NEWS: Add note that Windows 9x/ME is no longer supported and include info on MSLU.

[vlc] / NEWS

$Id$

Changes between 0.8.6 and 0.9.0-svn (not released yet)
-------------------------------------------------------

Playlist:
 * Vastly improved playlist support:
    * Media library support
    * "Live search"
    * Shoutcast TV listings
    * Audioscrobbler / last.fm support

Decoders:
 * VP5/VP6 - Flash Video support
 * WavPack

Video output:
 * Adjust, Invert and Distort (now splited into Wave, Ripple, Gradient
   and Psychedelic) video filters can now be streamed

Interfaces:
 * Windows/Linux
   * Brand new interface for Linux and Windows, based on the Qt toolkit
 * All
   * Improved user interaction


Changes between 0.8.5 and 0.8.6
--------------------------------

Playlist:
 * Shoutcast TV listings support

Input:
 * Support for RTSP authentication
 * Support for adding subtitles on the fly
 * Fixed MPEG-PS duration calculation
 * ATSC support for DVB
 * Partial support for DVR-ms recordings
 * Partial support for MXF and GXF fileformat

Decoders:
 * Native WMV9/VC-1 support
 * WMA Speech support (through binary codecs)
 * VP5/VP6 - Flash Video support
 * The True Audio Lossless codec support
 * WavPack support
 * Improved H.264 support (interlaced, speed improvements etc)
 
Video output:
 * Additional OpenGL effects (cylinder, torus, sphere, ...)
 * Improved libcaca support

Interfaces:
 * All
   * New hotkeys for crop and zoom
   * Support for snapshots from the HTTP interface
 * Windows
   * Systray support in skins
 * OS X
   * Support for Apple Remote control
   * Fullscreen controller panel
   * new playmode buttons
   * right/ctrl-click menu in video outputs
   * Main Menu keeps accessible when playing videos in fullscreen mode
 * Linux
   * Notifications using notification-daemon

Windows port:
 * Support for Unicode filenames (Windows NT and above)
   Windows 9x/ME users: 
     - Please note that these versions of Windows are not officially supported
     - Unicode support for Windows 9x/ME applications is available through the
       Microsoft Layer for Unicode available from the following location:
       http://www.microsoft.com.nsatc.net/globaldev/handson/dev/mslu_announce.mspx
       Download the MSLU package (unicows) and extract the content into the folder
       C:\Windows\System
 * Fixed IPv6 support on the client side

Localization:
 * Add Czech
 * Add Slovak
 * Add Malay
 * Add Slovenian

Developers:
 * Updates to the libvlc API
 * Fixes for the mozilla and activeX plugins


Changes between 0.8.4a and 0.8.5
---------------------------------

Core support:
 * Statistics collection (bitrates, packets, connections, ...)
 * Support for downloading updates
 * Updated strings

Input:
 * Initial support for RTSP-over-HTTP (to allow NAT traversal)
 * Linux DV (Digital Video - Firewire) input
 * Improvements to the Audio CD input
     - Separate playlist entries for the tracks 
     - Support for CDDB 
 * Support for more DVB (satellite) encryption modules
 * Improved subtitles encoding support
 * Improved support for playing MP4 files from the Web

Decoders:
 * Cook (Real audio) support

Playlist / Services discovery:
 * XSPF playlist support
 * Podcast support
 * Updated Shoutcast to use new listing

Audio output:
 * New JACK audio output

Video output:
 * New video filters: 
    - magnify: allows you to zoom on part of the image
    - gradient and edge detection: "cartoon-like" effect
    - bluescreen: overlay parts of a video transparently on another one
 * Logo video filter: can now loop through multiple images
 * RSS video filter: display feed images. Support for Atom feeds.
 * Improvements to the subtitles rendering

Stream output:
 * Initial support for throttling users on VOD streams

Interfaces:
 * System to inform the user and request information 
    - HTTP authentication
    - Fatal errors
    - ...
 * wxWidgets
    - VLM (VideoLAN Media Manager) control panel
    - Improved media information panel (shows statistics, metadata, ...)
    - Drag & Drop support in the playlist
 * Skins2 
    - New default skin
    - Support for Winamp 2 skins
    - Improved playlist handling
    - Support for popup menus, animated bitmaps, equalizer, ...
 * OS X
    - Embedded Video output
    - new Go-To-Specific-Time feature
    - Video cropping and aspect ratio changing while playing
    - Improved media information panel (shows statistics, metadata, ...)
    - support for processing multiple items with the wizard in a single run
    - option to save selections in the wizard for a session (default enabled)
 * HTTP
    - New default interface pages for VLC and VLM (including a mosaic wizard)
    - A bunch of new RPN functions

Windows Port:
 * MSN messenger "Now playing" support

OS X Port:
 * Mac-Intel compatibility
 * Enhanced support of various audio output devices 
 * Growl "Now playing" support

*Nix port:
 * Ability to log to syslog
 * Root wrapper to avoid running VLC as root

Developers:
 * New libvlc API (not finished yet)
 * Java bindings
 * A bit more automatic testing

Changes between 0.8.4 and 0.8.4a:
---------------------------------

Audio output:
 * Fix a52 over spdif in alsa
 * SPDIF output available again in the Mac OS X Audio menu.

