VLC media player is a free and open source cross-platform multimedia player that plays most multimedia files as well as discs, devices, and network streaming.

It supports many new devices inputs, formats, metadata and improves most of the current ones, preparing for the next-gen codecs. For subtitles you can download VLSub.

Why is VLC so popular?

VLC Media Player has grown its user base over the years thanks to its simplicity, wide support for a variety of formats, and features which allow all sorts of video manipulation and enhancements.

Is VLC compatible with Windows 11?

VLC media player is compatible with all versions of Windows, including Windows 11. VLC player is a cross-platform media player, so it's also available for macOS, Linux and Android.

What does VLC stand for?

VLC stands for VideoLAN Client. VLC media player, as it's now called, began to exist around 1996 as a project from the École Centrale Paris consisting of a client and server designed to stream videos.

What video formats does VLC support?

VLC offers support for the following video formats: MPEG-1/2, DivX (1/2/3/4/5/6), MPEG-4 ASP, XviD, 3ivX D4, H.261, H.263 / H.263i, H.264 / MPEG-4 AVC, Cinepak, Theora, Dirac / VC-2, MJPEG (A/B), WMV 1/2, WMV 3 / WMV-9 / VC-1, Sorenson 1/3, DV, On2 VP3/VP5/VP6, Indeo Video v3 (IV32), Real Video (1/2/3/4).

What audio formats does VLC support?

VLC player offers support for the following audio formats: MPEG Layer 1/2, MP3 - MPEG Layer 3, AAC - MPEG-4 part3, Vorbis, AC3 - A/52, E-AC-3, MLP / TrueHD>3, DTS, WMA 1/2, WMA 3, FLAC, ALAC, Speex, Musepack / MPC, ATRAC 3, Wavpack, Mod, TrueAudio, APE, Real Audio, Alaw/µlaw, AMR (3GPP), MIDI, LPCM, ADPCM, QCELP, DV Audio, QDM2/QDMC, MACE.

Can VLC play DVDs?

VLC can play all kinds of DVDs, including discs with protection. However, the legality of using VLC to play protected DVDs depends on where you are located.

What's New

Decoders:

  • Improve Opus ambisonic support
  • Fix some ASS subtitle rendering issues
  • Fix Opus in MP4 behaviour
  • Fix VAAPI hw decoding with some drivers

Input:

  • Add support for HTTP content range handling according to RFC 9110
  • Fix some HLS Adaptive Streaming not working in audio-only mode

Video Output:

  • Super Resolution scaling with AMD GPUs
  • The D3D11 HDR option can also turn on/off HDR for all sources regardless of the display
  • Improve subtitles rendering on Apple platforms of notably Asian languages by correcting font fallback lookups

Video Filter:

  • New AMD VQ Enhancer filter
  • Add D3D11 option to use NVIDIA TrueHDR to generate HDR from SDR sources

Audio Output:

  • Fix regression on macOS causing crashes when using audio devices with more than 9 channels

Services Discovery:

  • Fix exposed UPnP directory URL schemes to be compliant with RFC 3986

Contrib:

  • Update FFmpeg to 4.4.4
  • Update dav1d to 1.4.2
  • Update libvpx to 1.14.1

libVLC:

  • The HWND passed to libvlc_media_player_set_hwnd must have the WS_CLIPCHILDREN style set.
  • Fix crashes when using caopengllayer

Misc:

  • Fix various warnings, leaks and potential crashes
  • Fix security integer overflow in MMS module

Security:

  • A denial of service through a potential integer overflow could be triggered with a maliciously crafted mms stream (heap based overflow)

Impact

  • If successful, a malicious third party could trigger either a crash of VLC or an arbitratry code execution with the privileges of the target user.
  • While these issues in themselves are most likely to just crash the player, we can't exclude that they could be combined to leak user informations or remotely execute code. ASLR and DEP help reduce the likelyness of code execution, but may be bypassed.
  • We have not seen exploits performing code execution through this vulnerability.

Threat mitigation

  • Exploitation of those issues requires the user to explicitly open a maliciously crafted mms stream.

Workarounds

  • The user should refrain from opening mms streams from untrusted third parties (or disable the VLC browser plugins), until the patch is applied.

Solution

  • VLC media player 3.0.21 addresses the issue.

Previous Release Notes:

Decoders:

  • NvidiaImprove Opus ambisonic support
  • NvidiaFix some ASS subtitle rendering issues
  • NvidiaFix Opus in MP4 behaviour
  • NvidiaFix VAAPI hw decoding with some drivers

Input:

  • NvidiaAdd support for HTTP content range handling according to RFC 9110
  • NvidiaFix some HLS Adaptive Streaming not working in audio-only mode

Video Output:

  • NvidiaSuper Resolution scaling with AMD GPUs
  • NvidiaThe D3D11 HDR option can also turn on/off HDR for all sources regardless of the display
  • NvidiaImprove subtitles rendering on Apple platforms of notably Asian languages by correcting font fallback lookups

Video Filter:

  • NvidiaNew AMD VQ Enhancer filter
  • NvidiaAdd D3D11 option to use NVIDIA TrueHDR to generate HDR from SDR sources

Audio Output:

  • NvidiaFix regression on macOS causing crashes when using audio devices with more than 9 channels

Services Discovery:

  • NvidiaFix exposed UPnP directory URL schemes to be compliant with RFC 3986

Contrib:

  • NvidiaUpdate FFmpeg to 4.4.4
  • NvidiaUpdate dav1d to 1.4.2
  • NvidiaUpdate libvpx to 1.14.1

libVLC:

  • Nvidiathe HWND passed to libvlc_media_player_set_hwnd must have the WS_CLIPCHILDREN
  • style set.
  • NvidiaFix crashes when using caopengllayer

Misc:

  • NvidiaFix various warnings, leaks and potential crashes
  • NvidiaFix security integer overflow in MMS module