Slightly wondering whether this is a roundabout way of creating Ad-Free YouTube playback capabilities. “Hey community, we are adding support for ad enabled streams. Would be a shame if you hated that so much you wrote some ad blocking plugins.”
Ad-Free YouTube playback capabilities.
The last time I tried, VLC could already do that.
That’s great, I had no idea!
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Very generous of you to assume that adding native support for advertising is a move to protect users from advertising…
Now you put it that way… 😃
You can already watch youtube ad-free with VLC…
That’s pretty cool, I didn’t know!
This is bad news. FAST streaming is an ad-riddled nightmare. VLC already supports streaming video just fine. Native support for FAST services just means native support for ads.
VLC already includes support for IPTV streams and M3Us. If you want to load FAST channels, you can do that now using a playlist from here: https://github.com/iptv-org/iptv
You’ll even get an ad-free / ad-reduced experience this way. FAST providers like Pluto and Tubi rebroadcast some TV channels and inject their own targeted ads. If you pipe the video stream into VLC, you’ll just see “commercial break in progress” filler video instead of commercials. Try it out with a local news station, they are all almost completely add free this way.
Enjoy this while you can, I guess…
I mean it’s just another format they’ll be supporting. If you don’t want to watch in that format, don’t.
FAST isn’t a format, it’s an integration. The format is streaming mpeg like everything else.
If FAST services want to be a part of VLC, they can just write their own extension.
I mean it’s just another service they’ll be supporting. If you don’t want to watch that service, don’t.
Better?
No, I don’t want any pro-profit ad-supported services integrated directly into a critical FOSS project like VideoLAN. This is a form of enremovedtification. VLC should NEVER implement native support for targeted advertising. Pluto and Tubi are already cramming ads into my smart TV, they need to stay the removed away from VLC’s core code.
Freedom of choice is writing a channel service extension for VLC that I can install if I want to, not integrating non-free anti-consumer bullremoved into the application itself.
I really don’t see how this is enremovedtification or anti-consumer. Nothing about your use of or experience of VLC changes if you simply don’t use FAST streams. To me this seems similar to whether or not to ship patent encumbered codecs.
What if Disney wanted to integrate their own DRM support into the Linux Kernel so you could watch Disney Blu-Ray movies? Would you accept the “you don’t have to watch Disney movies” justification?
I’d be fine with VLC having a way to watch proprietary Blu-Rays. I think it has that feature and it does seem useful for those who want to watch Disney Blu-Rays. VLC is supposed to be pretty much a swiss army knife of media players, after all.
If you wanted to compare to the kernel then best comparison would be to something like proprietary drivers or something.
Yay VLC!
From the tail end of the short, and easy to read article: If you want an early look at the upcoming changes with VLC 4.0, you can download (https://nightlies.videolan.org/?ref=news.itsfoss.com) the latest nightly release from the official website or the latest “Edge” build from the Snap store (https://snapcraft.io/vlc?ref=news.itsfoss.com). VLC 4.0 (Early Build) (Snap Store) (https://snapcraft.io/vlc?ref=news.itsfoss.com)Feels like the 4.0 version has been in alpha/beta for years now? I thought they abandoned the idea.
Yes, it’s been actual years.
They have an Ubuntu PPA which I used through distrobox. The weirdest way to get an app on the system, while there is a flatpak they dont seem interested in adopting it.
Some of the new stuff looks cool, and for all of these knee-jerk reactionaries… optional.
Didn’t it already have that for years? Sounds like they’re ‘just’ adding support for signing in/ads
It seems to be the FAST protocol/channels they are adding support for.
I’d rather be able to stream a file from my PC via VLC to other people with VLC.
If that’s already a thing, then I guess I just gotta figure it out…
VLC support RTMP, streaming a live feed like twitch. https://wiki.videolan.org/RTMP/
VLC also support reading from network https://wiki.videolan.org/Documentation:Play_HowTo/Basic_Use_0.9/Opening_modes/#Opening_a_Network
You are also able to generate a stream through multiple interfaces though I couldn’t find how. Still, it is officially reported as being possible. https://www.videolan.org/streaming-features.html
Yeah, I know about RTPM, but what I meant was more akin to streaming the file itself.