Decoder:
 * Add support for new BMP and Cook (RealAudio G2) decoders in ffmpeg
 * Add support for some non-standard FOURCCs used for H.264/H.263

Demux:
 * Fix bug with some HE-AAC audio tracks

Services Discovery:
 * HAL fixes, should now work with new API
 * SAP, fix 20 second freeze on windows
 * UPnP fixes
 * Avahi 0.6 support
 
Interfaces:
 * Mac OS X
    - fixed encoding of H.264/H.263 content when using the wizard 

Changes between 0.8.2 and 0.8.4:
--------------------------------

Core support:
 * Internal strings handling is now UTF-8 based
 * New OSD system

Video output:
 * Fixed problems with OpenGL output
 * New --monitor-par (pixel aspect ratio) option
 * Fixed display problems with HDTV-1080 format

Input:
 * Improved DVB support for satellite bands other than Ku-band
 * IPv6 and Extended passive mode support for FTP
 * IPv6 Source Specific Multicast support
 * GnomeVFS input module
 * Support for RTP packet reordering
 * Fixed syntax for FTP URLs

Decoders:
 * Support for libSDL_image to import different image types
 * Musepack decoder using libmpdec
 * QDM2 audio support (needs ffmpeg from 19th Oct 2005 or later)

Services discovery:
 * UPnP service discovery (Linux only at the moment)
 * Bonjour service discovery using avahi (Linux only)

Video filters:
 * RSS feed overlay

Audio filters:
* Fixes, enhancements and new options related to the Headphone Channel
  Mixer and Dolby Surround

Stream output:
 * New shout output module to forward streams to icecast servers
 * Fixed several SAP and SDP announcement bugs
 * Fixed MTU handling to avoid IP fragments
 
Interfaces:
- new cone icon by Richard ¯iestad (Eurodata, retron.info)
 * Mac OS X
    - New streaming and transcoding wizard
    - New extended controls panel
    - New bookmarks window
    - Fixed playlist sorting
    - Fixed drag-and-drop inside the playlist
 * wxWidgets
    - Rename wxWindows interface in wxWidgets.
    - All the --wxwin-* options are now --wx-*
    - Support for RTP streaming in Stream Ouput dialog
    - Now require wx2.6 with Unicode support
 * Skins2
    - Tree playlist
 * HTTP
    - New RPN functions to control VLC features (see play-howto)
    - Facilities to correctly handle non-ASCII characters and spaces in
      the names of files
    - Include macro to include other files
    - CGI 1.0 support

ActiveX plugin:
* Should now work outside IE as well

Mac OS X port:
* New script to delete the preferences automatically

Windows port:
* Fixed bandwidth problems of HTTP streaming
* Fixed audio problems with DirectX audio output

Translations:
 The following languages were added:
 * Galician
 * Korean
 * Romanian
 * Simplified Chinese
 The following languages were re-added:
 * Swedish

Changes between 0.8.1 and 0.8.2:
--------------------------------

Core support:
 * Rewrite of the playlist
    - Tree structure
    - Input preparsing (for meta-data)
    - Grouping (by artist, ...) support 
 * Preferences improvements: 
    - New organization, designed to improve usability
    - New configuration types (list of modules, ...)
 * XML parsers
 * Core image manipulation support
 * Client-side SSL/TLS support
 * SSL Client certificates checking support (allows for secure VoD)
 * Renamed --spu-channel to --sub-track
 * Renamed --spumargin to --sub-margin
 * Renamed --audio-channel to --audio-track
 * Renamed --filter to --vout-filter
 * filters, extra interfaces, visualizations and service discovery modules are
   now separated by ':' instead of ','
 * Access filter architecture
 * Track selection based on preferred language (--sub-language and --audio-language)
 * Zsh autocompletion for VLC's arguments
 * Many bugfixes...

Input/Demuxers:
 * Support for SOCKS proxy
 * Support for Shoutcast Meta-data
 * Support for (HE-)AAC raw-audio streams
 * Support for images on a HTTP server that get refreshed on the server
 * Better support for Kasenna streams
 * RTSP UDP->TCP rollover support
 * Massive Matroska improvements
 * Support for XA and VOC audio files
 * TiVo demuxer
 * Samba (Windows shares) access module
 * Improved CDDAX module (uses several playlist items)
 * Fixes to Linux DVB support
 * Fix the "negative subtitles delay" bug
 * Support for FTP over IPv6

Decoders / Encoders:
 * Dirac decoder and encoder
 * PNG decoder/encoder
 * Improvements to DVB subtitles encoder
 * Support for Apple Lossless Audio Codec

Access filters:
 * New Record and Timeshift filters

Services discovery:
 * New type of modules, that add items to the playlist
 * Brand new SAP module
     * To enable SAP, you now need to use "-S sap" or add SAP in 
       the "Manage->Services Discovery" menu
     ( IPv6 SAP is now enabled by default )
     * Non-standard support for HTTP streams SAP announces removed
 * HAL (Hardware Abstraction Layer) discovery
 * DAAP (iTunes shares) support
 * Shoutcast

Audio output:
 * Support for 20/24 bits LPCM

Video output:
 * Video snapshot support (png or jpg)
 * Image file video output (png)
 * Motion detection filter (can trigger playlist actions)
 * Improvements to wall video filter
 * Support for font color and opacity

Stream output:
 * Muxers
    - ASF improvements
 * VLM / VoD
    - Ability to load a configuration file on startup
    - Seeking support in VoD streams
 * Mosaic (picture-in-picture system)

