VLC, the popular free open-source media player, released version 3.0.21 after more than half a year of development.
The release introduced AMD HQ Scaler support for Super Resolution scaling with AMD GPUs. Meaning, user can now use this AI-assisted feature to improve the quality and sharpness of playback with NVIDIA RTX series (and more listed in this page), AMD Radeon™ RX 5000 Series Graphics and newer, and Intel Arc, Xe-LP GPUs.
If you have a compatible GPU, then you can enable this feature in Preferences dialog, under Video -> Output modules section.
Improvements on the Blu-ray support, notably for menus
Improve MP4 support
Improvements for HDR support on Windows, including for HLG streams
Improve Chromecast support with new ChromeCast apps
Fixes for UPnP discovery on MacBooks with a TouchBar
Fixes for some 10bit and 12bit rendering on Windows 10
And numerous security fixes.
How to Install VLC 3.0.7 in Ubuntu:
The official VLC 3.0.7 snap package (containerised software package) is available in Ubuntu Software for Ubuntu 18.04, Ubuntu 18.10, Ubuntu 19.04, and higher.
For Ubuntu 16.04, open terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and make sure snapd daemon is installed.
sudo apt-get install snapd
Then install VLC 3.0.7 snap package via command:
sudo snap install vlc --classic
Once installed, open VLC from your system application launcher and enjoy!
(Optional) To remove the snap package, either use Ubuntu Software or run command in terminal:
sudo snap remove vlc
VLC 3.0.7 PPA:
For those who are looking for traditional VLC .deb package, the unofficial PPA contains the latest VLC 3.0.7 packages for Ubuntu 16.04 and Ubuntu 18.04.
VLC media player released version 3.0.5 a few days ago with performance improvements and numerous fixes. Here’s how to install it in all current Ubuntu releases.
Faster and more complete support for the AV1 codec
Compatibility with macOS 10.14 “Mojave”, with native dark mode, and notarization
Improvements for Blu-ray playback, RTP and UDP streams
Improvements for MP4, MKV, CAF and AV1 media
Improvements for HDR support, tone-mapping and native Windows HDR support
Fixes for Chromecast, Direct3D11, Youtube and subtitles rendering
How to Install VLC 3.0.5 in Ubuntu:
Linux Snap package:
The official VLC snap package (containerized software package) has been updated to v3.0.5. For Ubuntu 18.04 and higher, simply install it from Ubuntu Software.
For Ubuntu 16.04, open terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and run command to install the snap package:
sudo apt install snapd && sudo snap install vlc
VLC package for Ubuntu:
Ubuntu comes with VLC package (see previous picture), and offers software updates through updates repository.
NOTE VLC 3.0.5 is not available at the moment of writing. As usual, the new release package will be published in a few days.
For Ubuntu 18.04 and higher, simply install VLC .deb package from Ubuntu Software, and VLC 3.0.5 package will be available via Software Updater once published.
VLC media player 3.0.4 was released with support for decoding AV1 streams and various bug-fixes.
According to the changelog file, VLC 3.0.4 contains following changes:
Decode AV1 streams
Fix playback of low-fps files
Fix seeking with streams containing WebVTT subtitles
Fix decoding some CC-608 streams with roll-up
Fix crashes with LPCM streams
Fix colorspace of JPEG, PNG and screen inputs
Fix MediaCodec rotation handling
Fixes for ogg, flac, MKV, AVI, MP4, and incomplete RAR streams.
Support 44.1kHz DTS passthrough
Fix crashes on DirectSound output
Fix some crash in Direct3D11/Direct3D9 because of sensors
Fix some broken DVD subtitles rendering (OpenGL, notably)
Fix misc display in Direct3D11 due to broken drivers
Some text rendering fixes.
Fix ChromeCast compatibility with web interface
Fix detection SAT>IP servers
Fix tooltip display when using Wayland
Various fixes for Mac OS, and other more.
How to Install The Latest VLC in Ubuntu
For Ubuntu 18.04 Bionic Beaver, Ubuntu as usual will publish VLC 3.0.4 packages via security & updates repository.
At that time you can upgrade VLC via Software Updater (check the building page, The Bionic Beaver section).
For Ubuntu 16.04, Ubuntu 18.04 and higher, the VideoLan team offers the official Snap package, containerised software package designed to work securely within most Linux desktop.
You can simply install the snap (3.0.3 at the moment) via Ubuntu Software, and it will auto-updates to the latest VLC 3.0.4 once it’s published.
Note for Ubuntu 16.04 users who never installed a snap package, make sure if snapd daemon is installed via command:
VLC media player got a new maintenance release for VLC 3.0 series a few days with numerous bug-fixes. Here’s how to install it in Ubuntu 18.04, Ubuntu 16.04.
