View source for VideoLAN

{{Short description|Non-profit organization developing software}}
{{Primary sources|date=November 2022}}
{{Infobox organization
| name              = VideoLAN
| named_after       = 
| logo              = VideoLAN organization logo.svg
| logo_size         = 240px
| logo_alt          = The blue VideoLAN Organization logo
| image             = 
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| abbreviation      = 
| predecessor       = 
| merged            = <!-- Any other organizations with which the organization was merged -->
| successor         = 
| formation         = {{start date and age|2009|04|21}}<ref name="open corp">{{Cite web |title=VIDEOLAN |url=https://opencorporates.com/companies/fr/528520273 |access-date=12 June 2018 |website=opencorporates.com}}</ref>
| founder           =[[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]]
| founding_location = [[Paris]], [[France]]
| extinction        = <!-- or: | dissolved = -->   <!--e.g. use {{end date and age|YYYY|MM|DD}}-->
| merger            = <!-- Other organizations (if any) merged to constitute the organization -->
| type              = [[Non-profit organization]]
| status            = {{Ill|Association loi de 1901|fr}}
| purpose =            [[Software development]] and promotion of [[free software]] for multimedia
| professional_title = <!-- for professional associations -->
| headquarters = 18, [[:fr:rue Charcot|rue Charcot]], 75013, Paris, France
| location = 
| coords =           {{coord|48.8312|2.3716|type:landmark_region:FR|display=inline,title}}
| region =           Worldwide
| services = Software development
| membership =       <!-- Usually the number of members -->
| membership_year =  <!-- Year to which membership number/data apply -->
| languages =        [[English language|English]], [[French language|French]]<ref>{{cite web |title=Legal |url=https://www.videolan.org/legal.html |website=videolan.org |access-date=12 June 2018 |language=en}}</ref>
| sec_gen =          <!-- Name of the organization's Secretary General (if post exists) -->
| leader_title = President
| leader_name = [[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]]
| leader_title2 = 
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| affiliations = [https://videolabs.io/ Videolabs]<ref>{{cite web |title=Our partners |url=https://www.videolan.org/videolan/partners.html |website= videolan.org |language=en}}</ref>
| budget = 
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| staff =            <!-- Numbers and/or types of staff -->
| staff_year =       <!-- Year to which staff numbers/data apply -->
| volunteers =       [https://www.videolan.org/videolan/team/ List of volunteers]
| volunteers_year =  <!-- Year to which volunteer numbers/data apply -->
| website =          {{Official URL}}
| remarks = 
| formerly =         <!-- Any former names by which the organization known -->
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}}
[[File:VLC Icon.svg|thumb|upright=0.5|62px|Common logo for all VideoLAN projects]]

'''VideoLAN''' is a [[Nonprofit organization|non-profit organization]] which [[software development|develops software]] for playing video and other media formats. It originally developed two [[computer program|programs]] for media [[streaming media|streaming]], [[VideoLAN Client]] (VLC) and [[VideoLAN Server]] (VLS), but most of the features of VLS have been incorporated into VLC, with the result renamed [[VLC media player]].

The VideoLAN project began as a student endeavor at [[École Centrale Paris]] in France, but after the software was released under the [[free software license|free]] and [[open source license|open source]] [[GNU General Public License]], the project is now multinational with a development team spanning 40 nations.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=http://www.videolan.org/videolan/team/index.html|title=the team - VideoLAN|website=www.videolan.org}}</ref> The project has been completely separated from École Centrale Paris since 2009 when it was constituted as a non-profit organization.<ref>{{cite web |title=Free Software and Open Source video streaming solution for every OS! |url=https://www.videolan.org/videolan/ |website=VideoLAN.org |access-date=12 June 2018 |language=en |quote=Since 2009, the project is completely separated from École Centrale Paris, and is driven by an autonomous non-profit organization.}}</ref><ref name="open corp" />

The current president of the VideoLAN non-profit organization is [[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]], who is also one of the project's developers.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.unixmen.com/vlc-player-rocks-and-jean-kempf-talks-about-it/ |title=VLC player rocks, and Jean-Baptiste Kempf talks about it! |work=Unixmen |date=2012-05-14 |access-date=2015-09-22 }}</ref>

==Projects==

===VLC===
{{Main|VLC media player}}

'''VLC''' (standing for '''VideoLAN Client''') is a [[porting|portable]] multimedia player, encoder, and streamer supporting many audio and video [[codec]]s and [[file format]]s as well as [[DVD]]s, [[video CD|VCDs]], and various [[streaming media|streaming]] [[communications protocol|protocols]]. It is able to stream over [[computer network|networks]] and to transcode multimedia files and save them into various formats. It is one of the most platform-independent players available, with versions for [[Microsoft Windows]], [[Mac OS X]], [[iOS]], [[Android (operating system)|Android]], [[Windows Phone]], [[Linux]], [[BeOS]], [[Berkeley Software Distribution|BSD]], [[Solaris (operating system)|Solaris]], [[ChromeOS]], and is widely used with over 4.2 billion downloads as of October 2022.<ref>{{cite web | url = https://www.videolan.org/vlc/stats/downloads.html |title=Download Statistics | work=VideoLAN Project | access-date=2017-09-06 }}</ref>

===VLMC===
'''VLMC''' (standing for '''VideoLAN Movie Creator''') is a cross-platform, [[non-linear editing system|non-linear]], video editing [[application software|software application]] based on the [[VLC Media Player]]. The software is still in early development.
The latest version is 0.2.0 (released 2014-10-30), released under the GPLv2 license.