Interfaces:
 * wxWidgets
    - Redesigned playlist : add playlist, add directory, ...
    - Improved preferences
    - Improvements to the wizard
    - DVD, VCD and Audio CD navigation buttons
 * MacOS X
    - Redesigned playlist
    - Improved preferences
 * Skins
    - Support for multiple actions
    - Fixes
 * HTTP
    - Support for the new playlist system
 * Lirc
    - Now uses new config settings. See doc/lirc/example.lirc

Windows port:
 * Screensaver disabling fix
 * DirectShow tuner configuration
 * Support for no-decoration windows

MacOS X port:
 * Many Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger related fixes
 * The OpenGL video output is back
 * A new audio module that should work more reliable for analog audio output in various configurations.
   - Supports multichannel discrete analog output
   - Digital audio output requires you to change a preference setting because it
     is not yet available in the new module
   - Please read the README.MacOSX.rtf file for more information.

BeOS port:
 * Support for single-buffered overlay

Pocket PC port:
 * Many fixes
 * New interface
 * New video output

Mozilla Plugin:
 * Javascript fixes
 * Mozilla plugin for MacOS X is back (not yet distributed)

IE Plugin:
 * Brand new Internet Explorer ActiveX plugin

Translations:
 The following languages were added:
 * Catalan
 * Danish
 * Turkish


Changes between 0.8.0 and 0.8.1:
-----------------------------------------------------

Core support:
 * Include TLS/SSL API (on plattforms where libgnutls is available)
 * SSL support in the HTTP daemon (HTTP stream output and HTTP interface)

Windows port:
 * Fixed win32 multichannel audio output support (which was broken in 0.8.0)
 * Fixed DV and MPEG (WinTV PVR 250/350) support in the dshow input
 * Fixed spurious taskbar item after switching to fullscreen

WinCE port:
 * A few more updates (we still miss an interface and a fast video output).

Audio Output:
 * Portaudio audio output plugin improvements

Video Output:
 * Proper subpictures scaling using the aspect-ratio info when available

Demuxers:
 * Fixed crash with ODML avi files
 * Fixed autodetection of VCD/SVCD bin files
 * Supports Kasenna VoD (MPEG2 only) and simulcast streaming

Stream Output:
 * Encoders:
   * Fixed aspect ratio and interlaced support in ffmpeg encoder module
 * Stream output:
   * Support of playlist group announcement

Changes between 0.7.2 and 0.8.0:
-----------------------------------------------------

Core support:
 * Major work on libvlc. Changed/renamed/added functions
 * Complete switch to the new input core (better seeking, multi-input, ...)
 * New plugins cache to speed up launch time
 * New --play-and-stop feature which stops the playlist after each played item
 * Daemon mode (to run vlc in the background)
 * Major improvements to the subtitle/OSD subsystem

Input:
 * New screen capture input plugin for X11, Win32, BeOS and Mac OS X 
    (Stream your desktop)
 * Improved DVD support:
    - uses libdvdnav for playing DVDs with menus support
    - uses libdvdread for simple playback with menus (eg. for streaming)
 * Experimental multi-input support ( use --input-slave to play with it )
 * Automatic MTU discovery for UDP streams
 * More powerful MRL syntax for DVD/VCD/CDDA access 
    (selection of titles/chapters).

Demuxers:
 * Support for iTunes Music Store previews
 * Support for MJPEG webcams (i.e. AXIS cams)
 * Added initial mp4 and mpeg-ts text track support
 * Windows Media Server RTSP support
 * Support for MPEG TS streams with error correction (204/192 bytes TS packets)
 * Support for DTS audio in MPEG TS (ETSI TS 102 154 Annex G)
 * Skins2 .vlt file loader (only when skins2 is the current interface)
 * Improved Ogg demuxer
 * Support for MPEG PS streams with MPEG 4 video.
 * Support for so called AACPlus webstreams

Codecs:
 * G.726 audio support
 * 14496-17 MPEG TS text support
 * MPEG-4 text support
 * Vastly improved DVB subtitles decoder (ETS 300 743)
 * Enabled color in DVB subtitles rendering
 * VobSub supported both externally and in Matroska

Stream Output:
 Encoders:
  * Re-use audio/video/spu decoders in transcoder module. From now on,
     everything that is playable by VLC should be transcodable as well
  * Subtitles overlaying in transcoder
  * Subpictures overlaying in transcoder (see video output)
  * Frame rate selection in the transcoder
  * DVB subtitles encoder
  * MPEG 1 layer 2 audio encoder using libtoolame
  * Improved vorbis/theora encoding
 Muxers: 
  * Text track muxing for mp4
  * Multipart mjpeg muxing. Your video is directly viewable in a Mozilla Browser
  * 14496-17 text track muxing for MPEG TS
  * Support for DTS audio in MPEG TS (ETSI TS 102 154 Annex G)
  * Teletext (0x56 descriptor) streaming support in MPEG TS.
  * New WAV muxer (supports multi-channel audio)
  * Improved ASF muxer
 Misc:
  * H.263 RTP streaming support
  * SDP generation outputs more compliant SDPs and can create SDP files now
  * Improved RTSP and VoD server (experimental)

