Install vlc with Homebrew Cask

Project links

• Homepage
• Package manager page

Commands and aliases

No executable aliases were found in the local package database.

Project history

VideoLAN began in 1996 as an École Centrale Paris student project intended to carry television and MPEG video over the campus network. The team developed VideoLAN Server and VideoLAN Client, the latter becoming VLC.

The first stream was working in 1998, and VLC was rebuilt around a modular design that eased operating-system ports. École Centrale Paris authorized release of the VideoLAN code under the GPL in February 2001, enabling worldwide participation.

As VLC acquired playback, conversion, capture, and server capabilities, “VideoLAN Client” ceased to describe the software accurately. The initials became the product name, while the project moved under an independent nonprofit organization in 2009.

Adoption history

After the code was released under the GPL in 2001, developers outside École Centrale Paris joined the project; VideoLAN says contributors eventually came from around 40 countries.

VLC expanded from a campus streaming client into a cross-platform player available across desktop, mobile, and Unix-like systems. Its broad format and protocol support made it a common fallback when platform-native players could not handle a file or stream.

How it is used

Users employ VLC to play local audio and video, DVDs and other discs, webcams and capture devices, and network streams. It can also convert media and act as a streaming server.

Package-manager users commonly install VLC as a broadly compatible desktop player and as a dependable diagnostic tool for determining whether a media file or stream is intrinsically playable.

Why package nerds care

VLC is a canonical package-manager multimedia application: it offers a consistent player across operating systems and bundles support for an unusually broad range of containers, codecs, discs, capture devices, and network protocols.

Its combination of a desktop interface, command-line capabilities, streaming functions, and reusable libVLC engine makes it relevant to end users, automation-oriented users, and application developers alike.

Timeline

• 1996: Students at École Centrale Paris started the VideoLAN project.
• 1998: The project carried its first stream, and the modular VLC lineage began.
• 1999: The earliest repository commit recorded by VideoLAN dates from August.
• 2001: École Centrale Paris authorized GPL release, opening development worldwide.
• 2009: VideoLAN became fully independent of École Centrale Paris under an autonomous nonprofit organization.

Related projects

• VideoLAN
• libVLC
• VideoLAN Server (discontinued)

Sources

• https://docs.videolan.me/vlc-user/en/lore/videolan/history.html
• https://docs.videolan.me/vlc-user/en/lore/vlc/about.html
• https://docs.videolan.me/vlc-user/en/support/faq/videolan.html
• https://images.videolan.org/videolan/events/10y/day1.html