VideoLAN Wiki - User contributions [en]

VLC HowTo/Make VLC the default player

2009-02-11T07:22:22Z

Nimitz Sad Dog:

== Windows ==

== Mac ==

== Linux ==

=== Fedora ===

==== GNOME ====

Gnome uses two lists (located at '''''/usr/share/applications/''''') '''mimeinfo.cache''' and '''defaults.list''', to register applications to file types. 
So you could either edit it manually or use the tools that GNOME has for this. 

===== Instructions on how to do it in GNOME. =====

===== Changing the default application for videos using menus(the easy way): =====

System -> Preferences -> Personal -> Preferred Applications -> Multimedia -> Custom -> Type this: vlc %U

ps: not tested yet.

===== Changing the default application for videos using menus(the not so easy way): =====

{| class="wikitable"
| * Right-click on the video file that you want VLC to open. * Choose properties. * Now in the properties window click on the tab named '''''Open With'''''. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/59/Properties_window.png/800px-Properties_window.png 
|-
| * In the tab '''''Open With''''' just choose VLC as your player for that type of file. Just remember that you will have to do this for each an every type of video/audio file('''ex:''' mpg, avi, rm, mkv, ogg, mp3 etc) http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/6b/Open_with_tab.png/800px-Open_with_tab.png 
|-
| * If the VLC icon don't show up on the '''''Open With''''' tab, click on the '''''add''''' button in the lower corner to the right of the window tha has a plus sign, and locate VLC on the window tha pops up that is called Add Application. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/51/Add_app.png 
|}

===== Changing the default application for videos manually(the hard way): =====

In Fedora 10 the path /usr/share/applications/ will take you to these 2 files that configure what application open a type of file. 
 
'''defaults.list''' 
'''mimeinfo.cache''' 
 
ps:
Both files will point to a Desktop Entry file([name of the file].desktop) that is inside the ''applications'' folder, and the 2 important things inside that file are the configurations for what MIME Types the application can handle and how to launch the application.

A ''Desktop Entry'' file is a data file that provides information about an item in a menu.
The desktop entry specification describes desktop entries as files describing information about an application such as the name, MIME Types it handles, icon, and description. These files are used for application launchers and for creating menus of applications that can be launched. 
If you don't have the VLC ''Desktop Entry'' file or it disapear for some reason you will have to make one. Look [http://library.gnome.org/admin/system-admin-guide/stable/menustructure-desktopentry.html.en here] for some pointers.
 

You only need to modify '''mimeinfo.cache''', I hope. It works here if It don't work for you please edit this. 

So what you have to do is:

# Open ''mimeinfo.cache'' as root.
# Search for the MIME Types for video.
# Change all of them to use VLC.

ex: 
Registry of MIME Type (video/quicktime) in ''mimeinfo.cache'' to use VLC. 
 
video/quicktime=livna-vlc.desktop;totem.desktop;miro.desktop; 
 
The format is: 
[MIME Type]=[Name of the Desktop Entry file] 
 
'''Note:''' You can put more then one ''Desktop Entry'' but they need to be separated by a semi-colon (;), see the example above. 
Those extra entries will appear as options when you right-click on the video file and go to the ''Open With'' submenu. 
'''Tip:''' Nautilus don't show the real names of the ''Desktop Entry'' files. Either drag and drop it on gedit so you see the name on the tab or use '''ls''' to list the files on the command line.
===== References =====

[http://library.gnome.org/admin/system-admin-guide/stable/menustructure-desktopentry.html.en Desktop Entry Files]

[http://library.gnome.org/admin/system-admin-guide/stable/mimetypes-registering.html.en Registering Applications for MIME Types] (Editing defaults.list and mimeinfo.cache)

==== KDE ====

VLC HowTo/Make VLC the default player

2009-02-11T04:02:01Z

Nimitz Sad Dog:

== Windows ==

== Mac ==

== Linux ==

=== Fedora ===

==== GNOME ====

Gnome use a list that is located in '''''/usr/share/applications/defaults.list''''' to associate applications to file types. 
So you could either edit it manually or use the tools that GNOME has for this. 

===== Instructions on how to do it in GNOME. =====

{| class="wikitable"
| * Right-click on the video file that you want VLC to open. * Choose properties. * Now in the properties window click on the tab named '''''Open With'''''. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/59/Properties_window.png/800px-Properties_window.png 
|-
| * In the tab '''''Open With''''' just choose VLC as your player for that type of file. Just remember that you will have to do this for each an every type of video/audio file('''ex:''' mpg, avi, rm, mkv, ogg, mp3 etc) http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/6b/Open_with_tab.png/800px-Open_with_tab.png 
|-
| * If the VLC icon don't show up on the '''''Open With''''' tab, click on the '''''add''''' button in the lower corner to the right of the window tha has a plus sign, and locate VLC on the window tha pops up that is called Add Application. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/51/Add_app.png 
|}
==== KDE ====

Talk:VLC HowTo/Make thumbnails

2009-02-11T02:03:41Z

Nimitz Sad Dog: /* Options Reference */

(~) I would like to know if it is ok to modify the page like this?

Changes:

I added a linux section, but I'm not sure if it's good or not. Any sugestions?
And this is my very first edit so is more like a test for me to get the handle on things.

What I did try to do was give some more information and change some formatting.

([[User:Nimitz Sad Dog|Nimitz Sad Dog]] 12:15, 10 February 2009 (CET))

==How to create a thumbnail from a video==

For all those people wanting a thumbnail from a video, use the following command:

(win)
<pre>vlc -V image --start-time 0 --stop-time 1 --image-out-format jpg --image-out-ratio 24 --image-out-prefix snap test.mpg vlc://quit</pre>

===What it does:===

When {{VLC}} runs it 'plays' the video for one second without actually showing the video on screen, and then quits, leaving us with a file named 'snap000000.jpg', containing an image of the first frame of the video.