Audio Output:
 * New audio equalizer filter
 * Very trivial volume normalizer
 * True channel downmixing when playing 5:1 material on Stereo
 * More gradual resampling which should improve the pitch changing effect
 * New audio output plugin using portaudio v19

Video Output:
 * Roku HD1000 Video output
 * Experimental generic OpenGL video output (X11, Win32, MacOS X)
   with support for effects.
 * Improved filter and subpictures support :
        - New filters can be streamed.
        - "Subpicture filters" to overlay subpictures on video 
        - Centralized scaling and blending
 * New filters : 
        - "time", to display current time 
        - "marq", to display a marquee

Interfaces:
 * OSD sliders for volume and postition information
 * OSD icons for Play and Pause
 * New Streaming Wizard for Windows and Linux default interfaces (wxWindows)
 * A few skins2 improvements
 * Added search, volume, loop and random functions to the ncurses interface
 * Added a filesystem browser to the ncurses interface
 * The remote control interface can now listen for commands on sockets
 * Improved CORBA control module

Mac OS X port:
 * Fixed the "cannot set buffersize:[nope]" coreaudio problem
 * Major speed improvements to the Quartz video output
 * The Mac OS X interface is no longer required to display video

Linux port:
 * New galaktos visualization plugin (MilkDrop-compatible)
 * Experimental SVG rendering module
 * Support for DVB CAM modules.

Windows port:
 * DirectX Media Object decoder (allows playing some media types, like WMV3)
 * DirectX Media Object audio and video encoder
 * Fixed long standing win32 thread handles leak
 * Fixed problem with CPU usage with subtitles rendering
 * Wallpaper mode for the DirectX video output (only in overlay mode)

WinCE port:
 * Massive update (we still miss an interface and a fast video output).

Mozilla plugin:
 * Added a lot of Javascript accessible funtionality
 * Volume, position, length, seek etc etc etc.

Misc:
 * Server/client network synchronization module
 * VBrick streams fully supported
 * Cisco IP/TV streams supported
 * VLM enhancements

Changes between 0.7.1 and 0.7.2:
--------------------------------

Core support:
 * Bookmarks feature for easier seeking/access inside medias.
 * Support for video output embedded in interfaces.
 * Improved HTTP daemon.
 * Saved playlists now remember VLC-specific options.

Codecs:
 * New Continuous Media Markup Language (CMML) codec.
   (http://www.annodex.net/overview.html)
 * New H.261 video decoder using openmash.
 * H264 encoder, demuxer and packetizer.
 * Packetizer interfaces between demux and codec when needed
   (allows using ffmpeg plugin to decode MPEG streams and better aac decoding).
 * Support for Theora alpha3 (both decoding and encoding).

Input:
 * --start-time <sec> and --stop-time <sec> to start and stop playing a 
   file at the specified amount of seconds. Only works with a few
   fileformats (avi, mov, mkv, mp4 )
 * Improved directory access module.
 * New "file-cat" option to play truncated movies.
 * Better handling of meta info (title, author, description, etc...).
 * New options to pass meta info to the input.
 * It is now possible to stream programs from a DVB-S/C/T stream
   (satellite, cable, or digital terestrial television)

Demux:
 * Annodex (http://www.annodex.net) support.
 * mmsh streaming fixes.
 * Fixed infinite loop in the AVI demux on broken/incomplete files.

Subtitles:
 * Subviewer and subviewer v2 subtitles support.
 * Ability to choose autodetected subtitles path.
 * Subtitles delay can be changed in real time with hotkeys.

Stream output:
 * Improved session announcement system.
 * Minimize threads usage by default.
 * Added faster than realtime stream output (limited by CPU) for file output.
 * Improved MOV/MP4 muxer.
 * Improved MPEG TS muxer.
 * Improved transrater.
 * Meta info options used by the muxers.
 * New configuration system.
 * Better audio channels downmixing when transcoding.

VideoLAN manager:
 * New videolan (media) manager (vlm): a little manager designed to launch
   and manage multiple streams from within one instance of VLC.
 * Supports live streams and VoD.
 * Supports scheduling.
 * Telnet interface for vlm.
 * HTTP interface for vlm.

Interfaces:
 * Skins II (Windows and Linux only)
    - Ability to embed video output.
    - Support for bitmap fonts.
    - Lots of improvements.
 * wxWindows (default Windows and Linux interface)
    - New design and set of icons.
    - Ability to embed video output.
    - Support for hotkeys.
    - Support for bookmarks.
 * Mac OS X
    - Support for 'groups' and playlist item properties.
    - Better hotkeys handling.

Mac OS X port:
 * OpenGL video output is now the default when available.
 * Added FAAC encoder (mp4a).
 * Audio output fix to work with multiple streams on a HAL device.
 * Possible fix for conflict with CodeTek VirtualDesktop (untested).

Win32 port:
 * DirectShow input plugin should work with more devices.
 * Disable monitor power down when watching movies.
 * Improved Windows installer.

Linux port:
 * PowerPC fixes.

Misc:
 * Improvements to the Goom visualisation plugin.
 * Roku HD1000 audio output.

Changes between 0.7.1 and 0.7.1a:
---------------------------------

Mac OS X:
 * Fixed the infamous 'mp3 takes twice the CPU it should take' bug
 * Playing MOD files is working now.


Changes between 0.7.0 and 0.7.1:
---------------------------------

Core support:
 * Fixed a nasty bug that causes preferences not to be saved some times.
 * IGMPv3 support for VLC under Windows XP and Linux.

