1Use the command line
- 1.2Opening streams
- 1.5Other Options
2Advanced use of filters
- 2.1Filters
- 2.2Subpictures Filters
4Other control interfaces
5The Mozilla plugin
- 5.1Install the plugin
  - 5.1.2Windows

Below are some handy guides for using VLC media player. Playing Video and Audio How to. Use Subtitles Playing movies with subtitles; Use a Capture Card This explains how to watch TV or get video from your capture card. VLC is a very popular free media player software that is capable of playing almost every type of media file. Recently, it's becoming the top media player application for iOS users to play multimedia files, so here we are going to share some useful tips for using VLC on your iOS device through this article. This is the user guide for the VLC media player. Quick start guide: How to start with VLC. Installation: Installation instructions for several systems. History: Overview and history of the VideoLAN project. Interface: The main interface of VLC media player. OSX Interface; Windows/Linux Interface; Open Media: Open every.

Use the command line

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All standard operations of VLC should be available from the GUI. However, some complex operations can only be done from the command line and there are situations in which you don't need or want a GUI. Here is the complete description of VLC's command line and how to use it.

You need to be quite comfortable with command line usage to use this.

Getting help

VLC uses a modular structure. The core mainly manages communication between modules. All the multimedia processing is done by modules. There are input modules, demultiplexers, decoders, video output modules, ..

This chapter will only describe the 'general' options, i.e. the core options. Each module adds new options. For example, the HTTP input module will add options for caching, proxy, authentication, ..

By using vlc --help, you will get the basic core options. vlc --longhelp will give all the basic options (core + modules). Adding --advanced will give the 'advanced options' (for advanced users). So vlc --longhelp --advanced will give you all options. You can also append --help-verbose if you want more detailed help.

Also, you might want to get debug information. To do this, use -v or -vv (this will show lower severity messages). If your console supports it, you can add --color to get messages in color.

Opening streams

The following commands start VLC and start reading the given element(s):

Opening a file

Start VLC with:

VLC should be able to recognize the file type. If it does not, you can force demultiplexer and decoder (see below).

A list of all video and audio codecs supported by VLC check the VLC features list.

Opening a DVD or VCD, or an audio CD

Start VLC with:

For a DVD with menus:

In most cases, vlc dvd:// or vlc dvd://[device] will do. [device] is for example /dev/dvd on GNU/Linux or D: on Windows (complete path to your DVD drive).

or

(DVD without menus):

or

(VCD):

or

(Audio CD):

Receiving a network stream

To receive an unicastRTP/UDP stream (sent by VLC's stream output), start VLC with:

If 5004 is the port to which packets are sent. 1234 is another commonly used port number. you use the default port (1234), vlc rtp:// will do. For more information, look at the Streaming Howto.

To receive an multicast UDP/RTP stream (sent by VLC's stream output), start VLC with:

To receive a SSM (source specific multicast) stream, you can use:

This only works on Operating systems that support SSM (Windows XP and Linux).

To receive a HTTP stream, start VLC with:

To receive a RTSP stream, start VLC with:</para>

Modules selection

VLC always tries to select the most appropriate interface, input and output modules, among the ones available on the system, according to the stream it is given to read. However, you may wish to force the use of a specific module with the following options.

--intf <module> allows you to select the interface module.
--extraintf <module> allows you to select extra interface modules that will be launched in addition to the main one. This is mainly useful for special control interfaces, like HTTP, RC (Remote Control), .. (see below)
--aout <module> allows you to select the audio output module.
--vout <module> allows you to select the video output module.
--memcpy <module> allows you to choose a memory copy module. You should probably never touch that.

You can get a listing of the available modules by using vlc -l

Stream Output

The Stream output system allows vlc to become a streaming server.

For more details on the stream output system, please have a look at the Streaming HowTo.

Other Options

Audio options

--noaudio disables audio output. Note that if you are streaming (ex: to a file) this has no effect (streaming copies the audio verbatim). Use --sout-xxx instead (ex: --no-sout-audio)
--mono forces VLC to treat the stream in mono audio.
--volume <integer> sets the level of audio output (between 0 and 1024). Also only applies to local playback (like --noaudio).
--aout-rate <integer> sets the audio output frequency (Hz). By default, VLC will try to autodetect this.
--desync <integer> compensates desynchronization of audio (ms). (If audio and video streams are not synchronized, use this setting to delay the audio stream)
--audio-filter <string> adds audio filters to the processing chain. Available filters are visual (visualizer with spectrum analyzer and oscilloscope), headphone (virtual headphone patialization) and normalizer (volume normalizer)

Video options

--no-video disables video output.
--grayscale turns video output into grayscale mode.
--fullscreen ( or -f) sets fullscreen video.
--nooverlay disables hardware acceleration for the video output.
--width, --height <integer> sets the video window dimensions. By default, the video window size will be adjusted to match the video dimensions.
--start-time <integer> starts the video here; the integer is the number of seconds from the beginning (e.g. 1:30 is written as 90)
--stop-time <integer> stops the video here; the integer is the number of seconds from the beginning (e.g. 1:30 is written as 90)
--zoom <float> adds a zoom factor.
--aspect-ratio <mode> forces source aspect ratio. Modes are 4x3, 16x9, ..
--spumargin <integer> forces SPU subtitles position.
--video-filter <string> adds video filters to the processing chain. You can add several filters, separated by commas
--sub-filter <string> adds video subpictures filter to the processing chain.

Desktop/Screen grab options

You can see the various options for 'grabbing the desktop' (VLC's built-in screen grabber capture device) by using the GUI. See https://forum.videolan.org/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=46971

Playlist options

--random plays files randomly forever.
--loop loops playlist on end.
--repeat repeats current item until another item is forced
--play-and-stop stops the playlist after each played item.

Network options

--server-port <integer> sets server port.
--iface <string> specifies the network interface to use.
--iface-addr <string> specifies your network interface IP address.
--mtu <integer> specifies the MTU of

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