VLC command-line help

See also Command-line interface, Console interfaces

Windows

Running the command

vlc --help

will create a .TXT file containing all the command-line options.

You can also use this to get more exhaustive list:

vlc -H

If you look for help, on a particular module, you can also use

vlc -p module --advanced

To view this without leaving the command-line, use the following command (assuming you installed it in the default folder):

more "C:\Program Files\VideoLAN\VLC\vlc-help.txt"

This trick uses the command-line pager more to show the file screen-by-screen. Pressing spacebar will advance the output a screen at a time, and pressing enter will advance the output one line at a time.

Undocumented option:

-vv     "Verbose verbose". Verbose output (debug infos can be displayed by selecting "Debug logging" interface under View->Add Interface menu)

Here's the output of vlc -H of vlc-4.0.0-dev under Windows.

Usage: vlc [options] [stream] ...
You can specify multiple streams on the commandline.
They will be enqueued in the playlist.
The first item specified will be played first.

Options-styles:
  --option  A global option that is set for the duration of the program.
   -option  A single letter version of a global --option.
   :option  An option that only applies to the stream directly before it
            and that overrides previous settings.

Stream MRL syntax:
  [[access][/demux]://]URL[#[title][:chapter][-[title][:chapter]]]
  [:option=value ...]

  Many of the global --options can also be used as MRL specific :options.
  Multiple :option=value pairs can be specified.

URL syntax:
  file:///path/file              Plain media file
  http://host[:port]/file        HTTP URL
  ftp://host[:port]/file         FTP URL
  mms://host[:port]/file         MMS URL
  screen://                      Screen capture
-- More  --

See also

• Mac OS X for special notes on using the command line on Mac OS X
• VLC-0-8-6_command-line_help
• VLC-0-9-x_command-line_help
• VLC-1-0-x_command-line_help
• VLC-1-1-x_command-line_help
• VLC-2-1-x command-line help