Documentation:VLC for dummies

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Thank you for visiting this page to find out what VLC is all about. Please Note: this page is Under Construction and might change in the near future.

VLC media player (or VLC for short) is a FREE and Open Source Software Media Player. Features that make VLC the preferred media player for a lot of people is its excellent support for various Audio and Video CODECs, the fact that it's cross platform and the open way of development.

This page will describe the steps to perform the basic steps of using VLC. For more Advanced Users see the VLC Play HowTo for a complete user guide, or VLC Streaming HowTo for the advanced streaming features that VLC is capable of.

Prerequisites

• Computer
• Audio output hardware (speakers, headphones) for audio playback
• Internet (Web) Browser (to download VLC)
  What is a web browser?
• Internet Connection (for browsing to that download page)
• You know how to work with computer files and folders
  Working with files and folders (Windows)
  How to open documents and folders (Mac OS X)
  Files, folders & search (Ubuntu)
• Media (audio, video) files or Disc (optical drive required to play discs)

Understanding the VLC interface

Interface overview

Windows notification area (system tray) Icon

When you start the VLC media player, the application appears on the screen and a small icon appears in the notification area (system tray). Clicking once this icon will hide the VLC media player, and clicking it again will show it again. Hiding the icon does not close the application, which continues to run in the background. Right clicking this icon brings up a list of actions: stopping or pausing playback or change track.

The main interface of VLC media player

Note: These screenshots are taken from the MS Windows XP version. On other systems, they might appear slightly different.

Menu bar

The menu bar at the top contains commands accessible from the interface.

Track slider

The track slider is below the menu bar. It shows the progress of playing of the media file. You can drag the track slider left to rewind or right to forward the track being played. When a video file is played, the video appears between the menu bar and the track slider.

Timers on each side show the elapsed time (left) and the total time (right).

Note: When a media file is streamed (live), the track slider does not move because the streaming happens in real time, unlike a track, that ends in a predetermined time.

Control buttons

The buttons below the slider help in controlling the playback.

From left to right:

• Play/Pause
• Previous Media in the Playlist
• Stop playback
• Next Media in the playlist
• Toggle the Video in fullscreen
• Show Extended Settings
  Audio effects, Video effects, Synchronization
• Show playlist
• Repeat: toggles between loop all, loop one, no loop (default)
• Random (Shuffle)
  Plays the playlist randomly

Volume control

To the right of the control buttons is the volume control. The small speaker icon is a button to quickly mute or un-mute all sound. The slider to the right of it allows you to modify the volume to louder or softer. The percentage gives the amount of amplification.

Tutorials

• Installing VLC
  • Windows
  • Mac OS X
  • Linux
• Basics of VLC
  • Windows
    • starting VLC
      Double click the VLC icon 32px on the desktop or from the start menu: select Programs, select VideoLAN and select VLC media player.
  • Playing media files stored in the computer
    • Queuing files
      You can queue files by selecting multiple files at a time.
  • Playing media from your optical reader (CD, DVD, Blu-Ray)
  • Closing VLC

See also

• VLC HowTo
• Documentation:Play HowTo

• Common Problems
• Hotkeys
  • QtHotkeys (Qt is the default graphical interface)
  • Hotkeys table
  • How to set global hotkeys

External Links

• F.A.Q.
• Windows Help and How-to
• What is a web browser?
• Video tutorials (selected by Jan)

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