VLC (standing for VideoLAN Client) is a portable multimedia player, encoder, and streamer supporting many audio and video codecs and file formats as well as DVDs, VCDs, and various streaming protocols. It is able to stream over networks and to transcode multimedia files and save them into various formats. Notes: Note that versions of VLC media player compatible with Mac OS X 10.1 to 10.6 are available from the developer site. Ability to stream video and music from AirPlay devices and to download online media from VideoLAN - Official Download of VLC media player for Mac OS X. VLC for Mac OS X. VLC is a free and open source cross-platform.

This page describes how to make VLC the default media player.Other 'how to' pages

VLC for Mac OS X VLC is a free and open source cross-platform multimedia player and framework that plays most multimedia files as well as DVDs, Audio CDs, VCDs, and various streaming protocols. VLC Media Player juga dapat digunakan untuk memutar DVD, VCD, maupun CD. VLC Media Player bersifat sumber terbuka ( open source ) dan tersedia untuk berbagai sistem operasi. 10 Mulai dari Microsoft Windows, beragam distro Linux, Mac OS, dan beberapa sistem operasi lainnya. VideoLAN, VLC, VLC media player and x264 are trademarks internationally registered by the VideoLAN non-profit organization. VideoLAN software is licensed under various open-source licenses: use and distribution are defined by each software license. Design by Made By Argon. Some icons are licensed under the CC BY-SA 3.0+.

  • 1Windows
  • 3Linux
    • 3.1Fedora
      • 3.1.1GNOME

Windows

See also: How to associate media files with VLC.

XP

The simplest way to set VLC as the default media player for Windows is during installation of VLC. During set-up, VLC will ask you if you want to associate certain media file types (such as .mp3, .flv, .wav) with VLC; for each 'association' chosen opening that file type will launch it in VLC. By default, all are selected, though you might (or might not) want to un-check file types you'd like to open with another programme.

If you've missed this chance at making it the default media player during set-up, perhaps the easiest way is to un-install it and then install it again.
A word of caution regarding re-installation—be sure to un-check the box that deletes your preferences and cache, or all your customisations will be gone!

Vista, 7, 8

Open VLC player, click on Tools in the menu, and from there select Preferences.

Click on the Interface button on the left panel and then click on Set up associations... (it's close to the bottom).

Select types of files from the list that appears. Check any file types for which you want VLC to be the default player, or just check the select all option.

Mac

Right-click on the type of file you want to always open with VLC. Click 'Get Info'. In the 'Open With' section, select VLC from the drop-down menu. To apply this change to all files of this type, click the 'Change All' button.

For optical media, like CDs or DVDs, go to Apple -> System Preferences and choose 'CDs/DVDs' in the Hardware section. Choose 'Other Application' from the respective popup menu button. The list is alphabetical, so VLC should be near the bottom of the list.

Linux

Fedora

GNOME

Gnome uses two lists (located at /usr/share/applications/) – mimeinfo.cache and defaults.list – to register applications to file types.
You can either edit these manually or use the tools that GNOME has for this.


Instructions on how to do it in GNOME
Changing the default application for videos using menus (the easy way):

Using Nautilus 2.30.1, from the top menu bar choose 'Places', then Home Folder -> Edit menu -> Preferences -> choose Media tab -> and in the drop-down list next to 'DVD Video' choose 'Open VLC media player'.
Voilà.

Vlc Player Download

Alternatively, try: System -> Preferences -> Personal -> Preferred Applications -> Multimedia -> Custom -> Type this: vlc %U

(P.S.: this alternative hasn't been tested yet).

Changing the default application for videos using menus (the not-so-easy way):
  • Right-click on the video file that you want VLC to open by default.
  • Choose properties.
  • Now in the properties window, click on the tab named Open With.

  • In the tab Open With just choose VLC as your player for that type of file.
Just remember that you will have to do this for each and every type of video/audio file (e.g., mpg, avi, rm, mkv, ogg, mp3, etc.)

  • If the VLC icon doesn't show up on the Open With tab, click on the add button in the lower corner to the right of the window
    that has a plus sign, and locate VLC on the window that pops up that is called Add Application.
Changing the default application for videos manually (the hard way):

In Fedora 10 the path /usr/share/applications/ will take you to these 2 files that configure what application opens a type of file.
defaults.list
mimeinfo.cache
P.S.: Both files will point to a Desktop Entry file ([name of the file].desktop) that is inside the applications folder, and the 2 important things inside that file are the configurations for what MIME Types the application can handle, and how to launch the application.

A Desktop Entry file is a data file that provides information about an item in a menu.The desktop entry specification describes desktop entries as files describing information about an application such as the name, MIME Types it handles, icon, and description. These files are used for application launchers and for creating menus of applications that can be launched.
If you don't have the VLC Desktop Entry file, or it disappears for some reason you will have to make one. Look here for some pointers.

Vlc Player Mac Wikipedia

Vlc Player Mac Wiki

You only need to modify mimeinfo.cache, I hope. It works for me. If it doesn't work for you, please edit this!

