VLC media player: revised design and marketability
Dependent VLC media player It has been in the market since 2001 and has probably already been installed on Windows or Mac computers as well as on mobile devices over the years. So far, VLC has been downloaded more than 3.5 billion times on various platforms. The open source program sees itself as a comprehensive media player that understands almost all formats and also offers some exciting additional features.
The VideoLAN team behind the development of VLC Media Player now has the opposite protocol He indicated that one could also imagine a commercial solution for his own product in the future. Jean-Baptiste Kempf, President, VideoLAN, described Plex media player as an example of an ad-supported business model that “can also work with VLC”.
In the context of these potential changes, the VLC team has also made new visual changes. A fully revised 4.0 version of the popular media player will appear “in the coming months”, which will then come with a new design. “We made the roof more modern,” says Jean-Baptiste Kempf.
Browser plug-in and the planned IMDb competition
In addition, VideoLAN is currently working on a browser plug-in so that any type of movie can be viewed in the web browser. Another project called Moviepedia, which Kempf describes as some kind of IMDb competitor – including Wikipedia-style community editing. The development of future-oriented video codecs such as AV1 and AV2 is also being pushed forward.
In addition, the modified VLC will support additional third-party content via a new expansion system. “But we’re going to do it in VLC style,” says Jean-Baptiste Kempf. A year ago, VLC for Android devices came equipped with Apple AirPlay support.
Last but not least, VideoLAN also plans to celebrate its 20th birthday this year, starting with a literal moon flight: the team plans to place a video time capsule on board the first commercial lunar flight later this year and is currently asking VLC users to do so. Make their own video files. “There are a lot of people in the VideoLAN community who really like space,” Kempf said. “We have SpaceX fans, die-hard fans.”
VLC Media Player is still free to play website Available developer for macOS, Windows, Linux, iOS and Android.