VLC 3.0.5, fifth point release for "Vetinari" is available

A new version of the VLC media player has been released and, believe it or not, it is already available on Ubuntu. It is nothing astonishing but it is the fifth update since the arrival of VLC 3.0 Vetinari.

In the months following the arrival of Vetinari, the developers focused on fixing bugs and releasing a point release from time to time. Important security updates have been introduced, particularly for third-party libraries. There are also performance improvements and (I'll mention it for the record) better compatibility with macOS 10.14 "Mojave".

Here is a summary of the news:

• Present a new AV1 decoder based on the dav1d library;
• Improved Blu-ray playback, as well as access to the menu and search
• The default libaom decoder is now used
• Improvements for MP4, MKV, CAF and AV1
• Enhance support for HDR, tone-mapping and Youtube
• Support for Chromecast
• Fixed a problem related to rendering subtitles

The official website of VLC offers a complete change-log that you can consult here if you want more details on the improvements introduced.

Install VLC 3.0.5 on Ubuntu 16.04 LTS (or higher)

It is easy to install VLC 3.0.5 on Ubuntu if you are using Ubuntu 16.04 LTS, 18.04 LTS or higher thanks to the Snap store.

Alternatively there is the good old terminal:

sudo snap install vlc

If you do not like Snap, do not worry, the update will come soon in the official repositories and then you will be notified by the Software Updater (unless you have disabled the notifications ...).

PS: I take this opportunity to wish all readers a happy 2019, happy new year!