===How it works:===

First select the image output with: '''-V image''' or '''--vout image'''.

Next set the interval (in seconds) you want an image from with: '''--start-time 0 --stop-time 1'''
In my example the first second of the video. In that case you could omit the parameter --start-time. If you want an image from the 5th second fill in: '''--start-time 5 --stop-time 6'''

The image format will be .jpg because i provided: '''--image-out-format jpg'''. You could specify '''--image-out-format png''' to get a .png-image instead.

'''--image-out-ratio 24''' specifies we want one image out of 24. In my case the video contains 24 images per second so this is the right value. If your video has more images per seconds you should increase this value to prevend you get more images as one. If the number is too high (for example 500) it still produces only one image, so the actual value is not so important as long as it is higher then the images per second.

'''--image-out-prefix snap''' specifies the filename must start with 'snap'. You can prefix with a path, for example c:\snap and resulting images will be created there.

You can specify '''--image-out-replace'''. In that case Vlc produces the file 'snap.jpg'. This will prevent VLC from creating multiple images.

'''test.mpg''' specifies the video to play and finally '''vlc://quit''' forces vlc to quit when ready.

== Linux ==

=== Fedora===

==== What You Need: ====

* Video: [http://www.bigbuckbunny.org/index.php/download/ Big Buck Bunny] License: [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ Creative Commons Attribution 3.0]
* [http://www.videolan.org/vlc/ VLC Media Player] License: [http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-2.0.html GPL 2.0]

==== Getting Started ====

Using this command in the folder that you download the movie(or you can pass the path to the file in the command line).

<pre>vlc -V image --start-time 13 --stop-time 14 --image-out-format png --image-out-width 128 --image-out-height 128 --image-out-ratio 24 --image-out-prefix thumbnail --image-out-replace big_buck_bunny_1080p_stereo.ogg vlc://quit</pre>

You should get something like this: 

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/86/Vlc_thumbnail_big_buck_bunny.png

Since I downloaded the '''big_buck_bunny_1080p_stereo.ogg''' that is the name of the file that I put in the command line. But you can do it with any video file you want to. 
If the name of the file have spaces just put it in single or double quotes. 
Ex:
'big buck bunny 1080p stereo.ogg' or "big buck bunny 1080p stereo.ogg" or '/home/[username here]/Desktop/big buck bunny 1080p stereo.ogg'

==== What Its Happening? ====

VLC will start playing the movie without the image because the images are not going to the display but to the output file '''"thumbnail"''' with the extension '''PNG''' that VLC created by now in the folder you launched the command in, and it should close after a second into the video(if the video starts from the begning probably VLC didn't recognize the file header see options references for more details), don't be worried if you hear the soundtrack. After that if you look at the folder you will see a new file called "thumbnail.png".

If you want to understand what is going on read the options reference.

==== Options Reference ====

{| class="wikitable"
| '''Option'''
|
| '''Value'''
| '''Default'''
| '''Description'''
| '''Reference'''
|-
| '''Short'''
| '''Long'''
|
|
|
|
|-
| '''-V'''
| '''--vout'''
| image aa caca x11 xvideo glx opengl snapshot dummy
| Automatically select the best method available.
| Select the output. This means where to send the video stream to. Using '''''image''''' as destination means VLC will create a file somewhere.
| '''[http://wiki.videolan.org/Video_Output Video Output]'''
|-
|
| '''--start-time'''
| integer
|
| Start time. The stream will start at this position (in seconds). ps: Beware that if VLC don't recognize the header of the file this doesn't work well. 
| '''[http://wiki.videolan.org/VLC_command-line_help VLC Command Line Help]'''
|-
|
| '''--stop-time'''
| integer
|
| Stop time The stream will stop at this position (in seconds). ps: Beware that if VLC don't recognize the header of the file this doesn't work well.
| '''[http://wiki.videolan.org/VLC_command-line_help VLC Command Line Help]'''
|-
|
| '''--image-out-format'''
| png, jpeg
| png
| Choose the image file format for the output destination.
| '''[http://wiki.videolan.org/Documentation:Modules/image Image video output]'''
|-
|
| '''--image-out-width'''
| integer
| -1
| You can force an image width. The default '''-1''' will adapt to the video characteristics. ps: If you don't set this parameter VLC will save the image with its original size.
| '''[http://wiki.videolan.org/Documentation:Modules/image Image video output]'''
|-
|
| '''--image-out-height'''
| integer
| -1
| You can force the image height. The default '''-1''' will adapt to the video characteristics. ps: If you don't set this parameter VLC will save the image with its original size.
| '''[http://wiki.videolan.org/Documentation:Modules/image Image video output]'''
|-
|
| '''--image-out-ratio'''
| integer
| 3
| Ratio of images to record. 3 means that one image out of three is recorded. The ratio is calculate based on the framerate of the video so if your video have a framerate of 24 frames per second and you set the --image-out-ratio to 3 you should get 8 image files. '''ps:''' Beware that if VLC don't recognize the header of the file this doesn't work. You have to use '''--image-out-replace''' instead.
| '''[http://wiki.videolan.org/Documentation:Modules/image Image video output]'''
|-
|
| '''--image-out-prefix'''
| string
| img
| Prefix of the output images filenames. Output filenames will have the [prefix][NUMBER].[Image Format] form (ex: img101.png). Starting with VLC 0.9.0 you can also use [http://wiki.videolan.org/Documentation:Play_HowTo/Format_String format time and meta variables].
| '''[http://wiki.videolan.org/Documentation:Modules/image Image video output]'''
|-
|
| '''--image-out-replace'''
|
| disabled
| Always write to the same file. This means that the last image captured will be the one you will see saved.
| '''[http://wiki.videolan.org/Documentation:Modules/image Image video output]'''
|-
|
| '''vlc://quit'''
|
|
| Special item to quit VLC. Works with the command '''cvlc''' too.
| '''[http://wiki.videolan.org/VLC_command-line_help VLC Command Line Help]'''
|}

== Credits: ==
 
[http://www.bigbuckbunny.org/ Big Buck Bunny] was produced by [http://www.blender.org/ Blender Foundation]

VLC HowTo/Make VLC the default player

2009-02-11T01:39:46Z

Nimitz Sad Dog:

== Windows ==

== Mac ==

== Linux ==

=== Fedora ===

==== GNOME ====

Gnome use a list that is located in '''''/usr/share/applications/defaults.list''''' to associate applications to file types. 
So you could eirther edited manually or use the tools that Gnome has for this. 

