Introduction:
There are many media players out there. Some of the popular open-source media players are VLC media player and MPlayer, MPC. The main reason I love about VLC Player that its more than just a video player. It can convert, it can stream, it can record, it can rip CD’s DVDs and Blu Ray and much much more. It truly is the Swiss army knife for Video / Audio. And all of this for free!
10 Reasons why you should start using the VLC media player
- It’s open-source software. This means you are free to use the player in any circumstance, it’s safe and you can modify the source. You can also port VLC Media Player and modify it and redistribute it, as long as you give the original developer your modifications back and give them the credit they deserve.
- VLC supports a wide variety of audio and video codecs:
For example the following Video Codecs:
MPEG-1/2, DivX® (1/2/3/4/5/6), MPEG-4 ASP, XviD, 3ivX D4, H.261, H.263 / H.263i, H.264 / MPEG-4 AVC, Cinepak, Theora, Dirac / VC-2, MJPEG (A/B), WMV 1/2, WMV 3 / WMV-9 / VC-1, Sorenson 1/3, DV, On2 VP3/VP5/VP6, Indeo Video v3 (IV32), Real Video (1/2/3/4).
And the following Audio Codecs:
MPEG Layer 1/2, MP3 – MPEG Layer 3, AAC – MPEG-4 part3, Vorbis, AC3 – A/52, E-AC-3, MLP / TrueHD 3, DTS, WMA 1/2, WMA 3, FLAC, ALAC, Speex, Musepack / MPC, ATRAC 3, Wavpack, Mod, TrueAudio, APE, Real Audio, Alaw/µlaw, AMR (3GPP), MIDI, LPCM, ADPCM, QCELP, DV Audio, QDM2/QDMC, MACE.
As of 2017 VLC media player supports all video formats. - Another reason I love VLC media player is that you don’t need to download and install codec packs anymore that clutter your system and cause issues, like file version conflicts.
- It plays all video files and audio files flawlessly without looking for the right codecs or downloads a separate video player to play just that 1 file.
- The documentation is great, with tons of howto’s and has a great team of developers that are actively developing VLC media player. Also has many fan pages for example VLC Media Player Help, Guides and Tutorials. Together with a great community
- It saves you from installing multiple tools like converters, file splitter, or streaming, ripping tools. It is an all-in-one tool, keeping your system clean from clutter.
- The VLC media player has many hidden features, there is a powerful extensive add-on system that supports everything from skins to extensions
To install extensions you can download the
.lua
files and place them in theC:\users\<USERNAME>\AppData\Roaming\vlc\lua\extensions
folder. You might have to create the\lua\extensions
folder. Click the following link to download add-ons / skins / extensions. http://addons.videolan.org/ - VLC can be controlled from the keyboard only, with an extensive amount of keyboard shortcuts.
Here is the list of all the keyboard Shortcuts.File OperationsCTRL + O : Open a single file
CTRL + SHIFT + O : Open multiple files
CTRL + F : Open folder
CTRL + D : Open disk
CTRL + N : Open network stream
CTRL + C : Open capture device
CTRL + V : Open location copied in the clipboard
CTRL + R : Convert and save file
CTRL + S : Stream your media locally or on the internetProgram Operations
CTRL + Q or ALT + F4 or ALT + Q : Quit
CTRL + E : Open the adjustment and effects menu
CTRL + SHIFT + W : VLM Configuration
CTRL + M : Open the message screen
CTRL + P : Open the preferences menu
F1 : Help
SHIFT + F1 : AboutPlaying Operations
SPACE : Play and Pause a file
N : Next Track
P : Previous Track
F or F11 or Mouse Double Click : Full screen mode on and off
CTRL + H : Switch minimal interface on and off
T : Show current and remaining time information
CTRL + T : Go to a specific time of a playing media
P : Go and play from the start of a file
S : Stop movie
Esc : Full screen exit
E : Switch to next frame
L : Loop off, one or all
R : Random on and offSubtitles
G : Decrease subtitle delay
H : Increase subtitle delay
V : Cycle through subtitlesPlaying Speed
[ : Decrease playing speed
] : Increase playing speed
= : Normal playing speedQuick Forward and Backward
SHIFT + RIGHT ARROW : 3 seconds forward
SHIFT + LEFT ARROW : 3 seconds backward
ALT + RIGHT ARROW : 10 seconds forward
ALT + LEFT ARROW : 10 seconds backward
CTRL + RIGHT ARROW : 1 minute forward
CTRL + LEFT ARROW : 1 minute backwardDisplay Options
A: Cycle aspect ratio
C : Cycle through crop display area
Z : Cycle through zoom mode
D : De-interlace On and Off
O : Switch to original size of the video
W : Wallpaper mode on (with DirectX output)Sound and Audio Operations
CTRL + UP ARROW or Mouse Scroll Up : Volume Up
CTRL + DOWN ARROW or Mouse Scroll Down : Volume Down
J : Decrease audio delay
K : Increase audio delay
B : Cycle through available audio tracks
M : Mute sound on and off
Shift + A : Cycle through audio devicesMedia Information
CTRL + I : View and edit media information like title, artist, album
CTRL + J : View codec information like your media dimensions, audio and video codecsPlaylist Operations
CTRL + L : Switch to playlist or back to media
CTRL + Y : Save current playlist to a file
CTRL + B : Create, delete and clear bookmarks menu.Disc Operations
Shift + B : Next title
Shift + O : Previous title
Shift + N : Next chapter
Shift + P : Previous chapter
Shift + M : Disk Menu
Shift + H : History forward
Shift + G : History backMiscellaneous
Shift + R : Start and stop recording
Shift + S : Take snapshot
ALT + C : Crop from bottom
ALT+ SHIFT + C : Uncrop from bottom
ALT + D : Crop from left
ALT + SHIFT + D : Uncrop from left
ALT + F : Crop from right
ALT + SHIFT + F : Uncrop from right
ALT + R : Crop from top
ALT + SHIFT + R : Uncrop from topFile Menu Operations
ALT + M : Open media menu
ALT + L : Open playback menu
ALT + A : Open audio menu
ALT + V : Open video menu
ALT + S : Open subtitle menu
ALT + O : Open tools menu
ALT + I : Open view menu
ALT + H : Open help menu - VLC can also download YouTube videos with an extension called
youtube-dl
. - It is cross-platform, you can use it on your Android smartphone or iOS device, on your Windows or Linux desktop PC or Mac. The VLC media player also is the default media player of Kubuntu Linux as of version 17:10.
Conclusion:
VLC has many more features, I haven’t discussed in this article/howto. It has many great streaming features, hence the name VideoLanClient. I’ll get into further detail about it in a new revision of this article. I hope you find this post helpful. Don’t forget to leave your comments below.
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