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 package.

Notable variants are:

• vlc-git^AUR - Development branch.
• vlc-nox^AUR - Without X support.

Language

VLC does not offer an option to change language in its Preferences menu. But you can use the LANGUAGE= prefix. For instance, modify the /usr/share/applications/vlc.desktop line:

Exec=/usr/bin/vlc %U

to:

Exec=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, 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 0.0.0.0:8080 --http-password 'yourpasswordhere'

Or you can enable this feature in the UI by navigating to View > Add Interface > Web Interface.

VLC defaults to port 8080: http://127.0.0.1:8080

Edit /usr/share/vlc/lua/http/.hosts to allow remote connections. You will need to restart VLC in order for changes to take effect.

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: http://crunchbang.org/forums/viewtopic.php?pid=112035%23p112035#p112035

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 dbus-send as discussed here to interact with VLC:

$ dbus-send --print-reply --session --dest=org.mpris.MediaPlayer2.vlc /org/mpris/MediaPlayer2 org.mpris.MediaPlayer2.Player.PlayPause

Preventing multiple instances

The default settings for VLC is to open a new instance of the program for each file that is opened. This can be annoying if you are using VLC for something like playing your music collection. You can disable this in Tools > Preferences > Interface > Instances > Allow only one instance. Optionally, tick Enqueue files when in one instance mode which keeps current file playing and adds any newly opened files to the current playlist.

Hardware acceleration support

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. This example will use UID 75 since it's not reserved according to DeveloperWiki:UID / GID Database.

# useradd -c "VLC daemon" -d / -G audio -M -p \! -r -s /usr/bin/nologin -u 75 -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 wireless 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

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

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.

If that does not work, VLC has a segfault issue with plugins.dat (see FS#57777), simply remove the file:

# rm /usr/lib/vlc/plugins/plugins.dat

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 doesn't support VDPAU you should tell VLC to use VA-API instead, see #Hardware acceleration support.

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 from

Exec=/usr/bin/vlc --started-from-file %U

to

Exec=/usr/bin/vlc --started-from-file %F

[1]

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