  • Support for experimental AV1 video encoding
  • WebVTT encoder
  • Remove iomx support for Android
  • WebP image decoding
  • Support for SMPTE-TT image profile
  • Support for 16-bit greyscale
  • Support IMM4 decoder
  • Improve 708 decoder
  • Support AGM decoder
  • Support VP4 decoder
  • Add NVDEC hardware decoder
  • Remove SDL_image support Access:
  • Enable SMB2 / SMB3 support on mobile ports with libsmb2
  • Added support for the RIST (Reliable Internet Stream Transport) Protocol
  • Added support for the AMT (Automatic Multicast Tunneling) Protocol
  • Added support for the Gopher Protocol
  • Added avaudiocapture module as a replacement for qtsound, which is removed now
  • Audio CD data tracks are now correctly detected and skipped
  • Deprecates Audio CD CDDB lookups in favor of more accurate Musicbrainz
  • Improved CD-TEXT and added Shift-JIS encoding support
  • Support for YoutubeDL (where available). Access output:
  • Added support for the RIST (Reliable Internet Stream Transport) Protocol
  • Added support for HTTP PUT (HTTP upload) Video output:
  • Added X11 RENDER video output plugin
  • Remove aa plugin
  • Remove evas plugin
  • Remove omxil_vout plugin
  • Remove RealRTSP plugin
  • Remove Real demuxer plugin
  • Fix washed out black on NVIDIA cards with Direct3D9
  • On-Screen-Display is off by default in libvlc
  • Remove deprecated Linux framebuffer plugin
  • Removed VDPAU video output plugin (hardware decoder still present)

Audio filter:

  • Add RNNoise recurrent neural network denoiser

Video filter:

  • Update yadif
  • Remove remote OSD plugin Stream output:
  • New SDI output with improved audio and ancillary support. Candidate for deprecation of decklink vout/aout modules.
  • Support for DLNA/UPNP renderers
  • The "udp" access output module has been removed. Please use the UDP stream output instead, e.g.: Old: '#std{access=udp,mux=ts,dst=239.255.1.2:1234,sap}'
  • New: '#udp{dst=239.255.1.2:1234,sap}'

Muxers:

  • MP4 files are no longer faststart by default
  • Service discovery:
  • Support Renderer discovery with avahi

macOS:

  • Remove Growl notification support
  • Improved AppleScript API with support for playback modes, recording, rate

appleOS:

  • Improved proxy configuration handling