Video Lan, VLC
for the who know it, is a freesoftware under "GNU
General Public License". This software is developed by
80 students and 2 teachers supervising the projects. They are from
the university Ecole
Centrale Paris (France)
Video lan
supports a lot of type of video and audio files such as:
Video Lan is also able to decode Divx comprising several Audio tracks
and the subtitles included in the DivX file - However a bug persists
on this level: when that the duration of posting of the subtitle
is past, this one remains posted until another replaces it.
Lan video developed for YOU!
This software has been created to satisfy all kind of users for
any kind of Operating System.
Indeed, this software can already works without problems of installation
on nearly 9 operating systems!
- Windows
- Mac OS X
- BeOS
- Debian GNU/Linux
- Mandrake Linux
- Red Hat Linux
- Familiar Linux
- YOPY/Linupy
- Zaurus (OS pour PDA)
It can also work on:
- NetBSD
- OpenBSD
- FreeBSD
- Solaris
- QNX
- Gentoo Linux
A software which sees far VLC (initially VideoLAN Client), which can be used as
a server to stream MPEG-1, MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 files, DVDs and live
videos on the network in unicast or multicast ; or used as a client
to receive, decode and display MPEG streams under multiple operating
systems.
DivX for ALL We have tested this software with a DivX à 942 kbits
resolution 624x352 with Ogg audio track at 70 kbps under windows
XP Pro SP1 - Intel Pentium 4 2.53b @ 2.66 Ghz - Ram 512 Mb PC2700
- Display Card Geforce 4 Mx, full screen (1280x1024).
We have compared Video Lan to other video player softwares:
- DivX Player 2.1
- Zoom Player 3.20 Pro beta 1
- Windows Media Player 6.4
- Windows Media Player 9.0 Series
The table
below shows the resources processors and the memory used.
Logiciels
CPU Activity Minimum
in %
CPU Activity Maximum
in %
CPU Activity Average
in %
Memory used
in Mb
Video
Lan 0.62
2
12
7
22
DivX
Player 2.1
24
30
28
44
Zoom
Player 3.20
28
33
30
35
WMP
6.4
31
38
35
29
WMP
9 series
25
32
29
31
We can note that Video Lan is the software optimized best. However
It also brings a picture quality less better than to the other softwares.
Video Lan obtains an average 7% CPU activity, 4 to 5 times less
than the others softwares with only 22 Mb of memory used, 2 times
less than the others softwares. Wit means that the owner of computer
having a speed of approximately 233 MHz and 64 Mb of RAM under Widows
95/98 will be able to play without problem the DivX files, which
was more difficult before.
Therefore those which still have this type of computer, do not throw
it to the garbage, it could still be useful ;)
Last Minute ! We have just
tested this software on 2 kind of MacIntosh running under Mac OS
X:
Mac G4 433 MHz Ram 960 Mb
Imac G3 350 MHz with Ram 320 Mb
VLC works very well under the G4 433 MHz, the picture quality looks
better than the PC Version.
Under the Imac G3 350 MHz, it doesn't work well. The animation is
not fluid as Quicktime playing DivX too. I think it's because Mac
OS X who ask more system resources.
Conclusion
A software optimized very well which will allure the majority of the
users under PC. Mac users will need a powerfull configuration.Its
interface is simple, not very pretty but can without problem being
replaced by different SKINS available on the official website. The
pocesseurs of small PC will be allured undoubtedly but for those having
a computer of last generation will prefer to use Zoom Player or WMP
9 Series which deliver a better picture quality.
For more information and to download Video Lan, go to the Official
website: VideoLan.Org