Codecs:
 * Brand new DTS Coherent Acoustics audio decoder based on libdts
   (http://www.videolan.org/dtsdec.html)
 * Fixed DTS S/PDIF output
 * SVCD (Philips OGT) and CVD subtitles

Playlist:
 * Internal improvments
 * Improved import/export

Input:
 * Experimental support for Nullsoft streaming video(.nsv) and real media(.rm)
   container formars.
 * New demux module that uses libavformat from ffmpeg. Adds support for many
   small and strange formats.
 * New PVA demux.
 * New MOD audio demux.
 * Support for DTS and A52/AC3 wav files.
 * Support for DTS and A52/AC3 audio CD.
 * New and experimental DVD input plugin with menus support (using libdvdnav).
 * Added back DV audio support in raw DV demuxer.

Stream output:
 * MP4/MOV muxer improvements (fast-start, aac in mov, etc...).
 * Fixed a nasty bug in the mpeg video packetizer.
 * Improved transcoding (multithreading, more tuning, etc...).

Service discovery:
 * Fixed sdp in SAP.

Mac OS X port:
 * New opengl video output plugin.

Win32 port:
 * A few improvements to the DirectShow input plugin.
 * Fixed ipv6 name resolution.

Changes between 0.6.2 and 0.7.0:
---------------------------------

Core support:
 * Brand new decoder/packetizer api.
   Adds a lot more flexibility while also simplifying the decoder plugins.
 * New encoder api (Ffmpeg, Vorbis, Theora, Flac and Speex encoders available).
 * Video outputs are recycled if possible.
   This removes any 'flicker' between two similiar video files.
 * Fixed the video filters. Video should no longer go black when using filters.
 * New input core. Advantages are: better seeking, more responsive, support for
   subtitle files at the core, and much much more.

Playlist:
 * Added a repeat mode to repeat a single file over and over.
 * Playlist sorting 

Input:
 * RTP/RTSP support.
 * Fixed annoying seeking problem with Ogg files (seeking would take ages).
 * Support for Flac in Ogg files.
 * MPEG TS demuxer also handles A52 and AAC audio in DVB streams.
 * Rewrite of the Flac demuxer.
 * cddax and vcdx plugins using libcdio, libvcd and libvcdinfo. (Linux only)
 * Reworked DVB tuning.
 * Better Icecast support.
 * New MPEG video elementary streams demuxer.
 * New DTS audio elementary streams demuxer.

Codecs:
 * Support for Theora video encoding.
 * Support for Speex audio decoding/encoding.
 * Rewrite of the Flac decoder + encoding support.
 * Support for MPEG2 422 decoding which was recently added to libmpeg2 (cvs).
 * Support for AAC + SBR and proper multi-channel re-ordering.
 * MPEG 2.5 audio support.
 * Removed deprecated decoders (a52_old, mpeg_video and mpeg_audio).

Stream output:
 * Improvements to the MPEG TS muxer.
 * New transrating module for MPEG2 video.
 * Added packetization for MPEG AAC ADTS streams.
 * Added packetizers for Flac, Speex, Theora, LPCM, DTS and SPU streams.
 * Improved mp4 muxing and added AAC/MP4V support when transcoding.
 * Improved Ogg muxing and added Theora, Speex, Flac and subtitles support.
 * MPEG TS muxer follows the ATSC/DVB specs for embedded A52 audio.
 * --sout-keep option to keep the stream open while changing input.
 * Preliminary RTP support.
 * Fixes to SAP announces.

Interface:
 * Skins:
    - Bugfixes
    - misc improvements (eg, "stay on top" option).
 * New standardized and customizable hotkeys.
 * wxWindows
    - Playlist improvements (Sort, Search, mode buttons).
    - Improvements and help in preferences
    - New streaming wizard
    - Revised Disc Open menu
 * HTTP
    - Improvements of the standard pages
    - Support for new commands
 * OSD ( OS X and hotkeys only atm ).

Service discovery:
 * Many fixes to the SAP module
 * SAP now supports HTTP streams

Subtitles:
 * Text subtitles now have a black outline.
 * Text subtitles autodetection.
 * Text subtitles charset autodetection.
 * Text subtitles for all videofiles. Results may vary.
 * Text subtitles in Hebrew are supported. Arabic partially.
 * Automatic fontsize selection for text subtitles.
 * Fixed SAMI text subtitles support.
 * Support for subtitles in Matroska files.
 * Support for subtitles in DVB streams.

Mac OS X port:
 * New controller designed by Max Rudberg from www.maxthemes.com
 * Save playlist.
 * Works on 10.1.x again. Apologies for that problem.
 * Support for Panther.
 * Support for raw dumping of streams to disk.
 * Mozilla plugin for Mac OS X (experimental).

Win32 port:
 * New DirectShow input module (for video acquisition cards, webcams, PVRs...).
 * VLC can be installed as a Windows NT service.
 * Allow on the fly switching of the main interface.
 * Support for 3F2R in audio output.
 * New --one-instance option to "force" only one running instance of VLC.
 * Mozilla plugin for Windows (experimental).
 * Multimonitor support (untested).
 * Fixed nasty timing bug on some dual-cpu / P4 with hyperthreading systems.

