You're right, I dwnlded an update just a month ago but I can't remember this issue. I just dwnlded the version from France & it's fine. It's purely an optional dwnld website you don't actually go to another website window. VLC is a European company to my understanding which is most likely why the mirror sites are mostly situated there. Not all software comes from US. A few yrs ago the best pro level audio, video & dvd apps all came from Europe until us co's bought over the rights to them (& their engineers) & now pretend that they're their creations!

So these mirror sites are what you should look at. France was fine (no it wasn't in Chinese or French!)