===VLS===
The '''VLS''' (standing for '''VideoLAN Server''') project was originally intended to be used as a server for streaming videos. It has since been merged with the VLC project, and use of VLS is not encouraged.

===Codecs===
The VideoLAN project also hosts several audio/video [[Codec|decoding]] and [[encryption|decryption]] [[library (computer science)|libraries]], such as [[libdvdcss]] which allows the content of [[content Scramble System|CSS]] protected [[DVD]]s to be unscrambled, [[x264]] which can encode [[H.264/MPEG-4 AVC]] video, [[x265]] which can encode [[HEVC]] video, [[x262]] which can encode [[H.262/MPEG-2 Part 2|MPEG-2 video]], [[dav1d]] which can decode [[AV1]] video, [[libdca]] which can decode [[DTS Coherent Acoustics|DTS]] audio, and the [[Git (software)|git]] [[Repository (version control)|repository]] of the [[multimedia framework]] [[FFmpeg]].

===VLMa===
A new project has been developed, called '''VLMa''' (standing for '''VideoLAN Manager'''). VLMa is an application to manage broadcasts of TV channels, received through digital terrestrial or satellite ways. Its interface is provided as a web-site written in Java. It is also capable of streaming audio and video files. VLMa consists of a daemon (called VLMad) and a web interface (called VLMaw). VLMa is released under the GNU General Public License like [[VLC media player]].

===VLC media player Skin Editor===
The '''VLC Skin Editor''' is a simple program developed by VideoLAN. The simple interface allows users to create new skins for the [[VLC media player]] without knowledge of the VLC Skins2 XML System. The program lets users change features on the main window, playlist window, and equalizer window.

==Commercial use==
In May 2008, [[Neuros Technology]] and [[Texas Instruments]] began work on a port of VideoLAN to their next generation open set-top box.<ref>[http://open.neurostechnology.com/content/vlc-porting-neuros-open-internet-television-hdplatform VLC Port to Neuros Linux] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080530234746/http://open.neurostechnology.com/content/vlc-porting-neuros-open-internet-television-hdplatform |date=May 30, 2008 }}</ref>

VLC is currently used in products through the use of libVLC and also as raw or customized VLC for Android versions on devices.
Some features have been publicly merged, such as 360° support.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.realite-virtuelle.com/vlc-media-player-videos-360-2911#ftoc-heading|title=VLC Media Player Videos 360°|date=29 Nov 2016}}</ref>

==Opposition to software-bundling==
VideoLAN developers have expressed dismay at how users searching for their products see search advertising from websites that use [[unwanted software bundling]] to modify official download files with wrappers that include [[Malware#Grayware|unwanted programs]]. VideoLAN does not have the resources to sue the many companies abusing their trademarks.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://blog.l0cal.com/2011/07/07/these-companies-that-mislead-our-users/|title=These companies that mislead our users|date=7 Jul 2011}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.geek.com/news/vlc-media-player-suffering-in-face-of-crapware-and-uncaring-google-1400411/|title=VLC media player suffering in face of crapware and uncaring Google|work=Geek.com|date=7 Jul 2011|access-date=4 May 2015|archive-date=23 March 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170323152644/http://www.geek.com/news/vlc-media-player-suffering-in-face-of-crapware-and-uncaring-google-1400411/|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://news.softpedia.com/news/VideoLAN-Calls-Out-for-Help-to-Protect-Users-from-VLC-Scams-211896.shtml|title=VideoLAN Calls Out for Help to Protect Users from VLC Scams|date=16 Jul 2011}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://forum.videolan.org/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=86774|title=Adware in new installer|work=The VideoLAN forums}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Yes, Every Freeware Download Site is Serving Crapware (Here's the Proof)|url=http://www.howtogeek.com/207692/yes-every-freeware-download-site-is-serving-crapware-heres-the-proof/|quote=Sadly, even on Google all the top results for most open source and freeware are just ads for really terrible sites that are bundling crapware, adware, and malware on top of the installer. Most geeks will know that they shouldn’t click on the ads, but obviously enough people are clicking those ads for them to be able to afford to pay the high per-click prices for Google AdWords.|work=HowToGeek.com|date=21 Jan 2015}}</ref>

==See also==
{{Portal|Free and open-source software}}

* [[Google Video]] – used VideoLAN technology in its media player [[web browser]] [[Plug-in (computing)|plugin]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://github.com/google/older-mirrored-patches|title=GitHub - google/older-mirrored-patches: Google's older mirrored patches and tarballs |website=GitHub|date=28 May 2020 }}</ref>
* [[Comparison of audio player software]]
* [[Comparison of video player software]]
* [[List of video editing software]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
{{Commons category}}
* {{Official website}}

{{FOSS}}
{{Video editors}}

[[Category:Free software project foundations]]
[[Category:Free software projects]]
[[Category:Multimedia software]]
[[Category:Non-profit organisations based in France]]
[[Category:Portable software]]
[[Category:Software DVD players]]
[[Category:Streaming]]
[[Category:2009 establishments in France]]