===== Instructions on how to do it in GNOME. =====

{| class="wikitable"
| * Right-click on the video file that you want VLC to open. * Choose properties. * Now in the properties window click on the tab named '''''Open With'''''. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/59/Properties_window.png/800px-Properties_window.png 
|-
| * In the tab '''''Open With''''' just choose VLC as your player for that type of file. Just remember that you will have to do this for each an every type of video/audio file('''ex:''' mpg, avi, rm, mkv, ogg, mp3 etc) http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/6b/Open_with_tab.png/800px-Open_with_tab.png 
|-
| * If the VLC icon don't show up on the '''''Open With''''' tab, click on the '''''add''''' button in the lower conner to the right of the window tha has a plus sign, and locate VLC on the window tha pops up that is called Add Application. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/51/Add_app.png 
|}
==== KDE ====

Talk:VLC HowTo/Make thumbnails

2009-02-11T01:23:10Z

Nimitz Sad Dog: /* What Its Happening? */

(~) I would like to know if it is ok to modify the page like this?

Changes:

I added a linux section, but I'm not sure if it's good or not. Any sugestions?
And this is my very first edit so is more like a test for me to get the handle on things.

What I did try to do was give some more information and change some formatting.

([[User:Nimitz Sad Dog|Nimitz Sad Dog]] 12:15, 10 February 2009 (CET))

==How to create a thumbnail from a video==

For all those people wanting a thumbnail from a video, use the following command:

(win)
<pre>vlc -V image --start-time 0 --stop-time 1 --image-out-format jpg --image-out-ratio 24 --image-out-prefix snap test.mpg vlc://quit</pre>

===What it does:===

When {{VLC}} runs it 'plays' the video for one second without actually showing the video on screen, and then quits, leaving us with a file named 'snap000000.jpg', containing an image of the first frame of the video.

===How it works:===

First select the image output with: '''-V image''' or '''--vout image'''.

Next set the interval (in seconds) you want an image from with: '''--start-time 0 --stop-time 1'''
In my example the first second of the video. In that case you could omit the parameter --start-time. If you want an image from the 5th second fill in: '''--start-time 5 --stop-time 6'''

The image format will be .jpg because i provided: '''--image-out-format jpg'''. You could specify '''--image-out-format png''' to get a .png-image instead.

'''--image-out-ratio 24''' specifies we want one image out of 24. In my case the video contains 24 images per second so this is the right value. If your video has more images per seconds you should increase this value to prevend you get more images as one. If the number is too high (for example 500) it still produces only one image, so the actual value is not so important as long as it is higher then the images per second.

'''--image-out-prefix snap''' specifies the filename must start with 'snap'. You can prefix with a path, for example c:\snap and resulting images will be created there.

You can specify '''--image-out-replace'''. In that case Vlc produces the file 'snap.jpg'. This will prevent VLC from creating multiple images.

'''test.mpg''' specifies the video to play and finally '''vlc://quit''' forces vlc to quit when ready.

== Linux ==

=== Fedora===

==== What You Need: ====

* Video: [http://www.bigbuckbunny.org/index.php/download/ Big Buck Bunny] License: [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ Creative Commons Attribution 3.0]
* [http://www.videolan.org/vlc/ VLC Media Player] License: [http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-2.0.html GPL 2.0]

==== Getting Started ====

Using this command in the folder that you download the movie(or you can pass the path to the file in the command line).

<pre>vlc -V image --start-time 13 --stop-time 14 --image-out-format png --image-out-width 128 --image-out-height 128 --image-out-ratio 24 --image-out-prefix thumbnail --image-out-replace big_buck_bunny_1080p_stereo.ogg vlc://quit</pre>

You should get something like this: 

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/86/Vlc_thumbnail_big_buck_bunny.png

Since I downloaded the '''big_buck_bunny_1080p_stereo.ogg''' that is the name of the file that I put in the command line. But you can do it with any video file you want to. 
If the name of the file have spaces just put it in single or double quotes. 
Ex:
'big buck bunny 1080p stereo.ogg' or "big buck bunny 1080p stereo.ogg" or '/home/[username here]/Desktop/big buck bunny 1080p stereo.ogg'

==== What Its Happening? ====

VLC will start playing the movie without the image because the images are not going to the display but to the output file '''"thumbnail"''' with the extension '''PNG''' that VLC created by now in the folder you launched the command in, and it should close after a second into the video(if the video starts from the begning probably VLC didn't recognize the file header see options references for more details), don't be worried if you hear the soundtrack. After that if you look at the folder you will see a new file called "thumbnail.png".

If you want to understand what is going on read the options reference.