According to the changelog, VLC 3.0.3 contains following changes:
Update subtitles display while paused
Enable srt support on binary builds
Allow videotoolbox hardware decoding to be disabled
Disable VideoToolbox for 10bits H.264
Fix VideoToolbox with some invalid HEVC streams
Fix subsdec wide character support
Fix 1st order Ambisonics in AAC
Miscellaneous ogg improvements & bugfixes, including oggds
Fix forced tracks selection
Fix tracks detection issues with DolbyVision and Bluray streams
Fix crashes on Direct3D11
Fix tooltip display on some desktop environments
Fix spurious movement of the main Window
Fix playlist being displayed in fullscreen
Fix numerous issues on fonts fallback and font shaping
Fix subtitles toggle through hotkeys
Fix buffer over-read in avcodec audio encoding with non-default layouts
Numerous 3rd party libraries updated, fixing security issues
How to Install VLC 3.0.3 in Ubuntu:
The official snap package of VLC 3.0.3 is available in Ubuntu Software:
or you can run command in terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) to install the snap:
snap install vlc --classic
It automatically upgrade to VLC 3.0.3 if an old version of the snap package was installed.
NOTE for Ubuntu 16.04 uses who never installed a snap package, first run command in terminal to install snapd daemon via command:
The latest VLC 3.0.2 will soon be available in Ubuntu 18.04 repository (published as proposed at the moment). For Ubuntu 16.04 users who prefer traditional VLC packages to the snap, here’s how to install VLC 3.0.2 via a PPA repository.
NOTE: The PPA build does not support Chromecast, upgrade to Ubuntu 18.04 if that’s important to you.
1. Open terminal via Ctrl+Alt+T keyboard shortcuts or by searching for ‘terminal’ from app launcher.
2. When terminal opens, run command to add the third-party VLC PPA:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:jonathonf/vlc-3
Type your password (no visual feedback while typing due to security reason) when it prompts and hit Enter to continue.
3. Run following 2 commands to add the PPAs for updated FFmpeg and Meson libraries:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:jonathonf/ffmpeg-4
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:jonathonf/meson
4. Finally upgrade VLC media player using Software Updater.
Or run command in terminal to install VLC 3.0.2 in Ubuntu 16.04:
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install vlc
How to Restore:
You can revert back to stock version of VLC (2.2.2) in Ubuntu 16.04 by purging the PPA via command:
VLC media player 3.0.2 was released a few days ago. The release fixed more than 150 bugs since the 3.0.0 release, and improves decoding speed on macOS.
Changes in VLC 3.0.2 include:
Fix snapshotting with subtitles when using hardware acceleration
Fix green/missing line/column when the picture dimensions are odd
Important improvements in hardware decoding for macOS, notably faster, supporting more samples and removing crashes/deadlocks
Improve compatibility for DxVA2 and D3D11 decoding, fix crashes when seeking and fix blacklisting of broken drivers
Fix SSA subtitles forced alignment
Fix E-AC-3 stuttering
Fix MIDI playback on macOS
Add playback support for ProRes 4444 XQ
Fix IFO files playback to start DVDs
Fix a crash with missing/invalid MPEG SDT
Update VP8/9/10 ISOBMFF bindings and improve HDR for those cases
Fix TTML inside MP4
Fix flac seeking and improve flac parsing
Improve mkv opening & seeking speed
Miscellaneous MKV crash fixes
Fix crash with multi-region DVDs
Fix audio being muted on DVD chapter change
Fix audio being muted when seeking in a BluRay disc
Avoid a crash/assert in FTP after seeking
Fix “reset audio volume” being forcefully deactivated
Improve resampling and latency computation for CoreAudio
Fix audio stutter after unpausing with headphones
Fix OpenGL crashes or bad display with semi-planar chromas
Fix OpenGL interop (zero-copy) disabled for tvOS
Fix transform filters with hardware decoding
Fix snapshot and filters with HEVC hardware decoding
Fix a buffer overrun during GPU/CPU image copy
Fix last folder used in open dialogs
Allow to customize the seek jump when using the mousewheel
Fix pasted URLs not being trimmed
Fix jump size not being configurable
Fix playback speed slider not accepting 1.0x value
Fix raw input dump
Fix window size after a fullscreen playback
Fix crashes when searching for renderers
Fix VDPAU GLX usage on Linux
Fix libvlc_media_list not going to next media
Miscellaneous chromecast improvements
Fix missing OSD navigation feedback
How to Install VLC 3.0.2 in Ubuntu:
The VideoLAN team offers official snap package, so Ubuntu users can easily install the latest VLC package from Ubuntu Software.
or you can run command in terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) to install the snap:
snap install vlc --classic
NOTE for Ubuntu 16.04 uses who never installed a snap package, first run command in terminal to install snapd daemon via command:
