VLC Media Player Adds 360° Video Support
VLC media player, long the "play anything" tool for filmmakers, has added support for 360° video.
![Vlc_360deg_video_](https://nofilmschool.com/media-library/vlc-360deg-video.png?id=34080476&width=1245&height=700&quality=90&coordinates=0%2C85%2C0%2C85)
Almost every filmmaker has run across a video file that they couldn't get to play. Whether it was shot from some camera nobody uses anymore, or encoded into a vintage codec, or emailed in from a client from Mars, odd file formats abound. The tool that solves the problem 95% of the time is VLC player, the open source multimedia playback app developed by the French non-profit videoLAN association. Combined with its real-time playback, sync and subtitle tools, VLC should be a part of every filmmaker's toolkit, and—like all freeware—if it saves you on a paid job, consider giving a donation in thanks.
Now, working with 3D camera manufacturer Giroptic, VLC has built a tool that enables 360° stills and video to play back in real-time, taking advantage of GPU acceleration through OpenGL on the Mac platform. Playback can be in a zoom mode, where you see only part of the image but are able to navigate within it, or Little Planet, which shows a spherical view mapped onto 2D space that gives you an overall sense of the content available within the video stream. As it's an early release, documentation isn't great yet, but a two finger swipe up or down on the trackpad changes the zoom level on a Mac.
VLC also has audio visualizer tools.Credit: VLC
VLC 360° test video of hawk in flight, facing forward.Credit: VLC
VLC 360° test video of hawk in flight, facing backward.Credit: VLC
Tech Specs:
- Windows 7 or Mac 10.10 and up required
- 360° video through the Spatial Video specification
- 360° photos or panoramas with the Spatial specification
- Can display in Zoom, Little Planet, or Reverse Little Planet mode
- Mouse and keyboard control
- OpenGL acceleration and Direct3D11