==== Options Reference ====

{| class="wikitable"
| '''Option'''
|
| '''Value'''
| '''Default'''
| '''Description'''
| '''Reference'''
|-
| '''Short'''
| '''Long'''
|
|
|
|
|-
| '''-V'''
| '''--vout'''
| image aa caca x11 xvideo glx opengl snapshot dummy
| Automatically select the best method available.
| Select the output. This means where to send the video stream to. Using '''''image''''' as destination means VLC will create a file somewhere.
| '''[http://wiki.videolan.org/Video_Output Video Output]'''
|-
|
| '''--start-time'''
| integer
|
| Start time. The stream will start at this position (in seconds). ps: Beware that if VLC don't reconize the header of the file this doesn't work well. 
| '''[http://wiki.videolan.org/VLC_command-line_help VLC Command Line Help]'''
|-
|
| '''--stop-time'''
| integer
|
| Stop time The stream will stop at this position (in seconds). ps: Beware that if VLC don't reconize the header of the file this doesn't work well.
| '''[http://wiki.videolan.org/VLC_command-line_help VLC Command Line Help]'''
|-
|
| '''--image-out-format'''
| png, jpeg
| png
| Choose the image file format for the output destination.
| '''[http://wiki.videolan.org/Documentation:Modules/image Image video output]'''
|-
|
| '''--image-out-width'''
| integer
| -1
| You can force an image width. The default '''-1''' will adapt to the video characteristics. ps: If you don't set this parameter VLC will save the image with its original size.
| '''[http://wiki.videolan.org/Documentation:Modules/image Image video output]'''
|-
|
| '''--image-out-height'''
| integer
| -1
| You can force the image height. The default '''-1''' will adapt to the video characteristics. ps: If you don't set this parameter VLC will save the image with its original size.
| '''[http://wiki.videolan.org/Documentation:Modules/image Image video output]'''
|-
|
| '''--image-out-ratio'''
| integer
| 3
| Ratio of images to record. 3 means that one image out of three is recorded. The ratio is calculate based on the framerate of the video so if your video have a framerate of 24 frames per second and you set the --image-out-ratio to 3 you should get 8 image files. '''ps:''' Beware that if VLC don't reconize the header of the file this doesn't work. You have to use '''--image-out-replace''' instead.
| '''[http://wiki.videolan.org/Documentation:Modules/image Image video output]'''
|-
|
| '''--image-out-prefix'''
| string
| img
| Prefix of the output images filenames. Output filenames will have the [prefix][NUMBER].[Image Format] form (ex: img101.png). Starting with VLC 0.9.0 you can also use [http://wiki.videolan.org/Documentation:Play_HowTo/Format_String format time and meta variables].
| '''[http://wiki.videolan.org/Documentation:Modules/image Image video output]'''
|-
|
| '''--image-out-replace'''
|
| disabled
| Always write to the same file. This means that the last image captured will be the one you will see saved.
| '''[http://wiki.videolan.org/Documentation:Modules/image Image video output]'''
|-
|
| '''vlc://quit'''
|
|
| Special item to quit VLC. Works with the comand '''cvlc''' too.
| '''[http://wiki.videolan.org/VLC_command-line_help VLC Command Line Help]'''
|}

== Credits: ==
 
[http://www.bigbuckbunny.org/ Big Buck Bunny] was produced by [http://www.blender.org/ Blender Foundation]

VLC HowTo

2009-02-11T01:17:19Z

Nimitz Sad Dog: /* Other Stuff */

__NOTOC__
Below are some handy guides for using {{VLC}}

===Playing Video and Audio===
;How to...
* [[What can vlc do#How to enable/use subtitles|Use Subtitles]]
*: Playing movies with subtitles
* [[How to Use a Capture Card|Use a Capture Card]]
*: This explains how to watch TV or get video from your capture card.
* [[What can vlc do#Play DVD/SVCD/VCD iso's / Images|Play DVDs and Disks from the image file]]
*: This explains how to use movies encoded onto an ISO file.

===Adjusting Settings===
;How to...
* [[What can vlc do#How to adjust picture brightness/colors/contrast..|Adjust Picture Brightness and Contrast]]
* [[What can vlc do#How to control the aspect ratio of the video|Edit the Aspect Ratio of a video]]
* [[How_to_disable_acceleration_in_Win32|Disable video acceleration in Win32]]
* [[How_to_save_bookmarks | Save bookmarks]]
* [[How_to_play_multiple_instances_of_VLC | How to play multiple instances]]

===Remote Control for VLC===
;How to...
* [[Control VLC via a browser]]
*: This explains how to use the HTTP [[interface]]
* [[Control VLC via a widget]] on the Mac desktop
* [[Control VLC from an iPhone]]
* [[How to Use Creative Remote]]
*: Explains how to control {{VLC}} with Creative brand remote controls

===Transcoding and Streaming===
;How to...
* [[iPod Video Conversion Guide|Play videos on your iPod]]
*: This explains how to convert your videos so they play on your iPod.
* [[Play_on_Yan Micro|Play videos on your Play-Yan Micro]]
*: This explains how to convert your videos so they play on your Play-Yan Micro.
* [[Play_on_Xbox|Play videos on your XBox and XBox 360 ]]
*: This explains how to convert your videos so they play on your XBox.
* [[Play_on_Zune| Play video on your Zune]]
*: This explains how to convert your videos so they play on your Zune.
* [[Fixing .flv to .avi with Ffmpeg]]
*: This explains how to use ffmpeg to a convert broken .flv files to a perfectly good .avi file '''DEPRECATED'''
* [[Transcode_WM_to_Mov_or_MP4|Convert Windows Media audio/video files to MOV or .MP4]]
*: This explains how to convert Windows Media-encoded files to Quicktime or MPEG-4 files
* [[Streaming_to_ActiveX_for_Windows_Media_Player | Streaming from a webcam to an ActiveX embedded object page]]
* [[How_to_add_logo | Add a logo on your videos]]
* [[Mosaic| Create a Mosaic]]
*: This explains how to set up a mosaic from a few streams like a TV portal.
* [[How to DBox|Set up Video on Demand on a Dreambox]]
* [[How to Batch Encode]]
*: This explains how to set up a batch transcode with all files in a directory of a certain file extension being transcoded to a specified format.
* [[How to merge and transcode multiple videos]]
*: This explains how to take several source videos and merge then transcode resulting in a single file output.

===Using VLC in other Applications===
;How to...
* [[ActiveX]]
*: Specification for ActiveX control
* [[ExternalAPI|Use VLC's External API]]
*: Information for using libvlc
* [[Use in Media Center]]
* [[Useful Firefox Extensions]]
*: Information about extensions to view embedded videos in web pages using VLC
* [[GWT]]
*: Google WebToolkit

===Other Stuff===
;How to...
* [[How to Create a DVD|Create a DVD]]
*: This explains how to make a DVD from your home videos
* [[ActiveX/Delphi|Use the ActiveX control with Borland's Delphi]]
*: Using the VLC ActiveX plug-in in your programs
* [[ActiveX/HTML|Use the ActiveX control within a webpage.]]
* [[HowTo_Integrate_VLC_plugin_in_your_webpage|Integrate ActiveX/Mozilla on your webpage]]
* [[Change the brightness or contrast of a video|Change a video]]
*: This explains how to edit a video and save the changes
* [[How to create thumbnails]]
* [[How to Use Lirc]]
* [[How to shut down computer]] when VLC playback is over...
* [[How to make VLC the default player]]

== See also ==
* '''See also [[:Category:How To]]'''
[[Category:How To]]

VLC HowTo/Make VLC the default player

2009-02-11T01:12:17Z

Nimitz Sad Dog: New page: == Windows == == Linux == === Fedora === ==== GNOME ==== Gnome use a list that is located in '''''/usr/share/applications/defaults.list''''' to associate applications to file type...

== Windows ==

== Linux ==

=== Fedora ===

==== GNOME ====

Gnome use a list that is located in '''''/usr/share/applications/defaults.list''''' to associate applications to file types. 
So you could eirther edited manually or use the tools that Gnome has for this. 

===== Instructions on how to do it in GNOME. =====

{| class="wikitable"
| * Right-click on the video file that you want VLC to open. * Choose properties. * Now in the properties window click on the tab named '''''Open With'''''. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/59/Properties_window.png/800px-Properties_window.png 
|-
| * In the tab '''''Open With''''' just choose VLC as your player for that type of file. Just remember that you will have to do this for each an every type of video/audio file('''ex:''' mpg, avi, rm, mkv, ogg, mp3 etc) http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/6b/Open_with_tab.png/800px-Open_with_tab.png 
|-
| * If the VLC icon don't show up on the '''''Open With''''' tab, click on the '''''add''''' button in the lower conner to the right of the window tha has a plus sign, and locate VLC on the window tha pops up that is called Add Application. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/51/Add_app.png 
|}
==== KDE ====

Talk:VLC HowTo/Make thumbnails

2009-02-10T11:15:48Z

Nimitz Sad Dog:

(~) I would like to know if it is ok to modify the page like this?

Changes:

I added a linux section, but I'm not sure if it's good or not. Any sugestions?
And this is my very first edit so is more like a test for me to get the handle on things.

What I did try to do was give some more information and change some formatting.

([[User:Nimitz Sad Dog|Nimitz Sad Dog]] 12:15, 10 February 2009 (CET))

==How to create a thumbnail from a video==

For all those people wanting a thumbnail from a video, use the following command:

(win)
<pre>vlc -V image --start-time 0 --stop-time 1 --image-out-format jpg --image-out-ratio 24 --image-out-prefix snap test.mpg vlc://quit</pre>

===What it does:===

When {{VLC}} runs it 'plays' the video for one second without actually showing the video on screen, and then quits, leaving us with a file named 'snap000000.jpg', containing an image of the first frame of the video.

===How it works:===

First select the image output with: '''-V image''' or '''--vout image'''.

Next set the interval (in seconds) you want an image from with: '''--start-time 0 --stop-time 1'''
In my example the first second of the video. In that case you could omit the parameter --start-time. If you want an image from the 5th second fill in: '''--start-time 5 --stop-time 6'''

The image format will be .jpg because i provided: '''--image-out-format jpg'''. You could specify '''--image-out-format png''' to get a .png-image instead.

'''--image-out-ratio 24''' specifies we want one image out of 24. In my case the video contains 24 images per second so this is the right value. If your video has more images per seconds you should increase this value to prevend you get more images as one. If the number is too high (for example 500) it still produces only one image, so the actual value is not so important as long as it is higher then the images per second.

'''--image-out-prefix snap''' specifies the filename must start with 'snap'. You can prefix with a path, for example c:\snap and resulting images will be created there.

You can specify '''--image-out-replace'''. In that case Vlc produces the file 'snap.jpg'. This will prevent VLC from creating multiple images.

'''test.mpg''' specifies the video to play and finally '''vlc://quit''' forces vlc to quit when ready.

== Linux ==

=== Fedora===

==== What You Need: ====

* Video: [http://www.bigbuckbunny.org/index.php/download/ Big Buck Bunny] License: [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ Creative Commons Attribution 3.0]
* [http://www.videolan.org/vlc/ VLC Media Player] License: [http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-2.0.html GPL 2.0]

==== Getting Started ====

Using this command in the folder that you download the movie(or you can pass the path to the file in the command line).

<pre>vlc -V image --start-time 13 --stop-time 14 --image-out-format png --image-out-width 128 --image-out-height 128 --image-out-ratio 24 --image-out-prefix thumbnail --image-out-replace big_buck_bunny_1080p_stereo.ogg vlc://quit</pre>

You should get something like this: 

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/86/Vlc_thumbnail_big_buck_bunny.png

Since I downloaded the '''big_buck_bunny_1080p_stereo.ogg''' that is the name of the file that I put in the command line. But you can do it with any video file you want to. 
If the name of the file have spaces just put it in single or double quotes. 
Ex:
'big buck bunny 1080p stereo.ogg' or "big buck bunny 1080p stereo.ogg" or '/home/[username here]/Desktop/big buck bunny 1080p stereo.ogg'

==== What Its Happening? ====

VLC will start playing the movie without the image because the images are not going to the display but to the output file '''"thumbnail"''' with the extension '''PNG''' that VLC created by now in the folder you launched the command in, and it should close after a second into the video(if the video starts from the begning probably VLC didn't recognize the file header see options references for more details), don't be worried if you hear the soundtrack. After that if you look at the folder you will see a new file called "snap.png".

