VLC Player 2.0

[BillBarnes]

Just came out: http://www.videolan.org/

Seem like a nice update.

Bill

 

[Michael Mayda]

Good news . I like VLC as a generic viewer. Sounds like it will be even better with 2.0.

 

[Liana]

For professional Users:

• Support for ProRes 422 and 4444, AVC/Intra.
• Support for Jpeg-2000 and DNxHD/VC-3 in 10bits.
• Support for EBU subtitles (stl) and EIA-608.
• SDI and HD-SDI card support for input on Linux.
• New Dirac/VC-2 encoder, faster than the previous one.

Good improvements.

I also noticed that the new multi-core decoding thing works brilliantly. The load was spread on all CPU cores (albeit a bit unevenly, not unexpectedly), unlike some previous versions of VLC.
VLC also starts instantly now. Very nice.

 

[Subhadip Sen]

Nothing too exciting - it finally contains features any modern media player should have had since 2009. Unfortunately the renderer is still lacking, and the lack of configurability means I will pass.

 

[Maxi Claudio]

I use it every day. Great program.

 

[Tom Lowe]

It can decode 10-bit H264 and x264 now, I believe. Previously I had to use Media Player Classic with CCCP to view 10-bit rips.

 

[Craig W. Bickerstaff]

It can decode 10-bit H264 and x264 now, I believe. Previously I had to use Media Player Classic with CCCP to view 10-bit rips.

I'm unfamiliar with 10 bit rips, could you explain this concept to me? Where are these sources of 10 bit content that can be ripped?

 

[Tom Lowe]

I'm unfamiliar with 10 bit rips, could you explain this concept to me? Where are these sources of 10 bit content that can be ripped?

It's basically using 10-bit encoding instead of 8-bit. This reduces banding, reduces flie size, and improves the image. High 10 Profile (Hi10P). The trade off is that it's more CPU-intensive to decode.

 

[Subhadip Sen]

It can decode 10-bit H264 and x264 now, I believe. Previously I had to use Media Player Classic with CCCP to view 10-bit rips.

Unfortunately, it still cannot play 4K X264/H264 (level 5+) reliably. At least it doesn't choke up completely like before. There's no solution - VLC is stuck with its own archaic internal filters. VLC still gets confused between 16-235 and 0-255. There's a whole list of irritances which still apply - it simply isn't any good. Media Player Classic's default renderer (EVR) is still much better, and of course you have flexibility to choose third party renderers like MadVR which is pretty amazing. Needless to say, it (and a whole bunch of players including Windows Media Player) could play 4K X264 since 2009 with DXVA.

 

[Gavin Greenwalt]

It's playing catchup to MPC-Home Cinema.

http://mpc-hc.sourceforge.net/

A solid improvement for 2.0 but a good ways to go.

 

[Tom Lowe]

I have a few of these players and I just use whichever one I need for any given file, though I tend to start with VLC, since I know the controls well and it's fairly simple.