The VLC app has had a troubled history on iOS, not only with releases in general, but with also being pulled from the App Store entirely.
At the end of 2014, a report surfaced that said VLC was going to make a triumphant return to iOS in due time, and that the wait wouldn’t be much longer. Sure enough, it looks like VLC is now rolling out to iOS App Stores across the globe. (However, as of the time of this writing it doesn’t appear to be available in the U.S. App Store just yet, so keep checking.) According to the release proper, VLC for iOS comes with plenty of improvements to offer an even better experience, new features baked in, and official support for the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus’s bigger displays.
But, this release goes beyond just the availability for iOS, however. This is the biggest release for VLC, as it not only bears support for iOS, but Mac, Windows PC, Linux, Windows RT (!), Android, Android TV (!), and even Windows Phone. As mentioned above, this is indeed the biggest launch for VLC, which is developed by VideoLAN:
“The company told VentureBeat that the releases are the result of more than a year of volunteer work on the VLC engine and the libVLC library. As a result, VLC has gained numerous new features, has seen more than 1,000 bugs fixed, and has significantly increased its scope of supported formats.“
As far as some of the new features go, the better-than-before VLC now includes support for Digital Cinema Package, which will allow playback for native movie theater formats. The new VLC also offers support for “a very large number of unusual codecs,” a “vastly improved compatibility” for UltraHD video codecs, and more. The new software can even detect rotated videos and rotate them using hardware acceleration with some codecs — no more vertical videos.
The new app is rolling out now in specific markets, so keep an eye out for the new VLC if you’ve been eagerly awaiting its return. The full changelog for iOS is just below, as well as a link to the app for when it goes live in the U.S. App Store.
- Download of currently stored media via WiFi in addition to upload
- Detection of external subtitles when streaming media via http or ftp
- Folder support for GDrive
- Support for streaming from GDrive
- Native support for Plex media servers
- Support for file sharing with further apps installed on device
- Option to download media from http/ftp/https instead of direct playback when requested through third-party app
- Folders synced through iTunes are correctly parsed now
- Option to set text encoding used for FTP connections
- Option to set default playback speed
- Media library search
- Improved reliability when a call comes in during playback
- Improved subtitles playback reliability
- Support for redirected downloads via HTTP
- Support for audio playback and subtitles delay for manual sync
- Added improved interaction with third party apps through a x-callback-url based mechanism
- Media Library is no longer reset on upgrade
- Fix browsing of a number of UPnP devices such as HDHomeRun without sorting capabilities
- Fix pseudo-random playback starts
- Improved passcode lock appearance
- Minor UI improvements
- Network stream history allows copying URLs
- Improved reliability when syncing media via WiFi or iTunes
- Stability improvements for iOS 6.1
- New translation to Traditional Chinese
Download link