If you want to understand what is going on read the options reference.

==== Options Reference ====

{| class="wikitable"
| '''Option'''
|
| '''Value'''
| '''Default'''
| '''Description'''
| '''Reference'''
|-
| '''Short'''
| '''Long'''
|
|
|
|
|-
| '''-V'''
| '''--vout'''
| image aa caca x11 xvideo glx opengl snapshot dummy
| Automatically select the best method available.
| Select the output. This means where to send the video stream to. Using '''''image''''' as destination means VLC will create a file somewhere.
| '''[http://wiki.videolan.org/Video_Output Video Output]'''
|-
|
| '''--start-time'''
| integer
|
| Start time. The stream will start at this position (in seconds). ps: Beware that if VLC don't reconize the header of the file this doesn't work well. 
| '''[http://wiki.videolan.org/VLC_command-line_help VLC Command Line Help]'''
|-
|
| '''--stop-time'''
| integer
|
| Stop time The stream will stop at this position (in seconds). ps: Beware that if VLC don't reconize the header of the file this doesn't work well.
| '''[http://wiki.videolan.org/VLC_command-line_help VLC Command Line Help]'''
|-
|
| '''--image-out-format'''
| png, jpeg
| png
| Choose the image file format for the output destination.
| '''[http://wiki.videolan.org/Documentation:Modules/image Image video output]'''
|-
|
| '''--image-out-width'''
| integer
| -1
| You can force an image width. The default '''-1''' will adapt to the video characteristics. ps: If you don't set this parameter VLC will save the image with its original size.
| '''[http://wiki.videolan.org/Documentation:Modules/image Image video output]'''
|-
|
| '''--image-out-height'''
| integer
| -1
| You can force the image height. The default '''-1''' will adapt to the video characteristics. ps: If you don't set this parameter VLC will save the image with its original size.
| '''[http://wiki.videolan.org/Documentation:Modules/image Image video output]'''
|-
|
| '''--image-out-ratio'''
| integer
| 3
| Ratio of images to record. 3 means that one image out of three is recorded. The ratio is calculate based on the framerate of the video so if your video have a framerate of 24 frames per second and you set the --image-out-ratio to 3 you should get 8 image files. '''ps:''' Beware that if VLC don't reconize the header of the file this doesn't work. You have to use '''--image-out-replace''' instead.
| '''[http://wiki.videolan.org/Documentation:Modules/image Image video output]'''
|-
|
| '''--image-out-prefix'''
| string
| img
| Prefix of the output images filenames. Output filenames will have the [prefix][NUMBER].[Image Format] form (ex: img101.png). Starting with VLC 0.9.0 you can also use [http://wiki.videolan.org/Documentation:Play_HowTo/Format_String format time and meta variables].
| '''[http://wiki.videolan.org/Documentation:Modules/image Image video output]'''
|-
|
| '''--image-out-replace'''
|
| disabled
| Always write to the same file. This means that the last image captured will be the one you will see saved.
| '''[http://wiki.videolan.org/Documentation:Modules/image Image video output]'''
|-
|
| '''vlc://quit'''
|
|
| Special item to quit VLC. Works with the comand '''cvlc''' too.
| '''[http://wiki.videolan.org/VLC_command-line_help VLC Command Line Help]'''
|}

== Credits: ==
 
[http://www.bigbuckbunny.org/ Big Buck Bunny] was produced by [http://www.blender.org/ Blender Foundation]

Talk:VLC HowTo/Make thumbnails

2009-02-10T10:57:13Z

Nimitz Sad Dog: /* What You Need: */

= I would like to know if it is ok to modify the page like this? =

Changes:

I added a linux section, but I'm not sure if it's good or not. Any sugestions?
And this is my very first edit so is more like a test for me to get the handle on things.

What I did try to do was give some more information and change some formatting.

==How to create a thumbnail from a video==

For all those people wanting a thumbnail from a video, use the following command:

(win)
<pre>vlc -V image --start-time 0 --stop-time 1 --image-out-format jpg --image-out-ratio 24 --image-out-prefix snap test.mpg vlc://quit</pre>

===What it does:===

When {{VLC}} runs it 'plays' the video for one second without actually showing the video on screen, and then quits, leaving us with a file named 'snap000000.jpg', containing an image of the first frame of the video.

===How it works:===

First select the image output with: '''-V image''' or '''--vout image'''.

Next set the interval (in seconds) you want an image from with: '''--start-time 0 --stop-time 1'''
In my example the first second of the video. In that case you could omit the parameter --start-time. If you want an image from the 5th second fill in: '''--start-time 5 --stop-time 6'''

The image format will be .jpg because i provided: '''--image-out-format jpg'''. You could specify '''--image-out-format png''' to get a .png-image instead.

'''--image-out-ratio 24''' specifies we want one image out of 24. In my case the video contains 24 images per second so this is the right value. If your video has more images per seconds you should increase this value to prevend you get more images as one. If the number is too high (for example 500) it still produces only one image, so the actual value is not so important as long as it is higher then the images per second.

'''--image-out-prefix snap''' specifies the filename must start with 'snap'. You can prefix with a path, for example c:\snap and resulting images will be created there.

You can specify '''--image-out-replace'''. In that case Vlc produces the file 'snap.jpg'. This will prevent VLC from creating multiple images.

'''test.mpg''' specifies the video to play and finally '''vlc://quit''' forces vlc to quit when ready.

== Linux ==

=== Fedora===

==== What You Need: ====

* Video: [http://www.bigbuckbunny.org/index.php/download/ Big Buck Bunny] License: [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ Creative Commons Attribution 3.0]
* [http://www.videolan.org/vlc/ VLC Media Player] License: [http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-2.0.html GPL 2.0]

==== Getting Started ====

Using this command in the folder that you download the movie(or you can pass the path to the file in the command line).

