VLC is not your average media player.

In addition to supporting every single format known to humans, it has more features than you ever thought you’d need. VLC (which stands for VideoLAN client) just released a new version, 0.8.6.

I’ve always been a loyal user of the application, but in celebration of the release, I decided to learn more about VLC and figure out why it’s unchallenged in its field. Here’s a rundown of three features offered by VLC that bump it up from “average media player” to “uber media player”.

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Rocketboom (the controversial video podcast that made headlines when a catfight between the founders ousted the host) has a page on its website outlining the tools that they use to produce their podcast.

Their cocktail of tools includes everything from Quicktime Pro to Movable Type. They use Final Cut Pro, iMovie, and Audacity to edit. Rendering and delivery is a bit more difficult for Rocketboom because they have to deliver in so many formats. They have mobile deals, a deal with TiVo, the usual internet site - I imagine it gets crazy it times.

On the web, they render MOV with 3ivx compression (though it’s noted that they offer WMVs thanks to Flip4Mac). They note that they aren’t moving to H.264 because of the slow compression speed and slower adoption rates.

Capturing content on a screen is an important part of Rocketboom (their Mac laptop is probably the second biggest prop, next to the map). To capture the Laptop’s content the Rocketboom team uses Snapz Pro, and boasts of its efficiency and ease in capturing not only simple websites but video onscreen as well.

There are more details about their architecture over at the page. It’s an interesting look into the tools required to make a massive video podcast work!

Rob LaGesse has posted a fantastic “simplified definition” of BitTorrent. BitTorrent is one of those protocols that is really hard to describe properly (much like RSS) but I think Rob has done a fantastic job with his definition.

I’ll be referring people to this page quite often!