If you’re a VLC Media Player fan like me then Lunettes is something you should definitely check out. With doubts circulating about the future development of VLC on Mac, Lunettes has arrived signaling that the future for VLC on Mac is very much alive.
Lunettes (French for spectacles) features a new interface for VLC that opens it up to design innovations from other users. Most importantly, it integrates with Cocoa, the native programming environment of OS X, meaning VLC will finally shrug-off its Windows heritage.
The functionality of Lunettes remains the same. It will still be able to play almost any format as all the codecs. The look however is much improved looking more like a Mac app with a touch of inspiration from QuickTime X.
Instead of opening the player directly like with VLC, Lunettes opens a Window which keeps a history of everything that you’ve watched and how much you’ve watched of it:
Lunettes also integrates automatically with all of the video content available on your Mac. You can access them all using the menu down the right-hand side:
There are three default skins included which are dark, transparent and one that makes Lunettes look like a Samsung TV. It is this ability to play with the look of Lunettes which really differentiates it from VLC Media Player.
The other benefits remain pretty much the same including Apple Remote support, fullscreen mode, keyboard shortcuts, support for multiple audio channels and subtitles, ability to choose DVD chapters, navigate menus etc.
However, the other big bonus of Lunettes are plugins. Lunettes is not just customisable in look but also functionality. You can access plugins by clicking on the cog in the Menu bar. By default three plugins are installed although in future this will surely vastly increase.
The default plugins are a handy Internet Movie Database (IMDB) plugin to find more info about the video you are watching:
A plugin for Last.fm support if you use VLC to stream music, and finally, much needed integration with OpenSubtitles.Org:
Lunettes is still under development and so it is prone to instability. But as the skins and plugins start to flow, Lunettes means that VLC Media Player as we know it could soon become a distant memory.
[Post adapted from OnSoftware ES]
