New VLC 3.0 with support for HDR, 360-degree video (viewing pirated HDR now possible)

VLC media player, one of the most versatile and popular media players online, especially among pirates, has been updated to version 3.0.

The biggest features of the new update are, of course, the inclusion of HDR and 360-degree video support. HDR support is a huge deal because until now, the options for viewing *cough*pirated*cough* HDR content were limited to non-existent. Another great feature is integrated support for Chromecast streaming.

As ArsTechnica learned from VLC, the Chromecast feature is particularly interesting because it was reverse-engineered by the VLC team. Officially adding support for the feature would have forced the team to use a closed-source SDK from Google, making it illegal in VLC and limiting its functionality.

As it stands, VLC 3.0 is now available on Windows, Mac, Android, iOS and even Windows Phone. Linux support is coming soon.

VLC, an open-source project that’s maintained by the VideoLAN organisation, is a video player that supports almost all audio and video formats in existence. The list includes the popular options like H.264 and MPEG-4, but also more obscure ones like Indeo Video, LPCM, QCELP and more. It can also play DVD, VCD, SVCD, etc.

You can download VLC 3.0 on all compatible platforms from here.