The updated release of VLC, the widely acclaimed open-source media player, brings several enhancements and additions.
The version 3.0.21, marking the first update of the year, continues from the earlier 3.0.20 version released last autumn. Ongoing maintenance of the VLC 3.0.x series progresses concurrently with the development of the upcoming major release, VLC 4.0.
This media player, renowned for its flexibility even in today’s streaming-centric environment, recently achieved a significant benchmark, having been downloaded 5 BILLION times. VideoLAN, the creators behind VLC, not only celebrated this accomplishment but also unveiled upcoming plans for its future development.
Yet, focus remains steadfast on the current offerings…
What’s new in VLC 3.0.21?
The VLC changelog says this update adds support for Super Resolution scaling on AMD GPUs.
VLC already supports Intel’s version and added NVIDIA RTX super resolution support last year. Adding the AMD equivalent is welcome – though not a surprise: it was announced at CES 2024.
Sticking with AMD and NVIDIA, VLC 3.0.21 introduces a new AMD VQ Enhancer video filter (utilizing AMF, requiring a D3D11-compatible GPU), and a D3D11 feature to ‘use NVIDIA TrueHDR to generate HDR from SDR sources’.
Additionally, VLC has enhanced support for Opus ambisonic (potentially including ‘support third order ambisonic with family 2 mapping’), Opus in MP4 format, and VAAPI hardware decoding with specific drivers like the r600 Mesa.
VLC 3.0.21 now also manages HTTP content range following RFC 9110, and fixes issues where HLS Adaptive Streaming did not work in audio-only mode.
Moreover, this update includes numerous fixes especially for macOS such as improved rendering of Asian-language subtitles, along with general bug fixes and security updates. Updated libraries include FFmpeg 4.4.4, dac1d 1.4.2, and libvpx 1.14.1.
And that’s it in a nutshell.
How to Upgrade to VLC 3.0.21
VLC 3.0.21 is free, open-source software. Windows and macOS installers will be added to the VLC download page in the next few days, and be available as an in-app update on those platforms.
New versions of VLC aren’t generally back-ported/added to the Ubuntu repos. Thus, if you want this update — if none of the fixes and features are things you’d use don’t feel pressured to chase it down — you will need to get it elsewhere.
But you have a variety of choices.
Ubuntu users can download the source code of VLC 3.0.21 from the VideoLAN website, or they can wait for this update to be distributed through Flathub (unverified), the Canonical Snap Store (official), or obtain it through other methods.