OStatic

In July, we covered the much updated version 1.0 of VLC Media Player. You can download a new version 1.0.1 for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux here, and if you don't already use it, it's fantastic. I find that it consistently plays video file formats that other players have problems with, and there is much more under the hood in this open source media player than many people realize. For example, you can use it to broadcast your own video content, you can use it as a video transcoder for converting video file formats, and you can listen to and manage podcasts with it. VideoLAN, which makes VLC Media Player, reports that version 1.0 has already hit 14 million downloads.

VLC Media Player is so powerful, though, that it could use better documentation (As I write this, the wiki for VLC Media Player's documentation is down altogether). In this post, I'll round up four good tutorial resources that can introduce you to some of the many useful VLC Media Player features that may not be immediately apparent.

If you want to learn Java, Python, or Ruby but can't stand the thought of slogging through a huge pile of books, take a look at the open source video tutorial service, ShowMeDo. It's loaded with screencasts that walk you through how to use popular programming languages and an assortment of open source applications like Vim and Blender.

ShowMeDo has plenty of in-depth videos on all kinds of involved programming techniques, but there are several quick one- or two-minute tutorials on handy techniques like how to install the AdblockPlus plugin for Firefox and how to change the password to a KeePass database. Tutorials are submitted by the open source software community and range from near-professionally produced to self-proclaimed amateurs with an interest in programming.