Linux port:
 * Improved Video4Linux input. Also added support for an audio only input.
 * Support for real-time priority when running with root privileges.
 * Allow on the fly switching of the main interface.

iPaq port: 
 * Brand new Gtk 2 interface

Miscellaneous:
 * Audio visual effects filters (spectrum, scope and random).
 * Audio visual effects filter using goom.
 * Spanish, Portuguese Brazilian and Hungarian translations.
 * libcaca video output (colored ascii)

Changes between 0.6.1 and 0.6.2:
---------------------------------

Core support:
 * Fixed a nasty regression in 0.6.1 which made some streams unplayable.

Stream output:
 * Transcoder now generates proper pts/dts thus should work a lot better.
 * Improved MPEG TS muxer.

Access input:
 * Support for DVB-S/C/T cards using v4l2 API for Linux 2.6.x kernels.
 * Few fixes to the VCD navigation.

Interfaces:
 * Support for DVD menus navigation added to the wxWindows interface.

UNIX ports:
 * ALSA multi-channel support fixed and tested.
 * Fixed fullscreen with gnome metacity.

Win32 port:
 * Fixed VCD support which was broken on some machines.

iPaq port:
 * Familiar interface with Gtk+-1.2 and GPE support removed (deprecreated).

Miscellaneous:
 * Text subtitles now centered on the picture.
 * Ffmpeg decoder now generates proper pts and can be used to play
   mpeg1/2 videos.

Changes between 0.6.0 and 0.6.1:
---------------------------------

Core support:
 * There should be less bogus resampling, particularly on DVDs.
 * VLC will now wait for the medium to wake up before starting its clock
   after a pause.

Stream output:
 * Added vorbis audio support in Ogg streaming.
 * Added vorbis audio transcoding support.
 * Added mp3 audio transcoding support (when ffmpeg is compiled with mp3lame).
UNIX ports:
 * ALSA multi-channel support fixed and tested.
 * Fixed fullscreen with gnome metacity.

Win32 port:
 * Fixed VCD support which was broken on some machines.

iPaq port:
 * Familiar interface with Gtk+-1.2 and GPE support removed (deprecreated).

Miscellaneous:
 * Text subtitles now centered on the picture.
 * Ffmpeg decoder now generates proper pts and can be used to play
   mpeg1/2 videos.

Changes between 0.6.0 and 0.6.1:
---------------------------------

Core support:
 * There should be less bogus resampling, particularly on DVDs.
 * VLC will now wait for the medium to wake up before starting its clock
   after a pause.

Stream output:
 * Added vorbis audio support in Ogg streaming.
 * Added vorbis audio transcoding support.
 * Added mp3 audio transcoding support (when ffmpeg is compiled with mp3lame).
 * PS muxer can create mpeg1 files now and produce streams with system headers.
 * You can transcode a52 with more than two channels to mpga now.

Win32 port:
 * Fixed DVD support which was partly broken due to a bug in libdvdcss
 * Fixed 5.1 audio support for the sblive/audigy soundcards.
 * Fixed sound on Windows NT.

UNIX ports:
 * Fixed/improved ALSA support and enabled multi-channel audio output.
 * X11/Xvideo: Should now work on big endian machines, and you can now
   use the arrow keys to browse through the DVD menus.

iPaq port:
 * Gtk+2 interface called PDA
 * Familiar Gtk+ is now deprecreated
 * Codec a52, Faad2 and flac added
 * Video4Linux enabled (demux and transcode)
 * Stream Out with transcode support enabled (use codecs: HuffYuvv and A-law).

Interfaces:
 * Small updates/fixes to the wxWindows interface.
 * Improved HTTP remote control interface. You can now create your own HTML pages.
 * A new CORBA control plugin.

Input demux:
 * Improved support for the Matroska container format.

Miscellaneous:
 * Improved build system.
 * New video filter plugin to overlay logos.
 * Added support for Winamp 3 B4S files.
 * New subtitle module which uses freetype2 to render arbitrary fonts in any size.
   Should also work with languages like russion for instance.


Changes between 0.5.3 and 0.6.0:
---------------------------------

Core Support:
 * Channel Server support was removed (was deprecated)

Input access:
 * Fixed a big bug in ftp and http access that prevented many platforms (OSX most prominently) to view ftp and http streams.
 * Fixed large file support on Windows
 * Video 4 Linux support
 * CD Digital Audio support
 * Fixed IPv6 multicasting on Windows and OSX.

Input demux:
 * Better detection of AAC and mp3 files
 * Support for OpenDML avi files
 * More complete .mp4/.mov support
 * Very early support for the Matroska container format (don't complain if it doesn't work ;)

Codecs:
 * VLC's own MPEG1/2 decoder has been replaced with libmpeg2
 * Support for Sorenson 3 (SVQ3 or Quicktime content) via ffmpeg
 * OSX support for QDM2 and QDMC sound, often used in QT content.
 * Fixed a bug which was causing artefacts in DivX video (ffmpeg)
 * Updated our theora decoder to use the alpha 2 release of libtheora
 * If ffmpeg cannot keep up, skip and try to recover instead of stopping altogether
 * Indeo Video 3 (IV32) support for little-endian computers. (so not for OSX)

Interfaces:
 * The wxWindows interface is now fully useable as well as Unicode safe
 * New HTTP remote control interface

