Video Lan Client, the nigh-indispensable open source media player for multiple audio and video formats (MPEG, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, Divx, ogg, etc.), was updated to a release candidate version of 2.0.2. The new version, a 25.5 megabyte download, adds the following fixes and changes:
Video Output:
– XP machine will now use DirectX mode by default, like in previous versions. There were too many errors with broken drivers.
– More accurate colourspaces conversions for YUV->RGB in OpenGL
– Add menu support for libvlc / VLCKit applications on Mac OS X
– Various fixes on Mac OS X, notably for crop, zoom, osd and menu support
– Misc fixes in OpenGL module, on all platforms
– Fix video output on PowerPC-based Macs equipped with an ATI Radeon 7500, an ATI Radeon 9200 or a NVIDIA GeForceFX 5200 Ultra.
– Fix video output of 10bit encoded contents on Intel-based Macs equipped with an Intel GMA 950 chipset running OS X 10.6 or later.
– Add support for the HiDPI mode used on recent Apple products with so-called Retina Displays.
Access:
– Rework Digital TV module for Windows. DVB-T and DVB-C should work again
– Fixes for RAR compressed files
– Fix DirectShow crashes on exit
– Improve PulseAudio input latency
– Fixes for HTTP access through a proxy
– v4l2 webcam outputting H264 can now be used directly (use –v4l2-chroma=h264)
– Fix subtitles auto-detection in subfolders and detection behaviour
– IE http proxy is not used anymore by VLC on Win32
– Accept more extensions for DVD images
– Fix crash in VC1 packetizer
– Improvements in Blu-Ray playback
– Improvements and fixes in HLS support
Codec:
– Fix crashes in AAC decoder on channels changes, notably in ISDB streams
– Fix compilation with multiple FFmpeg and libav versions
– Fix G726 support
– Fix MP3 free format support
Demuxers:
– Fixes for MKV segments, seeking and MKV title display
– Fix for some mp4, voc, midi and au crashes
– Fix for Real .ram, .f4v, .avi and .ra files support
– Fix for DVB channels file support
– Fixes for alac, vorbis, DTS, VC-1 and Dirac in mp4
Encoders:
– Fix for MPEG Audio encoding, use layer2 when using fourcc “mp2 ” and “mp2a”
– Fix for JPEG generation, when doing snapshots
– Audio filters and output:
– Limitation of spatializer volume output
– Fix DirectSound device selection
– Correct PulseAudio volume control
– Do not apply volume in file output
– Fix sampling rate in JACK output
– Fixes in ALSA output for latency and for broken drivers
Mac OS X:
– Enable drag and drop of playlist items between the temporary playlist and the persistent media library
– Enable import of playlist items taken from the service discovery modules to the media library or the temporary playlist
– 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”.
– Add support for the Apple Remote to set the Mac to sleep using a longer press on the Play/Pause button
– Remove libfontconfig’s font cache by an Apple Type Services lookup. This removes the “Updating Cache” dialog, before finding all fonts.
– Re-add an option to hide the window decoration during video playback
– Improve compatibility with other 3rd party apps using SPMediaKeyTap
– Many Fullscreen fixes
– Keep Aspect Ratio when resizing is back
– Add controls to manipulate the Subtitles Duration to the Track Synchronization panel
– Hidden items in the sidebar are being retained for the next launch now
– Fix crash when trying to open an Audio CD by drag & drop
– Improve reliability when opening DVDs or BDs by drag & drop
– Fix crashes on exit
– Fix crash when mounting a device with multiple logical volumes while VLC is running
– Chosen audio output device is retained throughout multiple sessions
– Since running the Mac OS X interface as an Extra Interface or Control Interface can lead to undefined results, eventual settings will be automatically reset on the first launch.- This fixes issues with unresponsive playback controls and crashes on quit.
– Update Growl plugin for use with Growl 1.3
– Miscellaneous minor interface improvements
Lua Scripts:
– Fixes for stdin/stdout and for different locale issues
– Fixes for icecast SD
Qt:
– Fix preferences for audio devices on Windows
– Fix playlist search and selector behaviour
– Fix multiple issues in the Open Disc dialog
– Miscellaneous fixes in preferences, buttons, EPG, playlist and customize dialog
– Fix tags and file names display
– Fix various crashes, display issues and usability issues
Skins2:
– Fix mousewheel on Windows
– Fix for key events and focus loss
Web interface:
– Fix display of some buttons
– Fix listing of files in the Open interface
– Fixes for widgets behaviour and vlm dialog
Security:
– Fix Ogg Heap buffer overflow
– Update taglib (CVE-2012-2396)
– Update libavcodec and other codecs libraries
Translation:
– Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, Walloon, Slovak, Polish, Khmer, Japanese, Italian, French, Czech, Belarusian, Breton, Greek, Spanish, Estonian, Irish, Galician, Hungarian, Japanese, Dutch, Telugu, Ukranian, Thai translations update
New Scottish Gaelic translation
VLC 2.0.2 requires an Intel-based Mac running Mac OS X 10.6 or later to install and run.
If you’ve tried the new version and have any feedback to offer, let us know in the comments.