VLC Media Player is the most used media player in the world on all computers. Much of the success of this program comes from the fact that it can play almost any type of audio or video file.
It is also free, it is open source and contains many functions that make it one of the most complete multifunction programs ever.
If you have VLC installed on your Linux, Mac or Windows computer, it is worth knowing what else you can do with this software tool capable of manipulating videos in many ways.
In this article, we see 11 things you can do with VLC in addition to watching videos, 11 useful tricks and alternative functions to manipulate digital videos.
1) Convert multimedia files
VLC can convert multimedia files between the various supported formats.
This becomes especially useful for making smaller videos in order to keep them on a mobile phone or to convert them from an unsupported format or even to extract audio from a video and save only music.
In VLC, go to the Media menu> select Convert / Save .
Load the file to convert, click on Convert / Save and select the type of file you want to create.
The edit profile button is used to change edit the encoding settings of the video.
READ ALSO: Convert video with VLC
2) Stream video
With VLC you can transmit any streaming stream of music and video over a local network or from the Internet.
on the Media menu, select the option Transmit, select the file and then press the stream button below.
VLC can media server so that other computers on the network or around the world can connect and watch that video.
Of course, if you want to stream video over the Internet, VLC is not the best option since you also need to configure the ports on the router.
SEE HERE: How to broadcast videos on the internet on Youtube
3) Register the Desktop
VLC is full of powerful features, including the ability to record what's going on on the desktop.
Press on Media> Convert / Save, go to Acquisition Device and choose Desktop from the device menu
You could also use this feature and broadcast a live desktop stream across the network or the Internet.
4) Control VLC remotely from a browser
You can use any smartphone as a playback remote control (via app) or control VLC from another computer connected to the network, from the browser.
VLC can activate an HTTP server.
This can be done by pressing Tools -> Preferences -> All -> Interfaces and activating the Web .
Reopen VLC, authorize the Firewall and then open the browser on the // localhost: 8080 / page to see if it works.
Obviously then you will need to configure the router to make this web page visible to other computers on the network or via the internet.
5) Watch and download videos
As written in another guide, you can watch streaming video streams with VLC without opening them in the browser and without using the Flash Player.
Just go to Media -> Open Network Stream and write the internet address of the video to play it.
In Tools, click on Encoder information and, in the Position box, click on the block of text to select it all, press the right button and do paste.
Then open a web browser, paste the text on the address bar to open the source file.
Right click on the video during playback and then select Save video as .
6) Subscribe to Podcasts
VLC can be used to listen to streaming podcasts without using iTunes or other programs.
Just click on the View menu in VLC and select Ladder .
Expand the Internet list and then go to Podcasts.
click the + button and paste a podcast's feed address into the box to hear it streaming from VLC.
See here how to search and listen or see Italian podcasts
7) Hear online radios
Before Spotify and Grooveshark, Internet radio stations were streamed to hear music.
You can search for radios that broadcast on the internet from within VLC by opening View -> playlist and selecting playlists and selecting Icecast Radio Directory.
you can search for the radio according to the musical genre.
Jamendo's lists are also good.
Of course, VLC can also be used to stream other Internet radio stations.
In another article how to find the links to listen to Italian radios from your PC.
8) Apply Video and Audio effects
Among the many things that can be done with VLC, there is also the editing of videos through special effects.
VLC can apply audio effects, video effects and can also edit the audio track in a video.
Go to the Tools menu and select effects and filters .
From here, you can use an equalizer, use effects such as cropping a video, rotating, overlapping, coloring etc.
From the synchronization tab you can change the way the audio is played on the video in order to adjust those films that have the audio not synchronized.
As with other VLC features, these effects can be combined with other functions.
For example, you can apply effects and then save the new edited video from the Convert / Save menu.
For other VLC functions, see the previous post on 20 VLC functions: video effects, recording, and much more .
9) Video and audio can be recorded with VLC
In practice, if you watch a video streaming with VLC or listen to an online radio or podcast, you can save it using the Convert / Save menu.
VLC becomes an excellent tool for downloading videos from the internet from any site.
10) Use a video as a desktop wallpaper
Maybe it's useless, but it's a very nice VLC trick that allows you to put a video on the desktop background.
To do this, you need to open a video, go to Video Menu and then to Set as wallpaper .
To have the video on the desktop background, instead, keep VLC preferences open, press on the Video icon and then, in the Exit option, select DirectX (DirectDraw) .
11) Record the webcam
You can record the shot of a webcam or IP camera by choosing the type of video format and other settings.
Click on Media and then on Open acquisition device, in " Acquisition mode ", select DirectShow .
On " name of the video device " choose the webcam, as the audio device choose the microphone and go to " Advanced options ".
Enter the value 30 for input frame rate (or less if you are not interested in quality) and click OK.
Now you can press Play to play the video live and record it with the red button or choose the usual " Convert / Save " menu.
VLC is an excellent program not only on computers, but also on iPhone, iPad smartphones and Android tablets.
For example, on Android, VLC is very useful for opening videos from streaming sites
