VLC media player
From the project home page:
- VLC is a free and open source cross-platform multimedia player and framework that plays most multimedia files as well as DVD, Audio CD, VCD, and various streaming protocols.
Installation
Install the vlc split package, that depends on a minimal subset of VLC plugins. See the optional dependencies for more functionality.
Notable variants are:
Optional dependencies
Certain media formats may require installation of additional plugins. For most uses, vlc-plugin-ffmpeg is a good start. In other cases, vlc-plugins-all might be needed.
Language
VLC does not offer an option to change language in its Preferences menu. But you can use the LANGUAGE environment variable. For instance, modify the vlc.desktop
desktop entry to change:
Exec=/usr/bin/vlc %U
to:
Exec=env LANGUAGE=fr /usr/bin/vlc %U
to switch VLC interface to French.
Skins
VLC can be "skinned" for a different look and feel. You can get skins at the skins website.
To install a skin download it and move it to ~/.local/share/vlc/skins2/
.
Open up VLC, click Tools > Preferences. When the preferences window opens up you should be in the "Interface" tab
Choose the "Use custom skin" radio button, and select the downloaded skin.
Restart VLC for the change to take effect.
Web interface
Run VLC with the parameter --extraintf=http
to use both the desktop and web interface. The --http-host
parameter specifies the address to bind to, which is localhost
by default. To set a password, use --http-password
, otherwise VLC will not allow you to log in.
$ vlc --extraintf=http --http-host 0.0.0.0 --http-port 8080 --http-password yourpasswordhere
To enable the web interface from the graphical interface, navigate to View > Add Interface > Web Interface. Set the password via Tools > Preferences > Show settings: All > Interface > Main interfaces > Lua > Lua HTTP > Password.
VLC defaults to port 8080
: http://localhost:8080
Tips and tricks
Twitch.tv streaming over VLC
See Streamlink#Twitch.
Playing streamed content from a local DLNA server
If you find that trying to play UPnP/DLNA content (by going to View > Playlist > Local Network > Universal Plug'n'Play), that vlc fails to see the DLNA server on the local network, then make sure that the firewall is not blocking port 1900 UDP. It is essential that this port is open in order to play local UPnP/DLNA content.
Control using hotkeys or cli
Install openbsd-netcat.
Get script at the archived CrunchBang forums.
Follow instructions in script to setup a socket for VLC.
Either run the script from the command line or register the script with keyboard shortcuts through your desktop.
Alternatively, you can use MPRIS to interact with VLC.
It is also possible to start vlc with an ncurses interface:
$ vlc -I ncurses
see the documentation for more information
Preventing multiple instances
By default, VLC opens a new instance of the program every time it is launched with one or more files. This can be annoying if you use VLC to play something like your music collection. You can open multiple files at once by selecting them in the file manager, or disable this behavior from the menu: check Tools > Preferences (set “Show settings” to “Simple”) > Interface > Playlist and Instances > Allow only one instance, and also check Enqueue items into playlist in one instance mode which keeps current file playing and adds any newly opened files to the current playlist.
There is also an option called Use only one instance when started from file manager — when this is enabled, all files opened via the file manager will be played in a single instance. The Enqueue items into playlist in one instance mode option still applies.
Hardware video acceleration
See Hardware video acceleration.
VLC automatically tries to use an available API, but you can override it by going to Tools > Preferences > Input & Codecs and choosing the suitable option under Hardware-accelerated decoding, e.g. Video Acceleration (VA) API
for VA-API or Video Decode and Presentation API for Unix (VDPAU)
for VDPAU.
systemd service
VLC's web interface can be started from systemd. First, you need to create a default user:
# useradd -c "VLC daemon" -d / -G audio -M -p \! -r -s /usr/bin/nologin -U vlcd
Now create the systemd service file:
/etc/systemd/system/vlc.service
[Unit] Description=VideoOnLAN Service After=network.target [Service] Type=forking User=vlcd ExecStart=/usr/bin/vlc --daemon --syslog -I http --http-port 8090 --http-password password Restart=on-abort [Install] WantedBy=multi-user.target
Start and enable vlc.service
. Log in to http://yourmachine:8090/ with no username and with the password you put in the service file.
Chromecast support
Starting with 3.0 release (Vetinari branch), VLC can stream to Chromecast devices on the same network.
Install packages:
- libmicrodns - VLC can find the Chromecast device and it shows up in Playback > Renderer menu
- protobuf - enables streaming to the selected device in Playback > Renderer menu
Then, edit the file /etc/nsswitch.conf
and change the hosts
line to include mdns_minimal [NOTFOUND=return]
before resolve
and dns
:
hosts: ... mdns_minimal [NOTFOUND=return] resolve [!UNAVAIL=return] dns ...
- If you experience slowdowns in resolving
.local
hosts try to usemdns4_minimal
instead ofmdns_minimal
. - Look towards avahi for more information.
Pause click plugin
Install vlc-pause-click-pluginAUR, which allows you to click on the video inside VLC's window, and it will be paused or resumed. It is a commonly expected behavior.
It is not activated after installation, you need to manually enable it in settings as described in https://github.com/nurupo/vlc-pause-click-plugin#usage.