<pre>vlc -V image --start-time 13 --stop-time 14 --image-out-format png --image-out-width 128 --image-out-height 128 --image-out-ratio 24 --image-out-prefix thumbnail --image-out-replace big_buck_bunny_1080p_stereo.ogg vlc://quit</pre>

You should get something like this: 

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/86/Vlc_thumbnail_big_buck_bunny.png

Since I downloaded the '''big_buck_bunny_1080p_stereo.ogg''' that is the name of the file that I put in the command line. But you can do it with any video file you want to. 
If the name of the file have spaces just put it in single or double quotes. 
Ex:
'big buck bunny 1080p stereo.ogg' or "big buck bunny 1080p stereo.ogg" or '/home/[username here]/Desktop/big buck bunny 1080p stereo.ogg'

==== What Its Happening? ====

VLC will start playing the movie without the image because the images are not going to the display but to the output file '''"thumbnail"''' with the extension '''PNG''' that VLC created by now in the folder you launched the command in, and it should close after a second into the video(if the video starts from the begning probably VLC didn't recognize the file header see options references for more details), don't be worried if you hear the soundtrack. After that if you look at the folder you will see a new file called "snap.png".

If you want to understand what is going on read the options reference.

==== Options Reference ====

{| class="wikitable"
| '''Option'''
|
| '''Value'''
| '''Default'''
| '''Description'''
| '''Reference'''
|-
| '''Short'''
| '''Long'''
|
|
|
|
|-
| '''-V'''
| '''--vout'''
| image aa caca x11 xvideo glx opengl snapshot dummy
| Automatically select the best method available.
| Select the output. This means where to send the video stream to. Using '''''image''''' as destination means VLC will create a file somewhere.
| '''[http://wiki.videolan.org/Video_Output Video Output]'''
|-
|
| '''--start-time'''
| integer
|
| Start time. The stream will start at this position (in seconds). ps: Beware that if VLC don't reconize the header of the file this doesn't work well. 
| '''[http://wiki.videolan.org/VLC_command-line_help VLC Command Line Help]'''
|-
|
| '''--stop-time'''
| integer
|
| Stop time The stream will stop at this position (in seconds). ps: Beware that if VLC don't reconize the header of the file this doesn't work well.
| '''[http://wiki.videolan.org/VLC_command-line_help VLC Command Line Help]'''
|-
|
| '''--image-out-format'''
| png, jpeg
| png
| Choose the image file format for the output destination.
| '''[http://wiki.videolan.org/Documentation:Modules/image Image video output]'''
|-
|
| '''--image-out-width'''
| integer
| -1
| You can force an image width. The default '''-1''' will adapt to the video characteristics. ps: If you don't set this parameter VLC will save the image with its original size.
| '''[http://wiki.videolan.org/Documentation:Modules/image Image video output]'''
|-
|
| '''--image-out-height'''
| integer
| -1
| You can force the image height. The default '''-1''' will adapt to the video characteristics. ps: If you don't set this parameter VLC will save the image with its original size.
| '''[http://wiki.videolan.org/Documentation:Modules/image Image video output]'''
|-
|
| '''--image-out-ratio'''
| integer
| 3
| Ratio of images to record. 3 means that one image out of three is recorded. The ratio is calculate based on the framerate of the video so if your video have a framerate of 24 frames per second and you set the --image-out-ratio to 3 you should get 8 image files. '''ps:''' Beware that if VLC don't reconize the header of the file this doesn't work. You have to use '''--image-out-replace''' instead.
| '''[http://wiki.videolan.org/Documentation:Modules/image Image video output]'''
|-
|
| '''--image-out-prefix'''
| string
| img
| Prefix of the output images filenames. Output filenames will have the [prefix][NUMBER].[Image Format] form (ex: img101.png). Starting with VLC 0.9.0 you can also use [http://wiki.videolan.org/Documentation:Play_HowTo/Format_String format time and meta variables].
| '''[http://wiki.videolan.org/Documentation:Modules/image Image video output]'''
|-
|
| '''--image-out-replace'''
|
| disabled
| Always write to the same file. This means that the last image captured will be the one you will see saved.
| '''[http://wiki.videolan.org/Documentation:Modules/image Image video output]'''
|-
|
| '''vlc://quit'''
|
|
| Special item to quit VLC. Works with the comand '''cvlc''' too.
| '''[http://wiki.videolan.org/VLC_command-line_help VLC Command Line Help]'''
|}

== Credits: ==
 
[http://www.bigbuckbunny.org/ Big Buck Bunny] was produced by [http://www.blender.org/ Blender Foundation]

Talk:VLC HowTo/Make thumbnails

2009-02-10T10:55:51Z

Nimitz Sad Dog: New page: = I would like to know if it is ok to modify the page like this? = Changes: I added a linux section, but I'm not sure if it's good or not. Any sugestions? And this is my very first edit ...

= I would like to know if it is ok to modify the page like this? =

Changes:

I added a linux section, but I'm not sure if it's good or not. Any sugestions?
And this is my very first edit so is more like a test for me to get the handle on things.

What I did try to do was give some more information and change some formatting.

==How to create a thumbnail from a video==

For all those people wanting a thumbnail from a video, use the following command:

(win)
<pre>vlc -V image --start-time 0 --stop-time 1 --image-out-format jpg --image-out-ratio 24 --image-out-prefix snap test.mpg vlc://quit</pre>

===What it does:===

When {{VLC}} runs it 'plays' the video for one second without actually showing the video on screen, and then quits, leaving us with a file named 'snap000000.jpg', containing an image of the first frame of the video.

===How it works:===

First select the image output with: '''-V image''' or '''--vout image'''.

