It’s official, VLC Media Player has exceeded 6 billion downloads. An announcement that is sure to impress, especially for software launched in 2001 and which continues to appeal despite competition from streaming platforms. This figure, revealed by VideoLAN at CES 2025, could even be higher, as it does not take into account downloads via third-party sites.
VLC, more than ever there after 6 billion downloads
Jean-Baptiste Kempf, president of VideoLAN, stressed that the popularity of VLC is not waning, in particular thanks to its practical features such as support for many formats or the possibility of playing DVDs for free on PC. And to continue to innovate, the development team is working on a new feature that could appeal to even more users: subtitles automatically generated using artificial intelligence.
Twitter-tweet” data-width=”500″ data-dnt=”true”>
VLC automatic subtitles generation and translation based on local and open source AI models running on your machine working offline, and supporting numerous languages!
Demo can be found on our #CES2025 booth in Eureka Park. pic.twitter.com/UVmgT6K4ds— VideoLAN (@videolan) January 8, 2025
The big new thing unveiled by VideoLAN is a subtitle system powered by open source artificial intelligence models. Unlike other similar solutions, this AI works entirely offline. “ What’s important is that it runs on your machine, locally, without any cloud services », explains Jean-Baptiste Kempf.
Concretely, this module will allow VLC to create subtitles in real time for videos in more than 100 languages. And that’s not all: it can also automatically translate these subtitles, thus making foreign content more accessible. You can even use this feature for locally stored videos or live broadcast programs, such as IPTV channels.
One of the big advantages of this approach, according to VideoLAN, is the protection of privacy. No need for an internet connection or data transfer to an external server. Everything happens directly on the computer or smartphone. Great news for privacy-conscious users.
Despite its potential, this novelty raises some questions. For example, how does VideoLAN plan to handle errors sometimes generated by AI systems? Or, what will the performance be on less powerful devices? Some experts are already talking about the need to have a processor with a neural processing unit (NPU) to take full advantage of this functionality.
For the moment, no release date has been announced. VideoLAN promises a free update for all users, but you will have to wait a few more months before you can test this new functionality.
In the meantime, VLC remains true to itself: a simple, efficient and free player, which continues to innovate without betraying its values. And with this new function, the application proves that it is not about to lose its place as the darling of free software lovers.
🟣 To not miss any news on the WorldOfSoftware, , .
