VLC 4.0 coming this year with a new interface for the popular video player

Version 4.0 of VLC, the popular multiplatform media playback software, is planned to be released in the coming months, Protocol reports. The big news is a redesigned interface, which the president of the VideoLAN foundation, Jean-Baptiste Kempf, hopes will look “a little more modern”. Protocol also reports that the team is working to integrate more online content into the software, as well as a new way to run VLC on a web page. It also has an ongoing IMDb competitor.

The developer of VLC VideoLAN gave the world a peek at what this new interface might look like in February 2019 at the FOSDEM conference. Screenshots released at the time show an interface that dispenses with the player’s dated light gray color scheme in favor of a design with transparent interface elements and modern-looking icons. “Don’t worry”, jokes Kempf when presenting the images, “You can still use a command line.”

Image: VideoLAN / FOSDEM

Image: VideoLAN / FOSDEM

Along with VLC 4.0, the VideoLAN team is also working to bring more online content to the software, with extensions to offer third-party videos. Offering free videos with ads in the future, similar to the way Plex handles its own streaming service, is another possibility. In addition to bringing online content to VLC, the team is developing a new version of the software that can be run more easily on a web page using Webassembly and JavaScript instead of the old browser plug-in. Kempf says that you will be able to play “any type of movie inside your browser” when you are ready.

Perhaps the most intriguing is the Moviepedia Project, as it is known internally. It is an attempt to build an IMDb-style database for movies, which can be edited and maintained by users.

There is no set release date for when VLC 4.0 can arrive, but you can read more about the planned features of VideoLAN to launch in your 2019 presentation (or check out a recording here).