VLC è un player multimediale che supporta svariati formati audio e video (MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, DivX, mp3, ogg...), così come DVD, VCD, e molti protocolli streaming. Può anche essere utilizzato come server per fare streaming in unicast o multicast, sia in IPv4 che in IPv6, ed include tutti i codec necessari per eseguire i formati supportati.

Le novità di VLC 0.8.6d (come da file news.txt):

• Various bugfixes:
  • Mozilla plugin: supports a reasonable amount of MIME types on Windows
  • Linux: Fixed S/PDIF passthrough with ALSA
  • Automatic recovery on unexpected stream discontinuity (clock gap) occurrences in input
  • Use field order (top/bottom) for correct bob/linear deinterlacing
  • Fix invalid free in bookmarks loading code

• Windows and Mac OS Binaries:
  • FLAC Security Update (CVE-2007-4619) to prevent multiple integer overflows

• Active X plugin:
  • Security update (VideoLAN-SA-0703)

• Mac OS X Interface & Port:
  • Apple Remote support on Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard with enhanced functionality
  • Improved Video Output compatibility for Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard
  • Improved behavior of the Fullscreen Controller and mode changes between Fullscreen and Windowed Video Output
  • Softened the white flash artifacts that may appear during the transition of two different movies
  • Support for current Ogg file formats
    NOTE: This release requires Mac OS X 10.4 or higher. Mac OS X 10.3.9 is not supported anymore.

• Encoders:
  • Improved H.264 encoding speed on Mac OS X

• Other changes:
  • The automatic updating facility was removed
  • You now need to append --m3u-extvlcopt to your command line to enable EXTVLCOPT options parsing in m3u playlists.