vlc README

The project's README from github.com/videolan/vlc. As one markdown file: README.md.

VLC media player

VLC is a libre and open source media player and multimedia engine, focused on playing everything, and running everywhere.

VLC can play most multimedia files, discs, streams, devices and is also able to convert, encode, stream and manipulate streams into numerous formats.

VLC is used by many over the world, on numerous platforms, for very different use cases.

The engine of VLC can be embedded into 3rd party applications, and is called libVLC.

VLC is part of the VideoLAN project and is developed and supported by a community of volunteers.

The VideoLAN project was started at the university École Centrale Paris who relicensed VLC under the GPLv2 license in February 2001. Since then, VLC has been downloaded billions of times.

License

VLC is released under the GPLv2 (or later) license. On some platforms, it is de facto GPLv3, because of the licenses of dependencies.

libVLC, the engine is released under the LGPLv2 (or later) license.
This allows embedding the engine in 3rd party applications, while letting them to be licensed under other licenses.

Platforms

VLC is available for the following platforms:

Not all platforms receive the same amount of care, due to our limited resources.

Nota Bene: The Android app and the iOS app are located in different repositories than the main one.

Contributing & Community

VLC is maintained by a community of people, and VideoLAN is not paying any of them.
The community is composed of developers, helpers, maintainers, designers and writers that want this open source project to thrive.

The main development of VLC is done in the C language, but this repository also contains plenty of C++, Obj-C, asm and Rust.

Other repositories linked to vlc are done in languages including Kotlin/Java (Android), Swift (iOS), and C# (libVLCSharp).

We need help with the following tasks:

Please contribute :)

We are on IRC. You can find us on the #videolan channel on Libera.chat.

Contributions

Contributions are now done through Merge Requests on our GitLab repository.

CI and discussions should be resolved before a Merge Request can be merged.

libVLC

libVLC is an embeddable engine for 3rd party applications and frameworks.

It runs on the same platforms as VLC (and sometimes on more) and can provide playback, streaming and conversion of multimedia files and streams.

libVLC has numerous bindings for other languages, such as C++, Python and C#.

Support

Some useful links that might help you:

Source Code sitemap

ABOUT-NLS          - Notes on the Free Translation Project.
AUTHORS            - VLC authors.
COPYING            - The GPL license.
COPYING.LIB        - The LGPL license.
INSTALL            - Installation and building instructions.
NEWS               - Important modifications between the releases.
README             - Project summary.
THANKS             - VLC contributors.

bin/               - VLC binaries.
bindings/          - libVLC bindings to other languages.
compat/            - compatibility library for operating systems missing
                     essential functionalities.
contrib/           - Facilities for retrieving external libraries and building
                     them for systems that don't have the right versions.
doc/               - Miscellaneous documentation.
extras/analyser    - Code analyser and editor specific files.
extras/buildsystem - Different build system specific files.
extras/misc        - Files that don't fit in the other extras/ categories.
extras/package     - VLC packaging specific files such as spec files.
extras/tools/      - Facilities for retrieving external building tools needed
                     for systems that don't have the right versions.
include/           - Header files.
lib/               - libVLC source code.
modules/           - VLC plugins and modules. Most of the code is here.
po/                - VLC translations.
share/             - Common resource files.
src/               - libvlccore source code.
test/              - Testing system.

vlc (videolan/vlc)

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Vlc
What is this?VLC is a free, open-source media player and multimedia engine that plays nearly every audio and video format, plus discs, streams and capture devices, on almost every platform.
Is it just a player app, or is there a library side to it too?Both. It ships as a full desktop and mobile player, and the engine underneath it, libVLC, is a separate framework that third-party apps can embed for playback, streaming and conversion.
How do I get VLC onto my device?Grab a ready-made installer from videolan.org for your platform — no building needed. Just note the Android and iOS apps live in their own repositories, not in this one.
If I want to build on libVLC, do I have to write C?No — libVLC has bindings for C++, Python and C# (libVLCSharp), so you can drive the engine from any of those instead of writing C.
Are all the platform versions equally polished?No. The README warns that not all platforms receive the same amount of care due to limited resources, so expect quality to vary between builds.
Which platforms can I run it on?Windows 7 and later, macOS 10.10 and later, GNU/Linux, BSD, Android 4.2 and later (including Android TV and Auto), iOS 9 and later (including Apple TV), plus Haiku, OS/2 and a few others.
Can VLC do more than play files?Yes — it can convert, encode, stream and manipulate media into numerous formats, and it plays discs and capture devices in addition to plain files.
What is the codebase written in?C is the main language, but this repo also contains plenty of C++, Objective-C, assembly and Rust; the Android app uses Kotlin/Java, the iOS app Swift, and libVLCSharp is C#.
What are similar projects?xbmc, ijkplayer, mpv, ExoPlayer, BBLL, mangayomi, Levyra-deepsound, android-airplay-server
Which topics is it in?haiku, stream, multimedia, player, lgpl, music-player, video-player, objective-c, gplv2, app, audio, streaming
Creator
videolan
Size
684.6 MB
Stars
20.1K
Updated
CommitOct 18
Age
14y
Commits · 90 Days