Difference between revisions of "Documentation:History"

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{{RightMenu|documentation play howto toc}}
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{{RightMenu|documentation play howto toc}} [[Image:Interface 2.PNG|thumb|194x150px]]
  
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==Basic Playback==
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== Overview of the VideoLAN project ==
  
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===Play a file===
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VideoLAN is a complete software solution for video streaming and playback, developed by students of the [http://www.ecp.fr Ecole Centrale Paris] and developers from all over the world, under the [http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html GNU General Public License] (GPL).
  
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To play a file, open the ''Media'' menu, and select the ''Open File'' menu item. An ''Open File'' dialog box will appear. Select the file you want to open and select ''Open''. VLC with then start playing the designated file. An alternative is to simply drag 'n' drop your file into the VLC main interface or the playlist window from the file explorer (Finder on Mac OS X).
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VideoLAN was originally designed to stream MPEG videos on high bandwidth networks, but VideoLAN's main software, VLC media player, has evolved to become a full-featured, cross-platform media player.  
  
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===Play a CD/DVD/VCD===
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More details about the project can be found on the [http://www.videolan.org/ VideoLAN Web site].
  
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To play a CD, VCD or a DVD, open the ''Media'' menu and select ''Open Disc'' menu item. In the ''Open Disk'' dialog box, select the type of media (DVD, SVCD/VCD or Audio CD). There is also an option for ''No DVD menus'', when reading a DVD. 
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== VLC media player ==
  
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You can either select the drive from which the media should be read from by selecting the drive letter from the ''Disc Device'' drop-down list or you can select the ''Browse'' button, from which you will be given a dialog box to browse to the media files.  
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Originally called VideoLAN Client, VLC media player is VideoLAN's main software.  
  
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If you want to start the DVD or VCD playback from a given title and chapter instead of from the beginning, you can set it using the ''Title'' and ''Chapter'' selectors. You can also set the ''Audio'' and ''Subtitles'' track using the selectors.  
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VLC works on many platforms: Linux, Windows, Mac OS X, BeOS, BSD, Solaris, Familiar Linux, Yopy/Linupy and QNX.  
  
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You can start playback by selecting the ''Ok'' button.
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It can play:
  
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===Play a network stream (WebRadio, WebTV, etc.)===
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*MPEG-1, MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 / DivX files from a hard disk, a CD-ROM drive, and so on
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*DVDs, VCDs, and Audio CDs
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*From satellite cards (DVB-S)
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*Several types of network streams: UDP/RTP Unicast, UDP/RTP Multicast, HTTP, RTSP, MMS, etc.  
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*From acquisition or encoding cards (on GNU/Linux and Windows only)
  
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To open a network stream, open the ''Media'' menu and select the ''Open Network Stream'' menu item. A dialog box will then open with three user input boxes.  
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VLC can also be used as a streaming server. These aspects are detailed in the [[Documentation:Streaming HowTo|Streaming HowTo]].  
  
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The first one is for the user to select the ''Protocol'' of the stream which they wish to open (HTTP/HTTPS/MMS/FTP/RTSP/RTP/UDP/RDMP). The second box is for the user to input the ''Address'' of the stream and the third one is for the user to select the appropriate port.
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The present guide describes all the playback (client) aspects of VLC media player.  
  
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You can then start playback by selecting the ''Ok'' button.
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== Getting help ==
  
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If you get some stuttering during playback, you can try to increase the size of the read buffer. This can be done in the ''Open Network Stream'' dialog box, by firstly checking the ''Show more options'' check box then adjusting the Caching selector, which allows you to choose the amount of time (in milliseconds) VLC should store data in its buffer before starting playback.
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=== Documentation ===
  
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===Play from an acquisition card===
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The VideoLAN documentation is made up of four documents:
  
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To play from an acquisition open the ''File'' menu, and select ''Open Capture Device''. From here you can choose the ''Capture Mode'' and the ''Video/Audio Device Name''. The user can also adjust the configuration for these devices by clicking ''Configure''. The user is also able to set the size of the video that will be played by the Direct Show plugin and options such as 'Device Properties' and 'Tuner Properties' by clicking ''Advanced Options''.  
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*The ''Play-Howto'' (for which this article is the introduction): The complete guide to the VLC media player.  
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*[[Documentation:Streaming HowTo|The ''Streaming Howto'']]: The complete guide to VLC as a streaming server, including practical examples to set up a streaming solution.
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*[http://www.videolan.org/doc/vls-user-guide/en/vls-user-guide-en.html The ''VLS user guide'']: The complete guide for VLS (VideoLAN's legacy streaming server)
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*[[FAQ]]: Frequently Asked Questions about VideoLAN.
  
