VLC 2.0 announced

VideoLAN has announced version 2.0 of the popular media player software VLC with a release candidate available for download.

VLC 2.0 appears to reserve the biggest feature changes for Apple’s OSX including the addition of Blu-ray playback suport and a brand-new UI makover but there are a number of improvements to the Windows version as well.

Among the changes is a "major video core and outputs rewrite" which includes video putput based on Direct2D for recent Microsoft operating systems. There’s now the ability to resize subtitles and on-screen displays.

VLC is a deceptively simple bit of free software that bundles a heck of a lot of under-the-bonet video codecs, filters and outputs – many of which have been updated in the new version. 2.0 will now require Windows XP SP2 or later with earlier versions unsupported.

The VLC 2.0 release candidate can be downloaded here.