VideoLAN VLC is among the most popular video players on Windows, Linux. Despite its popularity, it wasn’t the best one. As we talked about it months back, VLC had been supporting alot of video codecs that were way too inferior in performance and quality as compared to the top of the line.
Top of the line codec performance is showcased by CoreAVC, that lets you play 1080p smoothly, even on low-end machines (1.5Ghz Dual core, low-end GPU).
The new VLC version i.e. 1.1 seems to address these issues. Here are the key features:
GPU-Based Decoding
This is the most coolest one. Technologies like CUDA are closed and limited to NVIDIA only, but VLC opens up the gateway to General Purpose processing using GPU with DxVA (DirectX Video Acceleration API) on Windows Vista and Windows 7, and VAAPI on Linux.
It works for few GPUs and reduces CPU usage pretty well, but on others might not. You can check the GPU compatibility list here. This should improve as we get near to the final version.
Extensions
WITH VLC 1.1, users will be able to write their own plugins for VLC, codenamed Extensions. The difference with other VLC modules consists in the language used to write these Extensions: Lua, a simple a lightweight scripting language, embedded inside VLC media player.
How to use Extensions:
Download the VLC and Lua scripts and copy them to your VLC scripts folder:
- Linux: ~/.local/share/vlc/lua/extensions/
- Windows: %APPDATA%\VLC\lua\extensions
Open the Plugins & Extensions dialog to reload the list of extensions.
New Media library
Till now, VLC was just a player with no library. This is going to change with v1.1. It will now have a searchable music/video database (based on SqlLite) for easy access and management.
New Playlists, MIDI Support
VLC 1.1 has added support for WPL (WMP playlist), ZPL playlists and MIDI sequences.
Windows 7 Integration
Starting from VLC 1.0.0.3, VLC started to feature Windows 7 Integration. VLC 1.1 plans to bring all the cool stuff that is available to Windows Media Player: Preview Thumbnails, recent media, jump lists, etc.
All New User Interface
The New UI will become a lot more prettier and intuitive.
New Visualizations
Milkdrop visualizations come to VLC using Opensource project projectM.
Desktop Wallpaper Overlay
Remember the cool Feature of WinAMP that enabled you to put videos on the desktop behind icons? Same thing is now coming to VLC.
Download VLC 1.1 Download
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