VLC with official Windows on ARM version

VLC Media Player has been released in version 3.0.23. The version corrects several security-relevant errors but also offers some significant improvements and new features.

According to their classification, the developers initially only pushed the release as a “minor improvement,” and the changelog is also rather short. However, the release announcement on the VLC website also has some highlights to offer.

Native version for Windows on ARM

Support for Windows on ARM processors is particularly noteworthy. This applies not only to current Windows 11, but also back to Windows 10 RS5 17763, better known as Build 1809 and thus already 7 years old. Furthermore, support for Dark Mode for eye-friendly display is probably overdue for many – for both Linux and Windows. Those who use VLC under Windows can now rename, move, or even delete the currently playing file while it is playing.

Without going into detail, the VLC programmers mention improved playback of various formats and certain subtitles. The codecs dav1d, ffmpeg, and libvpx are up to date, as are “most” third-party libraries. The demuxers for processing the different data streams have received a large number of stability improvements based on reports from Ruhr University Bochum and oss-fuzz.

The further development of the software is supported by a “generous sponsorship” from the Sovereign Tech Fund, the VLC developers announce. The current version also includes some security updates. Compared to version 3.0.22, VLC 3.0.23 fixes fewer vulnerabilities. However, these include a corrected “Null Deref” in libass, which apparently means null pointer dereferencing, or improved “undefined shifts” in Theora and CC-708. A potential infinite loop of the h264 parser, a buffer overflow in PNG processing, and several “format overflows” are also a thing of the past with the current VLC version.

(dmk)