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 with Internet access
• Audio output hardware (speakers, headphones) for audio playback
• Internet (Web) Browser (to download VLC)
  What is a web browser?
• You know how to work with computer files and folders
  Working with files and folders (MSFT 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 menu with the following controls:

• Hide/Show VLC media player.
• Play/Pause/Stop playback.
• Switch to Previous/Next track.
• Speed control.
• Increase/Decrease volume.
• Mute.
• Open media.
• Quit.

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 control the playback.

From left to right they are:

• Play/Pause.
• Previous media in the playlist.
• Stop playback.
• Next media in the playlist.
• Toggle fullscreen (video only).
• Show extended settings: Audio effects, Video effects and 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 that mutes () or un-mutes () the sound. The triangle to the right is a slider that shows the current playback volume. Clicking this slider modifies the volume. The playback volume is also displayed as a percentage number on top of this slider.

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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