VLC for iOS 3.1.4 updated for iPad Pro

The new iPad Pro is a powerhouse of a device and there is no doubt about it!

With its new A12 Bionic processor we at VideoLAN are now able to use up to eight cores to display your videos. Even some of the most performance intensive videos, that were only playable on your laptop, can now be watched with ease via VLC on iPad.

We also adapted the UI for the new form factor and made sure videos look gorgeous with the new aspect ratio format.

External Screen support

In case you need to present your newly created video on a big screen you’ll be happy to know that we also have a solution for that. With the new USB-C port the iPad becomes far more versatile and connecting an external screen is a breeze. Once connected we will detect and present your video on the additional screen so that you can enjoy watching it without worries.

ExternalScreen.png

Face ID

The new iPad also brings the convenient Face ID feature to your iPads. VLC also makes use of it in case you want to protect your confidential videos from curious eyes. No typing in a password if you don’t want to.

VLC for iOS with Chromecast support

Today, we’re excited to released version 3.1 for iPhone and iPad and we’re bringing some exciting new and long- awaited features to our users!

Chromecast iPhone

Chromecast support!

VLC Version 3.1 doesn’t just play the usual formats that are supported by Chromecast, but now it can also play every single video and audio file that regularly plays in VLC.

“How is this possible?" you may ask

Because we’re not using the standard Chromecast SDK!

We know you have old family videos from back in the day or exotic formats and want to be able to cast them. That's why we’re converting them on the fly into a format that is understandable by the Chromecast.

It wasn’t an easy task getting this to work - it required adaption on every platform. On the iPhone and iPad, we’re using VideoToolbox, a low-level framework for hardware-accelerated video encoding and decoding. We're still working hard to improve our Chromecast support to stream video as well as subtitles in the future!

VLC, Now With Improved 360-Degree Video

We’re also proud to announce that 360-degree videos can now be watched with device motion support, simply by moving your phone. This means you don’t need to upload your videos to an online service to be able to see them - instead, you can share them directly with your friends. If you want to share them with your friends at home simply mirror VLC to your Apple TV! 

Device motion support for 360 video in VLC for iOS 3.1 (© Piste Lübeck)

We’re also rolling out additional improvements and bug fixes, including:

  • We fixed a bug where files on your phone were not displayed in VLC

  • Stability and performance improvements when decoding H.264/H.265 in hardware

  • Improved audio playback quality

  • Fixed a regression preventing the download of certain media files via http

  • Fixed a regression where downloaded files might disappear

  • Fixed a regression where users couldn't log into Google Drive

MobileVLCKit 3.1

Along with the new iOS release, we're also offering Chromecast support to all of our framework users. Since VideoToolbox is absolutely necessary for this, we had to raise our minimum target to iOS 8 and for tvOS to 10.2. For 360-degree videos, we've also added the ability to manipulate the videos axis directly.  

We’ve also made a handful of helpful improvements to MobileVLCKit 3.1:

  • Included fixes for playback of AVI, MP4 and MKV files,

  • Added an API to enable deinterlacing

  • Brought the snapshot API to macOS

  • Fixed an Issue that led to green artifacts in H264 streams

  • Improved subtitle display

This major update is the result of months of work and I would like to thank Thomas, Soomin, Felix, Pierre, Adrien and others for their dedication to make this possible.