VLC Dev Projects

This is a list of small independent improvements to VLC for which we are looking for interested developers, because we simply don't have enough time.

These do not require advanced knowledge of VLC internals but they can still vastly improve many parts of VLC

For each project, we list a contact person, who knows the subject best and who will be able to assist you if you are interested in working on these. We generally are very often present on irc.videolan.org, chan #videolan, so please don't hesitate to drop by or to send a mail if you are interested in a given problem (our mail adresses are generally <nick>@videolan.org).

Network

RTCP support

Our RTSP implementation (for broadcasting and video on demand) does not support the RTCP protocol. This is a must to have a real support for RTSP. Some work has already been started, but there is still much to do.

Contact: JPSaman

Inputs

DVB support for Windows

DVB is the norm for :

• Digital Terrestrial TV (aka DVB-T)
• Digital Cable TV (aka DVB-C)
• Digital Satellite TV (aka DVB-S)

Several DVB input cards exist. We support these on Linux, but not on Windows. For Windows, we need to support so-called BDA drivers.

The problem is that we don't have both the time and the required hardware on Windows comps.

This project is probably not terribly complex, but you need the hardware.

Contacts:

• DVB specialists Meuuh JPSaman Dnumgis
• Windows specialist Quovodis

Video

DirectX 9 video output

DirectX 9 features some improvements that we could use in our video output

Contact: Quovodis

Improvements to the X11 video output

Fullscreen support to improve .

Interfaces

Streaming profiles

This is a big subject, that has barely started. Interested persons will need to work closely with existing developers to implement this. Not much information is available yet. The idea is to make streaming very easy, and yet powerful by using parametrable profiles. These could be used either by the graphical interfaces or through HTTP/command line interfaces

Contact: Zorglub

Playlist

Improved Podcast support

Our current podcast support is very weak. We can read them, but that's all. We need a real infrastructure to handle them correctly. This will require some changes to the playlist code, so you will need to work closely with existing developers.

Contacts: Dionoea Zorglub

Improved ASX support

ASX is a playlist format used by Microsoft stuff. We can read it but we could do much better. More information is available at https://trac.videolan.org/vlc/ticket/20

Contact: Dnumgis

Disc probing

We currently have some miscellaneous code to detect discs (DVDs, Audio CDs, ...) but it's a bit scattered and it could be used much better in the playlist.

Contact: Zorglub

Live folders

Some programs support so-called live folders. You add a folder to the playlist, and if the files in the folder are changed, the changes are copied to the playlist.

Having this would of course be great :)

It might require some work to be able to do this in Linux, Windows and OS X, but the current developers will of course be able to help on these.

Contacts: Zorglub [[User::TheDJ|TheDJ]]

Misc

Subtitles autodetection

Our current subtitles autodetection feature is not very good, and far behind some other implementations.

The key problems should be identified and fixed. We already know we have many problems with encoding, but the detection features themselves seem to be weak.

We should also enable the subtitles when they are detected

Contact: Yoann

Subtitles handling

Currently, if the subtitle file is not automatically detected when the video file is opened, the only way to add one is to re-open the video file and choose the subtitle file. This method is really not ideal when opening a file by drag & dropping it.

One should be able to add a subtitle on-the-fly, either via a menu, or by drag & dropping it too.

Contact: Yoann

DBUS Integration

DBUS is a communication mechanism for Linux (mainly).

We would like VLC to be able to use it so that other programs can interact with vlc (start/stop, know what is being played, ...)

Contact: Xtophe