LostInTechnology

Three Handy VLC Tricks and Tips

Posted on 03. Feb, 2010 by Alae Hatoum in Miscellaneous

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VLC is my favorite video player, mainly because of its light weight, open-source nature and the extensive list of features it has. Being open-source gives VLC many advantages over other media players, and this shows up the most in its codec support.

Today, I’m going to tell you about three features of VLC that aren’t found in most other media players.  These features are another reason in a long list of why you should check out VLC.

Converting Video Files

To convert a video, use the convert/Save option from the media menu (Shown in the image above). When you choose Convert/Save, a new “Open media” Window will appear as shown below. Click on “Add” to choose the file you want to convert and then click the convert/save button.

You will then be presented with a “Convert” Window that tells you the source of the file want to convert and allows you to choose the destination and name of the file you want to convert to by clicking browse and renaming it to whatever you want but make sure you include the extension you want to convert to .

Snapshots

VLC lets you take snapshots of your video while it is playing.  Just go to the video menu and choose Snapshot, VLC will take a snapshot of the current frame. By default Snapshots are saved in “My Documents”, but this can be adjusted in the preferences by going to Tools > Preferences and choosing Video settings

Record DVDs

VLC allows you to record DVDs while playing them using its Advanced options that contain a record button, however Advanced options are hidden by default, and you have to enable them by going to View > Advanced options and clicking on it . Now you can see the Record button along with a couple other handy controls like snapshot and looping.

Now, when you start up a DVD or other video, simply click on the record button and hit it a second time to end the recording.While it is recording, notice that the record button will be blue.The recorded video is in MPEG format and stored them in the Documents folder labeled as VLC Record with the date and time. VLC also offers DVD ripping as well using the convert/save option, but we’ll keep this for another time.

Conclusion

These three handy tricks and features alike add to an arsenal of neat and tiny little things that make VLC a very powerful all in one media player that can tackle all your files with great ease and offer you the best set of tools to work on them. Do you use VLC? Do you find these features useful? What are your favorite features of VLC and what would you like to see in future versions?

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Tags: DVDs, media players, Snapshots, vlc