Stream output:
 * New stream output scheme. It is now possible to build a chain of stream outputs allowing for instance to stream and display some content at the same time.
 * The stream output now allows to transcode content on the fly.
 * Fixed major bug that prevented streaming mpeg 1/2 video with pulldown content.
 * SAP/SDP announcing support. (both IPv4 and IPv6)

Miscellaneous:
 * New reset option for the preferences
 * You can set your language in the prefences
 * New video chroma conversion module using ffmpeg
 * Added a Gentoo ebuild to the distribution
 * Added a new smaller subtitles font (now the default) + scripts to generate your own
 * SAP/SDP IPv6 support

UNIX ports:
 * Basic support for the X11 Xinerama extension.
 * New skinable interface ported to X11.
 * Run opie-vlc and zaurus-vlc as GuiServer

Mac OS X port:
 * When you add several items to the playlist, they are sorted alphabetically.
 * New about panel and revamped preferences panel.
 * Fixed the deinterlace menu.
 * Float on top, Fit to Screen and a Transparency option for video out.
 * New output dialog for transcode and display while stream capabilities.
 * New icons by Davor Orel.
 * New audio resampler. Should make VLC much faster.
 * Fixed disappearing and crackling sound (PTS is out of range bug)
 * We no longer automatically save the preferences when you quit the application
 * Arrow keys are now use to browse the menus in a DVD

Win32 port:
 * the wxWindows interface is now the default interface
 * The keyboard shortcuts are now identical to the linux version
 * Fixed the "no sound" problem on NT4
 * Improved skinnable interface (it now uses the wxWindows interface dialogs).
 * Added support for compressed skins files (.vlt files)
 * Fixed SVCD chapters support.
 * Fixed memory leak with 5.1 audio.

BeOS port:
 * Interface localization
 * Screensaver disabled if playing in fullscreen
 * A few new keyboard shortcuts
 * New full-featured Preferences window

Changes between 0.5.2 and 0.5.3:
---------------------------------

Core Support:
 * fixed DTS S/PDIF output on little-endian machines
 * support for skins at the interface level
 * new OSD module using Freetype2
 * video outputs are now destroyed when the associated input ends
 * the video output takes into account the caching delay introduced at the
   input level before dropping out of date frames.
 * configuration option to disable the translation of the interface

Input access:
 * fixed HTTP redirects
 * support for opening an entire directory
 * EOF should be detected more reliably
 * new video4linux access plug-in
 * new kfir access plug-in designed to work around a bug in the kfir driver

Input demux:
 * added stream type for some Motorola MPEG-2 video encoders
 * fix for some ogg web radio streams
 * fixed reading TS streams over HTTP

Codecs:
 * support for 3ivx D4 (not previous versions)
 * support for '3ivd' and '3vid' encodings
 * support for 'MSS1' codec ( same as WMV2 )
 * support for SAMI subtitles (untested and incomplete)
 * better SSA4 subtitles recognition
 * new codec for raw I420 video
 * improvements to the libmpeg2-based MPEG video decoder

Interfaces:
 * improvements to wxWindows based interface
   (although it still misses some important features)
 * skeleton for a Gnome2/GTK2 plug-in

Stream output:
 * new HTTP output support
 * fixed a segfault in the AVI muxer
 * fixed AV synchronization issues

Miscellaneous:
 * support for oldstyle id3 genres

UNIX ports:
 * the SDL vout plug-in will now work on big-endian machines

Mac OS X port:
 * reorderable playlist
 * fixed the hiding of the mouse on multiple monitors
 * fixed a big issue with some USB speakers
 * support for mono audio output devices
 * reset the audio-device to its default mode before quitting VLC
 * fixed several cosmetic issues
 * you can drag the controller window by its background (as it should be)
 * the messages window remembers more lines
 * delay and fps can now be overruled with subtitles files
 * http and ogg stream output options
 * Apple menu and friends will now be translated as well

Win32 port:
 * new skinnable interface
 * the directx video output doesn't crash anymore on ctrl+alt+del events.

iPAQ familiar Linux port:
 * support for FLAC audio format
 * the interface adapts to the screen size/rotation
 * playlist
 * network tab in the interface
 * "apply" handling in preferences


Changes between 0.5.1a and 0.5.2:
---------------------------------

Core support:
 * advanced config options are now hidden by default
 * new --spdif option to use the S/PDIF audio output by default
 * fixed a 'clicking' sound when switching between streams
 * new bandlimited resampler that should improve audio quality on primarily
   Mac OS X
 * fixed a problem with audio over http that caused some web radios to not work
 * DTS S/PDIF support

Codecs:
 * support for DV audio through the ffmpeg library
 * support for FLAC audio through libflac
 * new but basic MPEG video decoder based on libmpeg2
 * fixed a major bug in LPCM code (fixes a problem with iDVD disks)

Stream output:
 * support for streaming DivX 1/2/3, wmv1/2, h/i263 over MPEG-2 TS
 * new --ttl option for Time To Live

DVD support:
 * fixed quite a few problems with the dvd menu support

UNIX ports:
 * fixed the GNU-pth support

Win32 port:
 * multi-channel audio and S/PDIF support for both the DirectX and Waveout
   plugins
 * localization support via gettext is now fully working
 * rc interface is now fully useable
 * fixed the MSVC project files generation

