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Just tried to compile vlc-1.2.0 (also vlc-1.1, both 32 and 64 bit) and everything failed. The 64 bit build of vlc-git terminated without error, but the application won't start, and when I tried to build a dmg it contained a broken symlink to vlc.bundle which is only 6mb small. Where do I get a complete list of things that can go wrong? The vlc build page is not very informative. Will send further info when required.

The git version isn't working on OS X at the moment. Even if it compiles successfully, the most likely result is that instead of video it'll only display a blank white area. (The audio works correctly.) When I asked, j-b said that he wouldn't be surprised if the video outputs on the Mac haven't yet been updated correctly to account for the changes in the core.

But if you want to try nevertheless, here's what I did. I have OS X 10.6.5, too, and I built the 64-bit version.

• The old OS X GUI has been removed. The core has changed and the old GUI is no longer up to date. There is a project for a new GUI, called Lunettes.
• The instructions on the OS X build page are for VLC 1.1.x. For 1.2-git, following them does not produce a GUI at all. In addition it will prevent the Xcode project (which is the correct way to build VLC 1.2-git on OS X) from building correctly. To rectify this, go to the root of the source tree and run "make distclean". This will return the tree to the state it was when it was cloned from the repository.
• Open the Xcode project projects/macosx/framework/VLCKit.xcodeproj.
• Make sure that Xcode is configured to place build products in the project directory (see Preferences > Build). This is needed to build VLC correctly.
• Build the target "Build everything" (Ctrl+click it and choose the build option). This should build the VLC core correctly, but there will be no GUI yet.
• To build the GUI, first you'll need to clone the sources from here: https://github.com/pdherbemont/Glasses/wiki. (The old name of the project is Glasses, hence the name of the repository.)
• Lunettes comes with an Xcode project, which can be used to build it. You'll find it in the top-level source directory.
• But first you'll need to install the BWToolkit framework, if you don't have it already. Get it from http://www.brandonwalkin.com/bwtoolkit/. (Download the ready-made binary and just double-click to install.)
• In order to make it to build successfully, you will also need to make the change described here: viewtopic.php?f=12&t=85367 Update 2011-01-17: fixed by F. Kühne in commit 67931dd00790342cdfa742e5b1e8852b3fabc833
• Lunettes is still buggy - most likely you'll find that it crashes spontaneously from the second startup on. To fix this, make the change documented in http://trac.videolan.org/vlc/ticket/3707. Update 2011-01-17: fixed by F. Kühne in commit 96a396007a38db30423379e0f4c6b725bebfb4ce
• And now you're done. Build Lunettes (using the Xcode project) and start it from Run > Run in Xcode.

See my earlier posts for details on any of this.

I think Lunettes looked pretty promising, but as I said above all I got was a blank white area with audio instead of the video playing correctly. I don't know if the OS X version is being developed at the moment. The latest news I could find on the forum were from a few months back, and the last change in the Lunettes repository is from July.

If anyone else gets it working, I'd be interested too, especially so that I could try my new IVTC filter on the Mac ;)

All this doesn't sound very promising, but thanks. Not sure what I can do with my limited experience in compiling (I did git-vlc in Ubuntu but that was easy, with hold-your-hand instructions that actually work). No wonder that vlc on the Mac lacks developers, if it's that frustrating. And I fear that worse is yet to come, with OS X 10.7 looming on the horizon.

I think it's probably the other way around - it's gotten that frustrating because it lacks developers :)

I just noticed you mentioned 1.1.x, too. That one compiled successfully for me - at least 64-bit. I followed the instructions on the wiki: http://wiki.videolan.org/OSXCompile. If I recall correctly, the section Quick Steps on Mac OS X 10.6 was enough to get it working.

For 1.2-git, someone would need to update the video outputs, push the bugfixes into the official Lunettes repository, and to write new instructions for compiling. The last one is easy (can probably be adapted from what I just wrote), and for the second one I suppose I could post my fixes on the development mailing list for the dev team to catch. For the first one, I have absolutely no idea what has changed, so someone else would need to look into that.