VLC’s biggest-ever update is available VLC update brings support for HDR, 8K playback, and much more , II VLC 3.0 released: Chromecast, 8K, HDR, Android PiP, iPhone X optimization

VLC’s biggest-ever update is available VLC update brings support for HDR, 8K playback, and much more , II VLC 3.0 released: Chromecast, 8K, HDR, Android PiP, iPhone X optimization

VLC 3.0 has officially launched and it brings with it a bunch of new major features, not the least of which is the official arrival of Chromecast support. The app is now better suited for modern displays and content, packing in things like High Dynamic Range (HDR) and 8K support, and more. The 3.0 version of the software has been named “Vetinari.”
VLC is the incredible, and still free, media player that keeps on giving. The app is lightweight, available for just about any device you have, free of advertisements and unnecessary trim. And now it’s ready to play your most demanding videos, including ones with a huge 3840 x 2160 resolution and a high dynamic range.
Running down the list of abilities, VLC 3.0 is able to stream to Chromecast devices, and that includes formats that aren’t natively supported. There’s added support for browsing NAS and local network drives, playing Blu-ray Java menus, as well as audio passthrough support for HD audio codecs.

The new features roll on from there, bringing in support for 360-degree videos, 3D audio, default hardware decoding for up to 8K playback, OggSpots video decoder, Blu-ray text subtitles decoder, and more core features. The software has also been optimized for iPhone X.
Some features are specific to just Android, those including compatibility with DeX, Chromebooks, and Android TV, picture-in-picture, Android Auto with voice actions, Chromecast support from the phone, playlist file detection, and HEVC hardware decoding via MediaCodec.
VLC 3.0 is available to download now for iOS, Android, macOS, Windows, and even Windows Phone.
SOURCE: VideoLAN

VideoLAN has rolled out a massive update to VLC, bringing a slew of new features to every platform – including Windows 10, Xbox One, and Windows phone. Codenamed "Vetinari," the update pushes VLC up to version number 3.0 and, along with a massive list of bug fixes, brings support for hardware decoding for 4K and 8K playback, HDR, and much more.

Here's a look at some of the highlights, from VideoLAN:

• VLC 3.0 "Vetinari" is a new major update of VLC.
• VLC 3.0 activates hardware decoding by default, to get 4K and 8K playback!
• It supports 10bits and HDR
• VLC supports 360 video and 3D audio, up to Ambisoncics 3rd order
• Allows audio passthrough for HD audio codecs
• Can stream to Chromecast devices, even in formats not supported natively
• Can play Blu-Ray Java menus: BD-J
• VLC supports browsing of local network drives and NAS

VLC is already the go-to media player for many due to its wide codec support and sheer flexibility. The move to version 3.0 drives home that utility even more, particularly as more people start adopting 4K displays with HDR on board.
VLC version 3.0 is available now for all major platforms. You can pick up the Windows and Xbox updates from the Microsoft Store now. And for a full account of what's new, you can check out the lengthy release notes at VideoLAN.
VLC, the worldwide answer to the question “do you want to use Windows Media Player to open this file?” just received its first major update in two years. VLC 3.0 is now available on all the supported VLC platforms, complete with support for HDR video, hardware decoding, and oh yeah — Chromecast compatibility. Download it here.
The update is available right now for Android, Chrome OS, Android TV, Linux, macOS, iOS, Apple TV, and Windows. There’s just one catch: Chromecast support only works on Android and Chromebooks for the time being, and it’s still a “beta” feature that will draw heavily on your device’s CPU and battery to cast.
VLC 3.0 marks a huge behind-the-scenes change that standardizes the media player across all platforms. All VLC 3.0 releases, regardless of whether they’re running on Android or macOS, share the same core code. That makes life easier for the developers going forwards, but also ensures compatibility even with old devices. VLC 3.0 can be downloaded and run on Windows machines still running Windows XP, Android devices on Gingerbread 2.3, and iOS devices on iOS 7.
Support for Chromecast on Android and Chromebooks (via the Google Play app) is undoubtedly the headline feature of this release, and something that’s likely to make VLC’s sizeable user base ecstatic. The difficult part about Chromecast support is converting local media files to play nice with Google’s preferred format, as VLC Android developer Geoffrey Métais explains:

Chromecast is not designed to play local video files: When you watch a Youtube video, your phone is just a remote controller, nothing more. Chromecast streams the video from youtube.com.
That’s where it becomes complicated, Chromecast only supports very few codecs number, let’s say h264. Google ensures that your video is encoded in h264 format on youtube.com, so streaming is simple.
With VLC, you have media of any format. So VLC has to be a http server like youtube.com, and provide the video in a Chromecast compatible format. And of course in real time, which is challenging on Android because phones are less powerful than computers.

Here’s the complete list of new features:

• Supports hardware decoding on all platforms, for HD and UHD of H.264 & H.265 codecs, allowing 4K and 8K decoding with little CPU consumption.
• Supports 360-degree video and 3D audio, up to thid order Ambisonics, with customizable HRTF.
• Supports direct HDR (on Windows 10) and HDR tone-mapping (on other operating systems).
• Allows passthrough for HD Audio codecs so external HiFi decoders can provide the best sound.
• Allows users to browse local network drives like SMB, FTP, SFTP, NFS, and so on.
• Supports Chromecast discovery and streaming (including audio-only), even in formats not supported by Chromecast, such as DVDs.
• Adds a new subtitle rendering engine, supporting ComplexTextLayout and font fallback for multiple languages and fonts, including East-Asian languages.
• Updates the user interface to support HiDPI on Windows 10, new APIs for macOS, and so on.
• Adds support for numerous new formats and codecs, including WebVTT, TTML, HQX, CEA-708, Cineform, and many more.
• Prepares support for AV1, both decoding and encoding.
• Supports Bluray with Java menus (BD-J), although decryption needs to be performed outside of VLC.
• Prepares the experimental support for Wayland on Linux, and switches to OpenGL by default on Linux (Qt5 only for now).
• Supports Dex for Samsung’s Android devices and other keyboard-driven devices, in addition to complete Oreo support and playlists.
• Improves performance and battery life on iOS.