Windows

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The Windows port of VLC usually starts up with the WxWindows interface which is used in the Linux one as well. The user can decide to use the Skins interface instead to be able to modify the interface according to his or her mood.

Keyboard shortcuts in the Windows (directx) video output

Note: these shortcuts are only default settings and can be customized (along with many others). To tweak hotkeys settings, go to Settings->Preferences->Interface->Hotkeys settings

F Fullscreen
Space Play/Pause
T Show position (time)
S Stop
Ctrl+Q Quit
+/- Faster/Slower
N/P Next/Previous
Shift+Left/Shift+Right Jump very short
Alt+Left/Alt+Right Jump short
Ctrl+Left/Ctrl+Right Jump medium
Ctrl+Alt+Left/Ctrl+Alt+Right Jump long
Ctrl+Up/Ctrl+Down Volume up/down
M Mute
Ctrl+M Show DVD-menu
Left/Right
Up/Down
Enter 		DVD-menu navigation keys

How to associate media files to VLC

VLC hasn't got a module to associate files so that if you click on a file VLC automatically opens. The developers are working on this, and one should be available in the next full release. But you can do it yourself by choosing one of these three options:

Use Windows Explorer's context menu

  1. In Windows Explorer, right-click a file you wish to open.
  2. Clicking Open With from the context menu that pops up.
  3. Clicking the VLC's program name.
    • If VLC is not displayed, click Browse to locate it on your hard drive.

Alternatively, you can:

  1. In Windows Explorer, right-click the file you want to open with VLC.
  2. Click Properties in the context menu that pops up.
  3. On the General tab, click Change.
  4. Click the name of the program (VLC) which you want to be used to open the file.

Either of these options affects all files that have the same filename extension (the letters after the filename's period) as the file you selected. For example, if you change the program that opens goober.avi, then all .avi files will be opened with VLC.

Rerun the installer

  1. Reinstall VLC and choose the "associate files" option when it comes up.

Edit the registry

Warning: use this technique only if you really know what you are doing! And be sure to back-up your registry first.

  1. Open a text editor, like Notepad (but not WordPad).
  2. Copy this text below.
  3. Modify the strings C:\\Program Files\\VideoLAN\\VLC\\vlc.exe to match your VLC installation.
  4. Save as vlc.reg.
  5. Execute vlc.reg (adding this data to your registry).
  6. Enjoy VLC :)

Text to copy: 

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.ASF]
@="VlcFile"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.ASX]
@="VlcFile"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.AVI]
@="VlcFile"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.DIVX]
@="VlcFile"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.MPEG]
@="VlcFile"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.MPG]
@="VlcFile"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.VOB]
@="VlcFile"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.WMV]
@="VlcFile"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\VlcFile]
@="VLC File"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\VlcFile\DefaultIcon]
@="C:\\Program Files\\VideoLAN\\VLC\\vlc.exe,0"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\VlcFile\shell\Open]
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\VlcFile\shell\Open\command]
@="C:\\Program Files\\VideoLAN\\VLC\\vlc.exe \"%L\""

Note: This associates asf, asx, avi, divx, mpeg, mpg, vob and wmv files. If you get the idea, you can associate any file you want.

How To Start VLC Server with http Interface

VLC ships with a little HTTP server integrated. It is used both to stream using HTTP, and for the HTTP remote control interface.

VLC Server Preferences Settings

1. Set up the http interface details in the VLC server application. Open VLC then select Settings > Preferences. Click on the Advanced Settings button in the lower right hand corner of the dialog box to see all the options that are available.

2. In the left hand window click on the + button next to Interface. This will display three choices. Control interfaces, Hotkeys settings, and Main Interfaces. Click on the plus button next to Main interfaces. This will display four settings HTTP, RC, Skins, wxWidgets. Click on HTTP to dispaly the "HTTP remote control interface settings".

3. Host address: Enter the port number that you want to use. Default is 8080.

4. Source directory: c:\Program Files\VideoLan\VLC\http\ or enter the path where you have elected to install the application.

5. Character set: UTF-8 default

6. If you are NOT using handlers or SSL certificates the setup is complete.

7. Click on the Save button in the lower left hand corner.


Command Line Startup

The VLC appplication can be run in a server or client environment. For complicated video and audio streaming on a LAN, one should consider dedicating a machine to act as the VLC server.

To start the VLC application in a server mode with the http interface automatically set, use the following command line in your desktop shortcut. This assumes the default location for installation was selected.

