VLC to Provide Blu-ray Support for OS X

VideoLan, developers of the popular (and free) VLC video player, announced that their 2.0.0 version for OS X will have some exciting new features. It will use an interface similar to iTunes, have a full-screen mode in Lion, and if you have the right hardware, allow unprotected Blu-ray playback.

VLC released version 2.0.0. last Friday, and you’ll note that the Blu-ray support is listed as “experimental” (menus are currently disabled), but the basic support is there. Good news all around—it has better integration with Lion but still supports Leopard and PPC users.

OS X has no built-in Blu-ray support—you can’t just connect a Blu-ray drive to your Mac and play movies on it. You have always been able to use a Blu-ray drive for data storage, and you can create a Blu-ray movie disc on a Mac, you just can’t play it back without using a different device.

VLC has been known for years as THE cross-platform player. No matter what you try to play, VLC “just works.” QuickTime, Windows Media, MKV, and even movies with subtitles are supported.