Top 5 Hidden Uses for VLC - Luke's Software Discoveries Episode 2
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2015-05-07
·
1,735 words · ~8 min read
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if you're looking for a media player that goes above and beyond the one
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bundled with your operating system you have quite a few options to choose from
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one of the most popular and ubiquitous ones is VLC it runs on everything
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Windows OSX Linux iOS even freaking IBM's os2 yeah the official version of
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VC does actually run on an operating system whose last release date was
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December 2001 VC is known for being able
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to play essentially everything you throw at it but we're not here to talk about
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how VC reacts to a normal media playback situation we're here to uncover some of
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the Lesser known and actually fairly interesting features of
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VC The Cooler Master Nova touch tkl utilizes genuine toer hybrid capacitive
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switches and is now available at a more affordable price click now to learn more
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let's start with a few Basics VC does a lot of other media players don't like
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for instance it's one key audio sync that helps offset with terribly encoded
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video audio boost that amplifies quiet audio up to 150% without touching
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equalizer settings and even features an always Top Mode so you can multitask
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like a boss but I'm having a good time and I don't have a curfew so let's take
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this deeper before we get started however I want to issue a word of
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warning not all of these features are completely stable and our testing we
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experienced a significant number of crashes and the UI wasn't always
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completely userfriendly so I wouldn't necessarily recommend these features to
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completely new users or the Fain of heart but if you put in the time and you
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have the knowhow and a bit of technical knowledge you might be able to get a
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pretty decent level of stability one more thing I'll be demoing these on
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Windows with VC version 2.2.0 depending on your platform and
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version the interface and shortcuts May differ slightly so without further Ado
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here are the top five hidden features of VC number five did you know that you can
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stream your VLC Media over the network yep despite media players in the name
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VLC is actually also a media server allowing you to stream video over a
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local network or over the Internet well as long as your internet connection can
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do that to get started you'll need to click media and then stream from there
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add a file or files that you want to stream or if you want to get fancy you
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can stream from a disc or even a capture device next select the new D destination
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or HTTP and press add Advanced users can
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even stream over multiple protocols at once after pressing next VC will prompt
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you about active transcoding why would you want this well maybe your device on
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the other end is slow or you'd like to save on bandwidth transcoding high
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bandwidth content High bit rate content sorry can be really hard especially when
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streaming over the internet to start the stream press next where it will give you
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a final overview of your settings and and then press stream to start one final
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note if you're going to do this over the internet you'll need to forward port
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8080 to your host streaming PC also
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please note that VC acts as both the streaming host and the client so to tune
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in the Stream simply click on media and then open network stream and type in the
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URL of your streaming PC including the HTTP and port numbers number four I
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touched on this briefly earlier but VC can transcode or encode audio and video
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on your local system maybe you want to convert that lossless video into
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something a bit more mobile friendly or maybe You' like to convert to QuickTime
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so your Mac buddy can edit an iMovie whatever you want to do that's fine to
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access transcoding features simply use the media then convert slave menu option
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and from there you'll add the file or files you want to convert at the bottom
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click convert slave button next you'll be presented with a bunch of preset
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profiles good for most cases such as YouTube or Android but if you want
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granular control you can change basically whatever you want or even bake
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in some subtitles when you're done selecting all that provide a destination
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file and VLC will go to work on to number three so you're watching your
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favorite show and then something flashes on screen probably some QR code or
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Easter egg of some sort I mean you could just play it back at a slower speed with
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the default settings of just hitting the minus hotkey or you can go take it frame
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by frame to get the perfect glimpse of the hidden secret to do this use the
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hotkey E to advance the video frame by frame then when you've got it just right
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you can use shift s to save a PNG screenshot in your default pictures
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folder and upload it to Reddit or the Linus te tips Forum to show that you're
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such a Keener oh and if you don't like PNG or you'd like VLC to Output the
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files somewhere else you can change the directory file name format or even the
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width and height of the output file right in the preferences number two
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whether you're a gamer programmer video editor or just light computer user there
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will be at least one point in time in your life where it would be extremely
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helpful to capture video from your desktop maybe you got a weird bug and
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you need it to help you or maybe you just want to show off your amazing After
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Effects tutorial or something else head to Media then open capture device and
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select desktop in the capture mode drop down from there select a different frame
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rate then uh hit that down arrow again
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and select convert from there it's just like transcoding except instead of a
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file you're transloading your desktop and live select your en cing options and
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your destination file and then press start to get going once you're done just
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hit stop and it'll save the file all right time for a bit of a tangent before
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we get to our number one hidden VLC feature we have a bonus feature have you
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ever wanted to live in the Retro Matrix perhaps you have a nostalgic feeling for
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bbs's from the 80s well VLC knows your pain you can actually watch videos via
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colored ASI art to do this go to tools
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preferences video then under output select color as aski art video output
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and enjoy your video in 16 color Glory
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okay back on track to number one this is a neat little trick that's very deep
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within vlc's interface VLC actually has an integrated HTTP server that you can
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enable by setting this up you can remotely access your VLC client via a
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web browser to set it up head back to preferences and click the all settings
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radio button under main interfaces click the Web Box expand the main menu and
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click the Lua add a password to secure your server click save and then close to
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reopen VLC setting this interface up makes the whole system much more
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powerful remember how we could stream our media over the Internet well it
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would be pretty inconvenient to remote in and start the stream so that you
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could watch it elsewhere every freaking time this feature provides full access
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to your VC client you can play any item in your library of video content manage
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your streams adjust equalizer even adjust the volume think of it like a web
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connected super remote mod in conclusion VLC is an extremely powerful program
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with an insane amount of options and while it may be a little unstable in
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certain situations and there are potentially better options for doing
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some of these things individually it's pretty badass to have it all in one
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package at the low low price of free
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speaking of being powerful to the web Squarespace is pretty powerful and has
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you covered if you want to set up a beautiful responsive site without the
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hassle of coding it yourself we use Squarespace on the company website
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linusmediagroup
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docomo they have 24/7 tech support via live chat or even email to help you out
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if you want to set up a information setup if you want to set up an online
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store they have an e-commerce site that you can set up through Squarespace so
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get a free trial at Squarespace no credit card required and start building
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your site today and when you choose to sign up for the service make sure you
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use offer code Linus that saves you 10% off your first purchase thanks to
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Squarespace for supporting us here at L Media Group let us know down in the
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comments or over on the Forum what are your favorite hidden features of VC
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there's a ton of awesome functionality that we didn't cover so I'm sure you've
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got a few while you're here like dislike share subscribe favorite follow but that
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was really fast I think I got everything though and comment down below or check
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the description to see a cool shirt that isn't from twitch but probably has more
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funny stuff on it because Nick designed it or someone else designed and he got
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them to make a shirt of it whatever he does things and it's cool over on the
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Forum if you check the support us link you can uh become a contributor to The
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Forum which is great you can change your Amazon affiliate codes which is great
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you can install the Line Tech tips Notifier plugins for your browser which
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is great because you can go in there and set up uh it to automatically change
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Amazon URLs for you there's a bunch of cool stuff thank you guys for watching
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and I'll see you next time
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he