Troubleshooting
Video broken or other issue after upgrade
Now and then VLC will have some issues with configuration even in minor releases. Before making bug reports, remove or rename your configuration located at ~/.config/vlc
and confirm whether the issue is still there.
If using a ffmpeg variant from the AUR, be sure that you have upgraded it as well. Pacman will not upgrade it when necessary and a mismatch will break VLC.
Segmentation fault
Fault when initiating VLC
When starting VLC you can get a segfault, and ruling out general factors such as Microcode, a possible workaround to this is running the following:
# /usr/lib/vlc/vlc-cache-gen /usr/lib/vlc/plugins
Then reinstall VLC.
Fault when playing a video
If VLC can open and play audio files, but closes when you play a video with a segfault, then Hardware video acceleration was wrongly configured, making VLC unable to refer to graphics devices. It occurs especially when you are using different graphic cards on one computer.
Missing icons in dropdown menus
This can happen under XFCE, there will be no more icons in dropdown menus, like the PCI card icon.
Execute these commands to reactivate these icons:
$ gconftool-2 --type boolean --set /desktop/gnome/interface/buttons_have_icons true $ gconftool-2 --type boolean --set /desktop/gnome/interface/menus_have_icons true
Failed to open VDPAU backend
See Hardware video acceleration#Failed to open VDPAU backend.
Since your system probably does not support VDPAU you should tell VLC to use VA-API instead, see #Hardware video acceleration.
VLC fails to open a second time after closing
Manually set VLC to use the VA-API acceleration backend in Settings -> Input/Codecs. VLC seems to select VDPAU by default, which is broken for many people.
No playback via SFTP of media files names containing spaces
If VLC does not play any videos or audio files over SFTP make sure you have sshfs installed.
If it refuses to play any media files containing spaces via SFTP and always asks for authentication change the Exec line in the vlc.desktop
file to:
Exec=/usr/bin/vlc --started-from-file %F
See [1].
VLC on iOS/tvOS cannot connect to Arch via SFTP
Due to app store licensing restrictions, VLC's iOS and tvOS apps use an incomplete ssh implementation. openssh needs a config change to be compatible. Create a file /etc/ssh/sshd_config.d/vlc.conf
with contents:
HostKeyAlgorithms +ssh-rsa KexAlgorithms +diffie-hellman-group16-sha512
Then, run systemctl reload sshd
.
Cannot open DVD
To be able to play DVDs via Media > Open Disc, VLC optional dependencies vlc-plugin-dvd and libdvdcss need to be installed.
Other plugins such as vlc-plugin-dca may be required for certain DVDs. Alternatively, install vlc-plugins-extra, which will install the above two plugins, as well as others.
If you have all of the above packages and still cannot open DVDs, try deleting your ~/.dvdcss
folder. This will force a re-download of your CSS keys, which may fix the problem.
Media does not load
If some RTP, RTSP, DVB-T streams or Blu-rays look like they are endlessly buffering or silently do not load, without giving an error message in the logs (e.g. IPTV from French FAI Free) install vlc-plugin-aribb24.
Wayland support
vlc-gitAUR builds with Wayland support by default. Set the QT_QPA_PLATFORM=wayland
environment variable to enable Wayland. See Wayland#Qt for more info.
Note that although the --enable-wayland
build flag is used in the vlc PKGBUILD (which currently uses VLC version 3.0), Xwayland is used anyway, as Wayland support on VLC 3 is broken. Video output in VLC may be cropped or otherwise malformed unless xorg-xwayland is installed.
With the following command VLC 3 will start using Wayland:
$ env -u DISPLAY vlc
This works because VLC 3 checks for the environment variable DISPLAY
on startup and will use Wayland if it is not set. Globally removing DISPLAY
from the environment is not recommended, because some older Applications still rely on this variable.
Failed to connect to RTSP stream
When connection to RTSP stream ends up with the failed to setup rtsp session
error, install vlc-plugin-live555.
Random colors when playing streams with Streamlink
Install the optional dependency vlc-plugin-aribb24.
Unresponsive system when playing HEVC video with AMDGPU
When playing a video encoded with HEVC (H265), users may encounter a total system freeze and are unable to do anything or shutdown.
This can be fixed by changing the settings for Open GL/GLES hardware converter to something other than Automatic (e.g. VDPAU OpenGL surface converter or VA-API OpenGL surface converter for Wayland).
See https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/drm/amd/-/issues/2113#note_1602599
Sound disappears briefly after changing playback progress
Set Tools > Preferences (with “Simple” view) > Audio > Output module" to the audio server currently in use. (For PipeWire, you need to install vlc-plugin-pipewireAUR, otherwise only compatibility layers can be used.)
VLC not showing subtitles and OSD
Even if you have the plugin to decode subtitles, you will not see them on the screen (and there will not be any error on the Messages/Console), if you are missing the vlc-plugin-freetype, which is not included in vlc-plugins-base but vlc-plugins-extra.
See also
- Wikipedia article
- List of applications/Multimedia
- VLC homepage
- playerctl: A command-line utility and library for controlling media players
- Control VLC via a browser