5 Top Secret Tips Of The Free VLC Media Player

Improve video quality, record your Windows Desktop and use a smartphone or tablet as a remote control.

Play or save online videos

VLC lets you download videos hosted by sites like YouTube. Simply copy the video‘s web address, then go to VLC and choose ‘Convert/ Save’ from the Media menu. Select the Network tab, click in the ‘Please enter a network URL’ field and press Ctrl+V to paste the video’s address. Click the down arrow on the button at the bottom and select ‘Convert/ Save‘, then click the button again. Click Convert and choose the desired video-file format from the Profile dropdown menu. Click Browse. select a destination, type a name for the saved video and click Start, and then wait for the video to download.

Use your phone and tablet as remote controls

You can control VLC’s playback using your smartphone or tablet and the device’s browser. First, you need to tweak a few settings in VLC on your PC. Click Tools then Preferences. and then select the All button. Click ‘Main interfaces’ and tick Web. then expand ‘Main interfaces’ by double-clicking it, then click Lua. Type a password of your choice in the Password box, click Save and restart VLC.

If a firewall warning appears, grant permission. Type cmd into Start and press Enter. In the Command Prompt window that appears, type ipconfig and press Enter. Make a note of the IPv4 address (it’ll be something like ‘192.168.1.4’) then close the Command Prompt window.

Finally, go to the browser on your phone or tablet and type the IPv4 address, adding :8080 to the end (so you type 192.168.1.4:8080. for example). When prompted to enter a usemame and password, leave the username field blank and type your password. Now you should be in remote control of VLC.

Screen-record your Desktop

VLC includes a tool for capturing whatever happens on your screen. This means you can record streaming video or make PC tutorials for friends.

Click Media followed by Convert/ Save, then select the Capture Device tab. Leave ‘Capture mode’ and the Device Selections as they are. Next, click the Convert/Save button, choose the video type from the Profile dropdown menu, click Browse, choose a location, type the file name and then click Save. Now click Start to begin recording. To stop the recording, return to VLC and click the red cross to close it.

Use the keyboard to control playback

There are loads of handy keyboard shortcuts in VLC. For example, hitting the plus (+) or minus (-) keys speeds up or slows down playback. The left and right square brackets ([ and ]) do the same thing but in smaller increments (one tenth). Press F for full screen, M to mute the audio, Ctrl +arrows (up or down) to change the volume, and the space bar to switch between pause and play. There’s a full list of shortcuts on the VLC wiki sitc (bit.ly/1eVZajj).

Improve video quality

VLC can work magic by smoothing out rough edges when you're watching low-resolution videos. Play your video, then go to the Tools menu and click ‘Post processing’, then choose a level from 1 (least processing) to 6 (most). Depending on the power of your PC, more processing may result in jerkier video playback, so experiment with different levels to find the best balance.

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