"C:\Program Files\VideoLAN\VLC\vlc.exe" --extraintf http --intf wx

Testing the Interface

From another computer, connect to the VLC server computer using your browser to the URL

http://server_ip_address:8080, such as http://192.168.0.186:8080

The Main VLC Interface page will be displayed,

See Web_Interface for additional information

VLC Plugin for Internet Explorer

This section will provide guidelines to incorporate the VLC ActiveX plugin to be used to view streaming audio and video from a VLC server.

How to embed the ActiveX Plugin in a Web Page http://wiki.videolan.org/index.php/ActiveX/HTML

Supported ActiveX Function Calls http://wiki.videolan.org/index.php/ActiveX

VLC Plugin for Firefox (Mozilla)

The Mozilla plugin (Excerpted from Chapter 4 of the VLC User Guide, found at http://www.videolan.org/doc/play-howto/en/ch04.html#id293608)

Install There are at least two ways to install the VLC Mozilla Plugin. One way is to to check the "Install Firefox Plugin" when you install VLC. The second way involves several steps:

1. Quit Firefox or Mozilla

2. Copy the two files in VLC_Installation_folder\mozilla (usually C:\Program Files\VideoLAN\VLC\mozilla) to your mozilla plugins directory (Usually C:\Program Files\Mozilla\plugins or C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\plugins).

3. Restart Firefox or Mozilla

Use the plugin

If you open a link to a video file handled by the VLC plugin (To get the list of handled types, browse to about:plugins) or a page with an embedded video, the plugin should open and read the video.

Build HTML pages that use the plugin

Additionally to viewing video on all pages, you can build custom pages that will use the advanced features of the plugin, using Javascript functions to control playback or extract information from the plugin.

The vlc plugin for Firefox/Mozilla supports the following function calls: 

     play() : Start playing media in the plugin.
     pause() : Pause playback.
     stop() : Stop media playback.
     fullscreen() : Switch the video to full screen.
     set_volume(vol) : Set the volume. vol has to be an int in the 0-200 range.
     get_volume() : Get the current volume setting.
     mute() : Toggle volume muting.
     set_int_variable(var_name, value) :
     set_bool_variable(var_name, value) :
     set_str_variable(var_name, value) :
     get_int_variable(var_name) :
     get_bool_variable(var_name) :
     get_str_variable(var_name) :
     clear_playlist() : Clear the playlist.
     add_item(mrl>) : Append an item whose location is given by the Media Resource Locator to the playlist.
     next()
     previous()
     isplaying() : return true if the plugin is playing something.
     get_length() : Get the media's length in seconds.
     get_position() : Get the current position in the media in percent.
     get_time() : Get the current position in the media in seconds.
     seek(seconds,is_relative) : If is_relative is true, seek relatively to current time, else seek from beginning of the stream. Seek time is specified in seconds.

Here are a few examples of HTML pages that use the Mozilla plugin. Example 1

In this example, the plugin will read an HTTP stream inside the web page. If the user goes fullscreen, he will have to press f to go back in normal view. 

<html>
<head><title>Demo of VLC mozilla plugin</title></head>

<body>

<h1>NexusDigital Multicast Television</h1>

<embed type="application/x-vlc-plugin"
         name="video1"
         autoplay="no" loop="yes" width="400" height="300"
         target="224.252.10.1.5555" />
<br />
  <a href="javascript:;" onclick='document.video1.play()'>Play video1</a>
  <a href="javascript:;" onclick='document.video1.pause()'>Pause video1</a>
  <a href="javascript:;" onclick='document.video1.stop()'>Stop video1</a>
  <a href="javascript:;" onclick='document.video1.fullscreen()'>Fullscreen</a>

</body>
</html>

<html>
<head><title>NexusDigital Multicast Television</title>
</head>

<body>

<h1>Demo of VLC mozilla plugin - Example 2</h1>

<embed type="application/x-vlc-plugin"
         name="video2"
         autoplay="no" loop="no" hidden="yes"
         target="udp:@239.255.12.42" />
<br />
  <a href="javascript:;" onclick='document.video2.play()'>Play video2</a>
  <a href="javascript:;" onclick='document.video2.stop()'>Stop video2</a>
  <a href="javascript:;" onclick='document.video2.fullscreen()'>Fullscreen</a>

</body>
</html>

More example code, as well as a working implementation using Javascript, XHTML, and PHP that auto-detects browsers (the code is good, but the stream doesn't work) can be found at http://altair.videolan.org/~dionoea/vlc-plugin-demo/

Related article

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