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For Video4Linux devices, you can set the name of the video and audio devices using the "Video device name" and "Audio device name" text inputs. The "Advanced options..." button allows to select some further settings useful in some rare cases, such as the chroma of the input (the way colors are encoded) and the size of the input buffer.  
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The latest version of these documents, in a variety of languages, can be found on the [[Documentation:Documentation|documentation page]].  
  
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To use a Hauppauge PVR card, select the PVR tab in the "Open" dialog box. Use the "Device" text input to set the device of the card you want to use. You can set the Norm of the tuner (PAL, SECAM or NTSC) by using the "Norm" Drop Down. The Frequency selector allows you to set the frequency of the tuner (in kHz), the bitrate selector to set the bitrate of the resulting encoded stream (in bit/s). The "Advanced Options button allows to set some more settings, such as the size of the encoded video (in pixels), its framerate (in frame per second), the interval between 2 key frames, etc.
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=== User support ===
  
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After setting the appropriate action you can begin playback by clicking 'Play'
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There are different methods to get support from The VideoLAN team. For more details, please visit our [http://www.videolan.org/support/ Support page].
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{{Documentation}}

Revision as of 11:47, 23 December 2010

VLC User Guide

Quick Start Guide
Installing VLC
History
Usage
Interface
Open Media
Audio
Video
Playback
Playlist
Subtitles
Video and Audio Filters
Snapshots
Hotkeys
Uninstalling VLC
Troubleshooting
Advanced usage
Using VLC inside a webpage
Command line
Alternative Interfaces
Misc

Appendix
Building Pages for the HTTP Interface
Format String
Building Lua Playlist Scripts
View this alone
Interface 2.PNG

Overview of the VideoLAN project

VideoLAN is a complete software solution for video streaming and playback, developed by students of the Ecole Centrale Paris and developers from all over the world, under the GNU General Public License (GPL).

VideoLAN was originally designed to stream MPEG videos on high bandwidth networks, but VideoLAN's main software, VLC media player, has evolved to become a full-featured, cross-platform media player.

More details about the project can be found on the VideoLAN Web site.

VLC media player

Originally called VideoLAN Client, VLC media player is VideoLAN's main software.

VLC works on many platforms: Linux, Windows, Mac OS X, BeOS, BSD, Solaris, Familiar Linux, Yopy/Linupy and QNX.

It can play:

  • MPEG-1, MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 / DivX files from a hard disk, a CD-ROM drive, and so on
  • DVDs, VCDs, and Audio CDs
  • From satellite cards (DVB-S)
  • Several types of network streams: UDP/RTP Unicast, UDP/RTP Multicast, HTTP, RTSP, MMS, etc.
  • From acquisition or encoding cards (on GNU/Linux and Windows only)

VLC can also be used as a streaming server. These aspects are detailed in the Streaming HowTo.

The present guide describes all the playback (client) aspects of VLC media player.

Getting help

Documentation

The VideoLAN documentation is made up of four documents:

  • The Play-Howto (for which this article is the introduction): The complete guide to the VLC media player.
  • The Streaming Howto: The complete guide to VLC as a streaming server, including practical examples to set up a streaming solution.
  • The VLS user guide: The complete guide for VLS (VideoLAN's legacy streaming server)
  • FAQ: Frequently Asked Questions about VideoLAN.

The latest version of these documents, in a variety of languages, can be found on the documentation page.

User support

There are different methods to get support from The VideoLAN team. For more details, please visit our Support page.

This page is part of official VLC media player Documentation (User Guide • Streaming HowTo • Hacker Guide • Modules)
Please read the Documentation Editing Guidelines before you edit the documentation
Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
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