VLC Media Player: Tips And Tricks

VLC 0.9 has released to widespread acclaim. The media player of choice for many, has packed in a horde of new features and marked changes in the design and interface. The playback bar has jazzed up buttons, which won’t appeal to those who went for the minimalist charm of VLC. They have also inverted the direction in which the scroll works with the media, you scroll down to go backward, and scroll up to go forward which is counterintuitive to everyone and irritating to the long term users.

Adjust The Colour Of The Video

In the playback bar, click on the icon that looks like the equaliser for lesser media players. This is right next to the playback button.
Then select the ‘video effects’ tab. The ‘basic’ tab will be selected by default. Check the ‘image adjust’ checkbox. From here, you can adjust the hue, saturation, contrast, brightness and gamma of the image. There is also a ‘brightness threshold’ slider.

Use VLC As A Transcoder

Open a file, then Navigate: Media > Convert/Save. In the file tab, click on the Convert/Save button.
Select the ‘File’ checkbox under ‘Outputs’. Enter a file name. Make sure that draw raw input is unchecked.
Then select an encapsulation, that is basically the format under ‘profile’.
Select a video codec and audio codec under the ‘Video codec’ and ‘Audio codec’ tabs.
You can save files in a format to be played on a portable media device and save.

Listen To Online Radio

To listen to online radio, Navigate: Playlist > Shoutcast Radio Listings.
Then Navigate: Playlist > Show Playlist. The Shoutcast radio option should have appeared below the ‘Playlist’ and ‘Media Library’ options. A long list of genres and radio stations will appear. Select one that you want to listen to you. Some of the stations listed don’t work, and some might make the player crash. Some stations are listed under multiple genres.

Skins

VLC supports skins. VLC skins can be downloaded from their site, but VLC also supports winamp 2 and xmps skins. Navigate: Tools > Preferences. In ‘Interface’, select the ‘Skins’ radio button and load the skin file from here.

Prevent Screensaver Interruption

This is a highly useful feature that prevents a screensaver from interrupting the movie you are watching.
Navigate: Tools > Preferences. In the dialogue that pop-up, look at the bottom left corner, and select the ‘All’ radio button under ‘Show settings’. Click on ‘Video’ preferences, and under ‘General Video Settings’ look for the ‘Disable Screensaver’ checkbox.

Overlay A Logo On The Video

Navigate: Tools > Preferences. Select ‘All’ under ‘Show Settings”
Navigate: Video > Subtitles / OSD > Overlays.
Click on ‘Logo Subfilter’ under Sub Picture Filter Module. Enter the path and filename in the bar below.
To do this via command line, Navigate: Tools > Add Interface > Command Line.

To Resume Playback From A Specific Time

If you were interrupted while watching a video or a movie, and want to resume from the exact moment you left off, there are two ways to do it.
While playing the movie, Navigate: Playback > Navigate: specific time, and enter the time in dialogue that pops up.
The other way to do this is to Navigate: Media > Advanced open file, check ‘Show more options’ and enter the Start Time.

Using The Loop Function

VLC can loop a part of a song or a video over and over again. To use this feature, Navigate: Tools > Advanced controls.
The loop button should appear on the playback bar. Open the file you want to play, click the button when you come to the part on the media you want to start the loop at. Click on the button again at the part of the file you want the loop to end. VLC will now start playing that portion of a file in an endless loop till you click on the loop button again to stop the loop.

Take Snapshots Of The Video

Navigate: Tools > Preferences > Video. Under video snapshots, enter the directory, a prefix, check ‘sequential numbering’ and choose a format. The default is .png.
To take the snapshot while the video is playing, Navigate: Video > Snapshot.
Through keyboard  [Shift] + [S].
To use a button to take a snapshot, Navigate: Tools > Advanced Controls. The snapshot button appears on the playback bar.

Add A Ticker To The Video

Navigate: Tools > Preferences, select ‘All’ under ‘Show Settings’
Navigate: Video > Subtitles/OSD > Marquee. Enter the text in the marquee, and the text will scroll across the screen while the video is playing.
You can also ste the settings to get an RSS feed to scroll across the video. Copy the feed URL then Navigate: Tools > Preferences, select ‘all’ under ‘show settings;
Navigate: Video > Subtitles/OSD tick on “RSS and Atom feed display’ and enter the URL in the bar.
There is an option to display or not display images in the feeds.

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