VLC 3.0 Released! How to Install it in Ubuntu

The 3.0 release of VLC media player, code name “Vetinari”, is now available! Here’s how to install it in Ubuntu 16.04, Ubuntu 17.10, Ubuntu 18.04.

VLC 3.0 release highlights:

• Activate hardware decoding by default, to get 4K and 8K playback!
• Support 10bits and HDR
• Support 360 video and 3D audio, up to Ambisoncics 3rd order
• Allow passthrough for HD audio codecs
• Can stream to Chromecast devices, even in formats not supported natively
• Play Blu-Ray Java menus: BD-J
• Support browsing of local network drives and NAS
• And see HERE for more details.

How to Install VLC 3.0 in Ubuntu:

The VLC team offers official snap package, the universal Linux app packaging format. So it can be easily installed in Ubuntu 16.04 / higher via following steps:

1. For Ubuntu 16.04 only. If you never install a snap package, open terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and run command to install snapd daemon first:

sudo apt install snapd snapd-xdg-open

Input your password (no visual feedback) when it prompts and hit Enter.

2. Then you can simply search for and install VLC in Ubuntu Software:

You’ll see there are two VLC listed in Ubuntu Software. View the package details, the snap version is large in file size due to bundle of all required libraries.

Or run single command in terminal to install the snap:

snap install vlc

Note that the snap co-exists with traditional VLC package. Besides opening the player from application launcher, you can also run below command in terminal to launch it:

/snap/bin/vlc

Uninstall:

To uninstall the snapped version of VLC media player, either use Ubuntu Software or run command in a terminal window:

snap remove vlc