VLC Inception Trick

Wondering what’s inception here? Well, VLC Media Player can take screenshot of your current screen and keep on taking screenshots in relatively smaller size and putting on it’s display panel which will provide your inception effect.

Steps to perform this trick:

Open VLC Media Player

Now, Press Ctrl+N

Type “screen://” (without quotes) in the opened window

Click Play to see this VLC inception trick

Use VLC as Video Converter

Don’t you have any video converter to convert your video files to a format compatible with your mobile, tablet, other devices or media players? Well, if you have VLC then problem solved. VLC lets you to convert media files too. To convert your media files, follow these steps:

Navigate to Media >> Convert/Save

On the next screen, click “Add” and add media files by browsing

Now, click on Convert/Save button provided at the bottom.

On the next screen, choose desirable video format to play video on your device.

Finally, click Start and VLC will start converting your video file to desirable video format.

After conversion, VLC will open converted media file in front of you.

Use VLC as YouTube Video Downloader

Unlike 2nd trick, VLC doesn’t provide direct option for you to download YouTube video but you can play workaround. VLC can help you in getting direct downloading link of your desired YouTube video file. Follow these steps:

Navigate to Media >> Open Network Stream

Put your YouTube video’s URL at provided field and click “Play” button

1.VLC will not steam the video. Click on Tools >> Media Information >> Codec. See the Location box at the bottom which has long URL string. Copy it.

2.The URL you have copied is video downloading URL for your YouTube video. Now paste it on browser and browse it to play the video at your browser, save as to download the video or paste it in your downloader which will download the video for you.

Auto Shutdown VLC and PC

Well, do you love to hear music on your PC/Laptop from speaker, just because you hate to hear through earphone at the moment of sleeping? If you have added your songs’ playlist then VLC can assure you to shut down your PC after specific time interval. Create a stopwatch for VLC which will shut down your PC after it ends. Follow these steps:

Open Notepad

Write this code:START /WAIT C:\"Program Files"\VideoLAN\VLC\vlc.exe %1 vlc://quit shutdown -s -t 60

Save file with .BAT extension. For example: shutmusic.BAT

Enjoy Music for 60 seconds. You can replace 60 with any other digit to wait for up to that seconds.

Add Mouse Gesture Support

VLC provides so many important features and many of them are usually used while playing a video or audio. Its frustrating to move through options for configuration. To make the task easier, VLC have provided mouse gesture support which makes it very easy to adjust settings just by moving mouse.

For example -

left : Short time skip backward (10sec by default)

right : Short time skip forward (10sec by default)

left-up : Faster

right-up : Slower

left-down : Go to previous entry in playlist

right-down : Go to next entry in playlist

left-right : Play/Pause

right-left : Play/Pause

up : Volume up

down : Volume down

up-down : Mute Volume

down-up : Mute Volume

To enable mouse gesture, navigate to View >> Add Interface and click “Mouse Gesture” option. You can see full list of supported mouse gestures here.

Record Video Chat

You can save your long video chat session easily using VLC. To do this, follow the below steps:

Navigate to Media >> Open Capture Device

On Capture Device Screen, You can select audio and video device, just like system microphone.

Moreover, you can adjust brightness, hue, contrast, saturation, etc.

Choose destination path for recorded file and you’re good to go.

Listen Internet Radio & Manage Podcasts

VLC contains in-built internet radio listings and a podcast aid to boot. Just open playlist and at the top of left sidebar, you’ll find Internet Radio services such as Icecast Radio directory, Jamendo Selections. Click anyone to load their album and start listening them. It’s free.

If you’d like VLC to keep a track of podcasts then hover Podcasts in the Playlist and click on the plus symbol “+” that appears. Enter the podcast’s URL to add it to your database.

Play Video as ASCII Output

Not any productive but obviously an interesting feature, VLC lets you output video in ASCII Art format. So, instead of watching normal video, you can enjoy characters art. To do this, follow these steps:

Navigate to Tools >> Preferences

Click on Video from left sidebar

At “Output” field, choose Color ASCII Art Video Output

Now, enjoy watching videos in ASCII art format. Useless, but fun!

Record Your Desktop

VLC can load your desktop as an input device. This means that you can use the Convert / Save feature to save a video of your desktop, effectively turning VLC into screen capture software.

Now, no additional screen-capture software required.

Play Video on Desktop

However, it is highly distracting but if you want, you can make your desktop a playback screen for any video you’re playing on VLC Media Player.

To do this, follow these steps:

Navigate to Tools >> Preferences

Choose Video from left sidebar and at output field choose “DirectX video output. Save it.

Now, restart VLC, play a video

Right-click on screen and navigate to Video >> DirectX Wallpaper

Enjoy watching video directly at your desktop :-)

Convert Media Files

VLC can convert media files between the formats it supports. You could use this to make a video smaller for a mobile device, convert media from an unsupported format to one your device supports, or even to extract the audio from a video and save it as a separate file.

To do this, click the Media menu and select Convert / Save. Load the file you want to convert, click the Convert / Save button, and select the type of file you want to convert it to. Use the Edit selected profile button to tweak the video encoding settings.

Stream Media Over the Network or Internet

VLC can stream media across the Internet or on your local network. To get started, click the Media menu, select Stream, provide the media file you want to stream and click the Stream button. You’ll be able to set up VLC as a media server so other computers on the network — or even around the world — can connect to your stream and view it.

Of course, if you want to stream over the Internet, you’ll probably need to forward ports on your router.

Remotely Control Playback From a Browser

VLC has an integrated HTTP server you can enable. Set this up and you can then remotely access your VLC client via a web browser. This would allow you to remotely control a media center PC from a web browser, controlling playback and queuing up audio or video files. You could even use this along with a smartphone to turn your phone into a remote control for VLC. There are mobile apps that function as remote controls for VLC, and these apps use VLC’s web interface to function.

Subscribe to Podcasts

VLC can be used to stream podcasts, so you don’t need any additional software if you want to listen to podcasts at your PC. Just click the View menu in VLC and select Playlist. Hover over Podcasts in the sidebar, click the + button, and paste the address of a podcast’s feed into the box. You can then stream the podcast’s episodes from within VLC.

Play Internet Radio

Before Pandora and Spotify, there were streaming Internet radio stations. There was a time when Internet users primarily streamed these radio stations from within Winamp, but they live on. You can view a searchable directory of radio stations from within VLC — just open the playlist and select Icecast Radio Directory. Perform a search for the kind of music you want to listen to or browse the list of free streaming radio stations.

Of course, VLC can also stream other Internet radio stations that aren’t included in this directory. You can generally find a “listen” link on their websites that will allow you to listen in a desktop player like VLC.

Apply Video and Audio Effects

VLC can apply audio effects, video effects, and tweak the way a video’s audio and video line up. Click the Tools menu and select Effects and Filters. From here, you can apply an audio equalizer or video effects, such as cropping, rotating, overlaying, or colorizing a video. From the Synchronization tab, you can tweak the way a video’s audio and video stream line up. This allows you to fix broken videos where the audio and video are out of sync.