Difference between revisions of "VLC HowTo/Play multiple instances"

From VideoLAN Wiki
Jump to navigation Jump to search
Line 29: Line 29:
 
     repeat with theFile in theFiles
 
     repeat with theFile in theFiles
 
         do shell script "open -na /Applications/VLC.app " & quote & (POSIX path of theFile) & quote
 
         do shell script "open -na /Applications/VLC.app " & quote & (POSIX path of theFile) & quote
        tell application "VLC" to activate
 
 
     end repeat
 
     end repeat
 +
    tell application "VLC" to activate
 
end open
 
end open
 
</pre>
 
</pre>

Revision as of 23:50, 5 February 2015

In version .8.5 it was easy to have multiple instances of VLC playing each with its unique stream of data.

In versions 2.1.x playing multiple VLC instances and different streams in each is as easy as clicking tools -> Preferences... (or just press ctrl+p)(note this does not exist on the Mac version):

after unticking the two checkboxes it should look like this,then click on save
  • in Interface tab scroll down to playlist and instances
  • untick checkbox Allow only one instance
  • untick checkbox use only one instance when started from file manager
  • Press Save.
This allows users to use more than one VLC player at a time.Once you've done the above you should be able to play as many VLC instances and video or audio files as you like.

(on Windows, this may not apply to other OS's):

Mac OS X

On the Mac, running multiple instances of VLC is not supported out of the box.

As a workaround, you can create a Droplet/App that does the following:

  • launch the VLC droplet/app to get a separate instance of VLC,
  • drop one or more files onto VLC droplet/app, or
  • associate your .mov, .avi, and other files directly with the VLC droplet/app, allowing you to simply click on the files to launch the files in a new standalone VLC session.


Paste the code below into a new AppleScript Editor script and save it as an application.

on run
    do shell script "open -n /Applications/VLC.app"
end run

on open theFiles
    repeat with theFile in theFiles
        do shell script "open -na /Applications/VLC.app " & quote & (POSIX path of theFile) & quote
    end repeat
    tell application "VLC" to activate
end open


File Association with the Droplet/App can be done as follows:

  1. Open Finder and find the video file of interest.
  2. Right click on the file (assumes you have right click enabled).
  3. Choose "Get Info".
  4. Under "Open with:", click dropdown and select the VLC droplet/app.
  5. Click "Change All" button.
  6. If prompted "are you sure", select "Yes".

See also

Help VideoLAN by adding to this page!
Create an account to start editing, and then click here to add to this article.