Take for example, me and my friends want to watch a movie. One of us has the movie. We all have VLC. The one with the movie loads the file, the others… Somehow… Connect to the VLC with the loaded file and have it directly stream to their own VLC.
I dig a little and there is an option on the GUI to easily stream. On the media menu, there is a stream option (CTRL+S) which allows you to stream a file using the interface you want. It will create a server and it’s up to you to make that server available to your friends (port forwarding). They will the open your video from a network interface link.
Though, while I did manage to stream between two instances of VLC on the same machine. It was after many attempts and I did not have any sound.
Not incredible, I will admit, but I’m quite confident it can work well once you understand what parameters to use.
I believe you can set up a http stream and then have others connect to it
mpv is our saviour.
Changes are looking good, great to see it is still very active!
I swore this was already a feature. I remember years ago (15+) I was able to play YouTube videos on it.
The new feature is for FAST, which is a type of IPTV stream. Imagine something akin to a TV channel guide, like Samsung’s and Roku’s built in streams.
And the “ad supported” bit is misleading; The channels are supported by ads, and run them as part of their programming. It’s not VLC showing ads before you’re allowed to stream the video, like YouTube. Just like regular TV channels, where they have commercial breaks.
The new feature is for FAST specifically.
Fork incoming.
That smells like proprietary software and drm
Oh god, no…
Remember those Winamp channels? Hope this leads into that. IPTV is supported by Winamp but not the easiest way to use it, maybe this would make that better too.
Edit - sorry I meant IPTV is supported by VLC*
I loved the Winamp channels. That’s where I learned about the existence of anime. I had no concept that things like Cardcaptors, Dragonball, Pokemon, etc were actually anime because I just saw them in English. But I found dubs through Winamp streaming and it sent me down the rabbit hole to buying DVDs and manga and learning to torrent fansubs. The good old days of my blazing fast 3mbps cable connection. It blew my mind coming from dial up.
plans to support ad-supported online media streams
Why are they saying it like it’s something good and exciting?
rewriting the whole core of VLC for the 4.0 release which will see a new interface
Where have we see it before? It’s basically the classic scenario where popular software/service makes a complete chnage of design nobody asked for and it fails miserably. I recommend everyone to make a backup of the installer of the last version before this release…
I really don’t see the what the fuss is in this thread. The source does make it seem a bit nefarious, but even so, it appears the changes in VLC amount to adding support for a streaming format and adding a channel listing of some sort.
FAST is simply a streaming format. Whether to run ads is an individual decision of each channel.
If I can have a streaming client that can play certain streams versus one that can’t, I’ll obviously pick the former. (Unless they employ a DRM scheme which does weird things to my devices but it doesn’t appear that’s part of the discussion here.)
Yep, here’s the section
When he was talking about that, he also shared that they plan to add support for FAST channels and other kinds of ad-supported online media streams that would allow users to watch ad-supported movies, TV shows, and more.
However, he also clarified that plans for this were not finalized yet, and if it were to happen, it would be optional for VLC users.
.
It does when you consider that there are over 1,500 FAST channels in the US alone, plus countless others around the globe, with the number still growing.
They already support other forms of streams, why not this. It would be weirder if they chose to not support it
Yeah, I think evil bastard streaming services choosing open source (VLC) is rather a win for the society.
They dont display ads, the channels send video streams that have embedded ads for money purpose things (whoever buys removed because of ads)
Why would that need special support? If the ads are embedded, that should work out of the box.
They support adding online streams which is currently not there or hard to find
Isn’t this an optional feature? Wouldn’t you have to log in to that service?
Ain’t nobody want thisHowever, he also clarified that plans for this were not finalized yet, and if it were to happen, it would be optional for VLC users.
Happy to see some sanity prevails.
Having read the article, it sounds like the logical evolution of VLC. FAST Channels are here to stay and they actually are a vital thing in a world where Google have a monopoly on online video. While they’re not what I would go for, I’m glad they’re available as even my cable provider offers FAST channels.
Will be interesting to see VLC compete with JWPlayer and the various forks of it.
Also I don’t think anyone disagrees that the core needs rewriting and the UI needs a refresh. Wonder when Android will start seeing these builds on the beta channel.