Mac OS X port:
 * several fixes for multi channel audio devices. AC3 over SPDIF with
   M-Audio Sonica Theater still does not work. this is most likely a driver
   bug and has been reported to M-Audio. (Sonica, Revolution, Delta, Griffin
   iMate and MOTU firewire devices should work)
 * VLC now uses the default audio device
 * new info panel
 * very preliminary support for VLC control via applescript
 * support for mouse gestures
 * new priority scheme allowing to avoid lock-ups on low-end machines

Linupy port:
 * there is a whole new port for the linupy distribution used by o.a. the
   YOPY PDA. It is still experimental, please test it

Miscellaneous:
 * improved ID3 tag detection
 * changed several errors into warnings ; the frequently reported "this is
   not a PS stream, continuing" is one of these
 * mouse gestures work on windows and osx, but there still isn't any useful
   gestures
 * some support for .pls playlists used by shoutcast


Changes between 0.5.1 and 0.5.1a:
---------------------------------

Mac OS X port:
 * fixed a problem that caused VLC to select the wrong language when
   English was set as the preferred language


Changes between 0.5.0 and 0.5.1:
--------------------------------

Core support:
 * new mouse gesture interface
 * audio volume can now be changed at any time, even when no file is
   playing

Input access:
 * various minor fixes on the network inputs
 * fixed some weird URL parsing problems (/Volumes/toto:tata/harry@coin.mpg)
 * VCD: fixed track number and chapter indexing

Input demux:
 * fixed a bad initialization in the mp4 plug-in
 * new --buggy-psi option for TS streams which do not update their
   continuity counter

Codecs:
 * support for MPEG-2 intra slice refresh (aka. Slice-I) streams

DVD support:
 * fixed a bug which turned the default interface command-line only
   without the user consent

UNIX ports:
 * GTK: fixed a crash when going fullscreen or changing volume from the
   popup menu
 * X11: new screen saver disabling plug-in (--extraintf screensaver)
 * KDE: fixed compilation with KDE 3.1
 * ALSA: fixed mono files output

Mac OS X port:
 * fixed a crash on start-up on some localized systems
 * lowered real-time priorities to avoid lock-ups on slow machines
 * VLC can now be made the handler of ftp http mms and udp URLs
 * playlist enhancements
 * added half, normal and double video window menu items
 * new step forward/step backward commands
 * the dock should no longer be visible in fullscreen mode
 * the Mac OS X binary is now compiled with Ogg/Theora support
 * vlc.app is now VLC.app

Win32 port:
 * fixed the "RichEdit line insertion error" bug
 * VLC can now be run from outside its installation directory
 * fixed a bug that prevented to find the default subtitle font

BeOS port:
 * smarter BeOS priorities to avoid lock-ups
 * few enhancements in the interface (especially the Settings window)

Opie port:
 * native video output is working again
 * only commandline interface support
 * support for MPEG4, DivX through ffmpeg package


Changes between 0.4.6 and 0.5.0:
--------------------------------

Core structure:
  * object structure which allows for full re-entrancy, known as libvlc
  * new audio output architecture based on filter pipelines, providing
    S/PDIF and multi-channel support
  * localization support via gettext on most architectures
  * new stream output architecture, allowing to use VLC to unicast,
    multicast or broadcast a stream to another VLC (only MPEG 1, 2 and 4
    and A/52 streams are supported)
  * build system now uses autoconf/automake/autopoint

Input access:
  * mms:// support
  * ftp:// support
  * stability fixes in the HTTP access
  * auto-detection of RTP encapsulation
  * VCD entry points support
  * VCD image file support

Input demux:
  * support for *.asf format
  * improved support for *.avi, especially over an HTTP connection
  * support for *.mp4 and *.mov format
  * support for ogg encapsulation
  * support for raw DV format
  * support for *.wav format
  * new demuxdump demux allowing to save a stream to a file
  * raw AAC support

Stream discovery & playlists:
  * support for the SAP/SDP and SLP protocols
  * support for .m3u file format
  * support for .asx file format
  * hack to find the streaming sources in html-pages with embedded wmp

Codecs:
  * support for the microdvd, subrip, ssa1, ssa2-4 subtitles file formats
    (only available with the .avi demux)
  * support for ADPCM audio codec
  * support for raw PCM data
  * support for Cinepak video codec
  * support for DV video codec via libdv or ffmpeg
  * support for AAC audio codec via libfaad2
  * support for Xvid codec
  * support for Xiph.org's Vorbis audio codec
  * support for Xiph.org's Tremor audio codec (when compiling from sources)
  * support for Xiph.org's Tarkin and Theora video codecs (when compiling
    from sources)
  * new codecs supported by latest ffmpeg versions: WMV, WMA, SVQ 1, H263,
    H263i, MJPEG A/B
  * fixed an endianness bug in LPCM codec

DVD support:
  * experimental preliminary support for DVD menus via libdvdplay

Miscellaneous:
  * new WxWindows interface
  * all interfaces allow to dynamically change the volume, the audio
    device and the channels configuration
  * headphone channel mixer with virtual spatialization effect
  * Mozilla plugin based on libvlc for embedded playback in webpages of any
    format that VLC can play
  * new swedish translation
  * enhancements of the playlist window
  * new messages window to see debug info
  * fixed a few crashes

iPaq port:
  * slider bar in GTK+/GPE Familiar interface
  * fixed crash on directory change in Familiar interface
  * added qte_main module for use in all modules that need Opie or Qte support
  * native video output module for Qt Embedded/Opie is not working