Next set the interval (in seconds) you want an image from with: '''--start-time 0 --stop-time 1'''
In my example the first second of the video. In that case you could omit the parameter --start-time. If you want an image from the 5th second fill in: '''--start-time 5 --stop-time 6'''

The image format will be .jpg because i provided: '''--image-out-format jpg'''. You could specify '''--image-out-format png''' to get a .png-image instead.

'''--image-out-ratio 24''' specifies we want one image out of 24. In my case the video contains 24 images per second so this is the right value. If your video has more images per seconds you should increase this value to prevend you get more images as one. If the number is too high (for example 500) it still produces only one image, so the actual value is not so important as long as it is higher then the images per second.

'''--image-out-prefix snap''' specifies the filename must start with 'snap'. You can prefix with a path, for example c:\snap and resulting images will be created there.

You can specify '''--image-out-replace'''. In that case Vlc produces the file 'snap.jpg'. This will prevent VLC from creating multiple images.

'''test.mpg''' specifies the video to play and finally '''vlc://quit''' forces vlc to quit when ready.

== Linux ==

=== Fedora===

==== What You Need: ====

* Video: [http://www.bigbuckbunny.org/index.php/download/ Big Buck Bunny] License: [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ Creative Commons Attribution 3.0]
* [http://www.videolan.org/vlc/ VLC Media Player] License: [http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-2.0.html GPL 2.0]

With this two things the operation is the same for linux or windows.

==== Getting Started ====

Using this command in the folder that you download the movie(or you can pass the path to the file in the command line).

<pre>vlc -V image --start-time 13 --stop-time 14 --image-out-format png --image-out-width 128 --image-out-height 128 --image-out-ratio 24 --image-out-prefix thumbnail --image-out-replace big_buck_bunny_1080p_stereo.ogg vlc://quit</pre>

You should get something like this: 

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/86/Vlc_thumbnail_big_buck_bunny.png

Since I downloaded the '''big_buck_bunny_1080p_stereo.ogg''' that is the name of the file that I put in the command line. But you can do it with any video file you want to. 
If the name of the file have spaces just put it in single or double quotes. 
Ex:
'big buck bunny 1080p stereo.ogg' or "big buck bunny 1080p stereo.ogg" or '/home/[username here]/Desktop/big buck bunny 1080p stereo.ogg'

==== What Its Happening? ====

VLC will start playing the movie without the image because the images are not going to the display but to the output file '''"thumbnail"''' with the extension '''PNG''' that VLC created by now in the folder you launched the command in, and it should close after a second into the video(if the video starts from the begning probably VLC didn't recognize the file header see options references for more details), don't be worried if you hear the soundtrack. After that if you look at the folder you will see a new file called "snap.png".

If you want to understand what is going on read the options reference.

==== Options Reference ====

{| class="wikitable"
| '''Option'''
|
| '''Value'''
| '''Default'''
| '''Description'''
| '''Reference'''
|-
| '''Short'''
| '''Long'''
|
|
|
|
|-
| '''-V'''
| '''--vout'''
| image aa caca x11 xvideo glx opengl snapshot dummy
| Automatically select the best method available.
| Select the output. This means where to send the video stream to. Using '''''image''''' as destination means VLC will create a file somewhere.
| '''[http://wiki.videolan.org/Video_Output Video Output]'''
|-
|
| '''--start-time'''
| integer
|
| Start time. The stream will start at this position (in seconds). ps: Beware that if VLC don't reconize the header of the file this doesn't work well. 
| '''[http://wiki.videolan.org/VLC_command-line_help VLC Command Line Help]'''
|-
|
| '''--stop-time'''
| integer
|
| Stop time The stream will stop at this position (in seconds). ps: Beware that if VLC don't reconize the header of the file this doesn't work well.
| '''[http://wiki.videolan.org/VLC_command-line_help VLC Command Line Help]'''
|-
|
| '''--image-out-format'''
| png, jpeg
| png
| Choose the image file format for the output destination.
| '''[http://wiki.videolan.org/Documentation:Modules/image Image video output]'''
|-
|
| '''--image-out-width'''
| integer
| -1
| You can force an image width. The default '''-1''' will adapt to the video characteristics. ps: If you don't set this parameter VLC will save the image with its original size.
| '''[http://wiki.videolan.org/Documentation:Modules/image Image video output]'''
|-
|
| '''--image-out-height'''
| integer
| -1
| You can force the image height. The default '''-1''' will adapt to the video characteristics. ps: If you don't set this parameter VLC will save the image with its original size.
| '''[http://wiki.videolan.org/Documentation:Modules/image Image video output]'''
|-
|
| '''--image-out-ratio'''
| integer
| 3
| Ratio of images to record. 3 means that one image out of three is recorded. The ratio is calculate based on the framerate of the video so if your video have a framerate of 24 frames per second and you set the --image-out-ratio to 3 you should get 8 image files. '''ps:''' Beware that if VLC don't reconize the header of the file this doesn't work. You have to use '''--image-out-replace''' instead.
| '''[http://wiki.videolan.org/Documentation:Modules/image Image video output]'''
|-
|
| '''--image-out-prefix'''
| string
| img
| Prefix of the output images filenames. Output filenames will have the [prefix][NUMBER].[Image Format] form (ex: img101.png). Starting with VLC 0.9.0 you can also use [http://wiki.videolan.org/Documentation:Play_HowTo/Format_String format time and meta variables].
| '''[http://wiki.videolan.org/Documentation:Modules/image Image video output]'''
|-
|
| '''--image-out-replace'''
|
| disabled
| Always write to the same file. This means that the last image captured will be the one you will see saved.
| '''[http://wiki.videolan.org/Documentation:Modules/image Image video output]'''
|-
|
| '''vlc://quit'''
|
|
| Special item to quit VLC. Works with the comand '''cvlc''' too.
| '''[http://wiki.videolan.org/VLC_command-line_help VLC Command Line Help]'''
|}

== Credits: ==
 
[http://www.bigbuckbunny.org/ Big Buck Bunny] was produced by [http://www.blender.org/ Blender Foundation]