10 Useful Features Hidden In VLC Player Which You Might Not Know

Features Hidden In VLC Player

VLC player is a versatile multimedia which supports to play all formats of media files. There are many useful features hidden in VLC players. It is available for free and is an open-source media player. Due to the excellent features of the VLC media player, most computer users prefer it as their primary media player.

Even though most of the users’ preference is the VLC media player, they might not be completely aware of all its features. Yes! There are some features hidden in VLC player which all are not aware of.

Here are 10 hidden features of VLC player we are going to let you know. The VLC media player supports all types of audio and video files and also can perform several important functions.

1. Play or download online video files:

Playing or downloading an online video is as simple as just watching a video on YouTube. What we do to play a video is just search the video in the search bar and watch the video. Likewise, there are various online sources in VLC media player to play videos online. They may be YouTube videos, movies, or tutorials. Let us see how to play or download videos in VLC player.

Copy the URL of your online Video which you want to play or download on VLC
Open VLC player and click on “Media” on the top menu.
Then click on “Open Network Stream” and paste the copied video URL there and tap on Play.
If you want to download, click on “Tools” on the menu and then click on “Codec Information”.
Now a new window opens where you can see a box named “Location” on the bottom of the window.
Under “Location” right click on the text box and then “Select All”.
Now copy the text, go back to your browser and paste the text in the address bar.
The text that you copied is the direct link to the video file hosted on YouTube’s server. This will open the video file directly. Just right click on the video when it starts playing and after that select “Save Video As”.
Now, downloading of the video will start.

2. Convert media files:

Conversion of media files is a simple task for VLC player. The VLC media player can be used to compress a video to play it on a mobile device. It can convert the media file from an unsupported format to the one which your device supports. The player can even extract the audio from the video and save it as a separate file. Follow the below step to obtain this conversion.

Click on the “Media” menu and select “Convert/Save”
Upload the media file which you want to convert and tap on Convert/Save button
Select the type of file which you want to convert the existing one to
Edit selected file button can be used to improve the video encoding settings

3. Record only a part of current playing video:

Sometimes, it happens that we like only a certain portion of a video and we would like to save only that particular portion. Do you think it is possible with the VLC player to record only that portion? Yes! It is. Go through the below steps.

Click on “View” menu on the menu bar of the VLC media player
Select “Advanced Controls” from the drop down
Now you can see a new button in red color above the playback button
Clicking this one will start recording the video. So you can click this button from where you want to record your favorite video. And click the same red button to stop recording
Finally, save the recorded video to “My videos” file under user documents.

4. Take screenshots of current playing video:

The VLC media player allows you to take screenshots of the current playing video. You can either takes screenshots of running videos or pause the video and can take screenshots. The VLC player will save the screenshot of the video in PNG format with the same resolution.

Click on “View” menu on the menu bar of the VLC media player
Select “Advanced Controls” from the drop down
Now you can see new buttons on the top of playback options. Click on the second button showing a camera icon to capturing a screenshot of the current playing video
It will automatically save the screenshots to “My pictures” folder under user documents.

5. Record your desktop activities:

You can record the entire activities of your desktop with this VLC player. The configuration of the inbuilt VLC desktop screen recorder is easy. Follow the steps below.

Open the VLC player and go to “Media”. Then click on “Convert/Save”
Now click on “Capture device”
Now select the “Capture Mode” to “Desktop”, select the Frame rate and then click on “Convert/Save” at the bottom.
Now select your desired audio-video profile and the destination path. Then give a file name and click on “start”.
To stop the recording, just click on the usual stop button of VLC media player.

6. Set a video as your desktop wallpaper:

It is easy with VLC player to set a video as your desktop wallpaper. This will look interesting for you whenever you open your PC or laptop to see the video being played on as your desktop wallpaper. But how to set a video wallpaper?

Open the VLC player and go to “Tools” on the menu bar and the click on “Preferences” from the dropdown.
Then click on “Video” on the left side
In the “Output dropdown box” select “DirectX video output” and tap on Save
Now Restart the VLC player and click on the Video option on the menu bar. Or you can right click on the media player screen and select “Video” directly
Then click on “Set as wallpaper” from the dropdown
Now you can see the video as your desktop wallpaper
If you want to take out the video from playing as your desktop wallpaper, close the VLC media player.

7. Record Your Webcam video:

The VLC media player allows you to record video through your Webcam. This will be more useful when you the desktop haven’t been installed with the webcam software. Follow the steps to record a video via your webcam.

Open VLC player and go to “Media”, then click on “Open Capture device”.
Set capture mode to “Directshow”.
Then select your Video and Audio device.
Then click “Play”.

8. Add watermark logo to your video:

Adding watermark logo or text to the video will seem interesting while we are watching our own videos. Learn how simple it is to add the watermark logo or text to the videos.

Open the VLC player, go to “Tools” and click on “Effects and Filter” then followed by “Video effects”
Under Video effects, click on “Overlay tab”
Now you can add or remove a logo to or from the video

9. Add, Enable/Disable or Switch subtitle tracks:

The VLC player allows you to Enable/Disable or add a new Subtitle Track. This feature is very helpful when the video is in any unknown language and you have the subtitles in your native or any known language. If you are using VLC then you can add that subtitle track to the video.

Open VLC player and select “Subtitle” in the menu bar. Or right click on the video player screen and then “Subtitle”.
For selecting a Subtitle, move your mouse cursor on “Sub Track” and then choose a subtitle.
For adding a new subtitle track, click on “Add Subtitle File”, then select your sub file.

10. Switch Audio tracks:

Think of a case where your media file has more than one audio track. Any one of the Audio tracks can be selected to make it a default audio. Know how to make an audio track as default one.

Open VLC player and tap on “Audio”, followed by “Audio track”. Or right click on the video player screen, then on “Audio” and then tap on “Audio track”.
Select your preferred audio track among the multiple audio tracks (all the audio tracks appear here). This will be your default audio track.

These are the 10 useful features hidden in VLC player that most of the VLC player users might not know.