VideoLAN Releases Update for Popular Media Player - VLC 2.0

[Akshay Masand]

It was previously announced that VideoLAN was preparing version 2.0 of its popular video player and now the company has released the final version available for download. The latest version is a major update which features a completely re-designed (from the ground up) UI, full-screen support on Lion, and experimental support for Blu-ray discs.

The VLC media player lives up to the reputation its had in the past as a media player that can handle just about any audio or video format. The updated version was able to handle the standard .mpg, .avi, .mov files along with some formats that most Mac players don’t support including .swf, .asf, and .wmv files. DVDs also play back in full-screen mode with full menu support and the media player was also able to play ISO and VOB files from ripped DVDs as well.

The app seems to have a slick user interface that is in reality just one single window that lets you easily switch between your library and the video being played. For those of you who don’t like a single window look or user interface, you have the option to change back to the traditional user interface in the options. It should be noted that there are quite a bit of options that allow you to customize several different aspects of the media player app allowing users to set everything just the way they’d like to.

VLC 2.0 for Mac OS X 10.6+ (Direct Download)
VLC 2.0 for Mac OS X 10.5 Intel (Direct Download)
VLC 2.0 for Mac OS X 10.5 PowerPC (Direct Download)
VLC 2.0 for Windows (Direct Download)

VideoLAN’s 2.0 update for the popular VLC media player is definitely a must have on anyone’s list. It plays a wide variety of file formats and with the slew of customizable settings, it will make an excellent substitute for QuickTime (or any other media player) available on the Mac. For those of you who are interested in downloading VLC 2.0, you can do so by clicking the respective link above.

Source: VideoLAN

[mortopher]

While the new features are great, I really dislike the new UI. Too flashy, I very much appreciated their minimalistic UI of old.

[ericwall]

I really like the new UI. Why isn't it on the Windows version?

[femibrim]

I really like the new UI. Why isn't it on the Windows version?

Just look above at the links that were posted in this article, go ahead and click on the one for windows and wait... easy peasy lemon squeezy.....

[mr117]

It works well (as always). Took a while to rebuild the font cache, and then it was off to the races. I'm not a fan of the new look, but the app works when QT will not. Big thumbs up for that!

[Tario70]

I thought I read they were trying to port 2.0 to iOS. I'm curious as to the state of that one. I still have the original!

[sziklassy]

Aside from the new UI, are there any feature present here that were not present in the version prior? In other words, is there a reason for me to upgrade to this if I don't care about the "prettied up" version?

[spazturtle]

Aside from the new UI, are there any feature present here that were not present in the version prior? In other words, is there a reason for me to upgrade to this if I don't care about the "prettied up" version?

Its much faster, it can read bluray discs, videos look better, audio sounds better, more formates supported, subtitels render better, better plugin support and loads more.

[westc0ast]

2.0 messes up dvd decryption in handbrake.OS Lion

[GooseG]

I love its new UI. You can make playlists and access media so much easier.