MacLC is free. Keeping it working isn't.

MacLC is free and open source, and always will be. There is no paid tier and nothing is held back.

It is a fork of a very large codebase that upstream changes constantly. Every VLC release has to be merged, re-tested and re-measured. HDR behaviour changes with every macOS release — Apple changes tone-mapping semantics between versions and the whole path has to be re-verified.

Verification is the expensive part. The SDR → HDR shader was validated against a separately written CPU reference across the full signal range. That work keeps a picture correct, and it is invisible, unglamorous and slow.

Apple's developer program, notarisation and code signing cost money every year, whether anyone donates or not. An app that isn't signed and notarised is one macOS refuses to open. Real hardware costs money. HDR claims cannot be verified on a spec sheet — verifying behaviour across displays means having the displays.

If you can give something, it goes directly into that. If you can't, take it anyway — genuinely. Someone who tests it on a display we don't own and files a good bug report is worth more than most donations.