* forwardport the 0.8.6 NEWS

[vlc] / NEWS

$Id$

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

Important notes:
----------------
 * The HTTP interface is now only available on the local machine by default.
   If you want to make it available from other machines, you will have to
   edit the ".hosts" file.
   XXX: DETAILED INSTRUCTIONS HERE :XXX
 * This version of VLC contains a new interface for Windows and Linux. This
   interface lacks a few features that used to be present in vlc 0.8.6: 
   - "Streaming wizard" and "VLM control". These features will be replaced
     by a better alternative in the next version. If you absolutely need these
     features, we advise you to keep vlc 0.8.6
   - Similarly, "Bookmarks" will be reintroduced in an improved version at a 
     later point

Changes:
--------

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

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

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 input
 * Partial reading support for DVR-ms recordings
 * Partial reading support for MXF and GXF fileformat
 * Improved support for Flash Video files

Decoders:
 * Native WMV9/VC-1 support
 * WMA Speech support (through binary codecs)
 * VP5/VP6 - Flash Video support (not VP61)
 * The True Audio Lossless codec support
 * Matroska WavPack support
 * Improved H.264 support (interlaced, speed improvements etc but no PAFF)
 * Fixed a problem with MPEG2 field pictures
 * Fixed swapped colors on DVB subtitles
 
Video output:
 * Additional OpenGL effects (cylinder, torus, sphere, ...)
 * Experimental Direct3D 9 video output (win32). Best served on Vista :)
 * 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 (artwork by Simon Damkjær Andersen)
   * New playmode buttons (artwork by Simon Damkjær Andersen)
   * right/ctrl-click menu in video outputs
   * Main Menu uses autohide 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
 * Fixed disable screensaver (Direct3D and DirectX video output)

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