So what you have to do is:

  1. Open mimeinfo.cache as root.
  2. Search for the MIME Types for video.
  3. Change all of them to use VLC.

For example:
Registry of MIME Type (video/quicktime) in mimeinfo.cache to use VLC.
video/quicktime=livna-vlc.desktop;totem.desktop;miro.desktop;
The format is:
[MIME Type]=[Name of the Desktop Entry file]
Note: You can put more than one Desktop Entry, but they need to be separated by a semi-colon (;), see the example above.
Those extra entries will appear as options when you right-click on the video file and go to the Open With submenu.
Tip: Nautilus don't show the real names of the Desktop Entry files. Either drag and drop it on gedit so you see the name on the tab, or use ls to list the files on the command line.

References
  • Registering Applications for MIME Types (Editing defaults.list and mimeinfo.cache)

KDE

[TODO]

Retrieved from 'https://wiki.videolan.org/index.php?title=VLC_HowTo/Make_VLC_the_default_player&oldid=57893'


Frequently Asked Questions

view this alone

  • 3Latest developments
    • 3.2Command line

Graphical Interface

Many people who want to use VLC media player on macOS will be intending to use the standard graphical interface that is provided by VLC. The standard interface consists of the eight menus in the menu bar and the 'VLC - Controller' window that opens up by default. This section outlines what VLC can do for you (at V0.8.6a current active is V3.0.10) and will be completed as I check the use of menu options.

The ten menu bar options are listed below along with the main interesting capabilities under each menu item:

Download
  • VLC which allows you to check for an updated application, to access the preferences, and to add an interface.
  • File which allows you to open a media file, or an associated file (such as subtitles). It also has a wizard to allow the streaming of video, or the capturing of a streamed video to a file.
  • Edit which does nothing VLC-specific.
  • View which allows you to hide or show various options like previous/next buttons, shuffle and repeat, audio effects, sidebar, as well as customize what you see in 'playlist table columns'.
  • Playback allows you do do all the things you might expect from a video player; some of these features are duplicated graphically in the 'Controller' window.
  • Audio allows you to control the audio level, as well as the output device and the audio track to use from the input.
  • Video allows you to control the video display on your screen, as well as which device to display on, and which video source to show in that display.
  • Subtitles allows you to add subtitle files to your video, as well as change the appearance of subtitle text for your video.
  • Window allows you to display seven helper windows that will display information about VLC's activity, and control more detail of that activity.
  • Help gives access to the help that came with the installation, the help info on the VideoLAN site, and access to interaction mechanisms with the VLC developers.

In general, many users find that they can get what they want from VLC 'straight out of the box', and may only want more advanced controls after becoming familiar with the regular interface.

Vlc Player Mac Wikipedia

Keyboard Shortcuts

You can find most of the keyboard shortcuts by taking a look at the menus. Additional hotkeys are defined in the section 'Hotkeys' of your VLC preferences.

Some handy key combos are:

  • Spacebar – pause/unpause the video
  • ⌘ + F – toggle fullscreen (Escape will also exit fullscreen)
  • ⌘ + Shift + left/right arrow keys – jump the video back/forward about a minute
  • ⌘ + Ctrl + left/right arrow keys – jump the video back/forward about ten seconds
  • When watching a DVD, and the video window is the front-most window, arrow keys and the enter key will allow you to navigate the DVD menus
  • F key – Decrease Audio Delay in milliseconds
  • G key – Increase Audio Delay in milliseconds
  • H key – Decrease Subtitle Delay
  • J key – Increase Subtitle Delay

Latest developments

Streaming Wizard

Vlc Player Mac Wikipedia Software

A streaming wizard has been available since the VLC media player 0.8.4 release. This is available under the 'File' menu.

Command line

You can run VLC on macOS using a terminal application (for example Terminal.app in /Applications/Utilities) with the following command:

On most Bourne-like shells, you can set an alias to just vlc with the following command:

It can be helpful to add this command to your shell setup file.

This option can also be activated from the 'VLC' menu.

Command line examples

Videolan Vlc Media Player Mac

~ will expand to /Users/<username>

Vlc Player Mac Wikipedia Free

Following command does this: Transform video-filter (flip vertically), transcode (save) to file.

-I rc is so that it doesn't open the GUI, but stays on the command line version--vout-filter defines the filter to use--transform-type defines the attributes of the transform filter/Movie.mov is the file to convert--sout= is the stream output chain/output.mp4 is the output file name

Another Example

I had a heck of a time getting this to work the way I wanted it. I kept attempting a command-line execution of VLC to only get the following response (not what I wanted):

What I wasn't doing apparently was specifying the location of the source movie.

Eventually I ran this:

HINT:
This would be the same as if you didn't have an alias for vlc that pointed to the actual Applications executable:

Hopefully, I'll add to this post when the transcoding finishes and I see my results (I have no idea if I've got the correct options for vp8/vorbis webm-container transcoding).....

Mac

No Dock

In previous versions you can replace the VLC at the end of the path with clivlc to suppress the launch of any Mac-like interface (VLC wouldn't even appear in the Dock then) or if transcoding from the command-line crashed with a Bus error.

This does not work anymore (see Forum thread #58378)

As given by Command-line interface#macOS, specify the option -I followed by the interface you want to add e.g. VLC -Idummy.

Vlc Player Mac Download

Need Help?

See the FAQ on macOS only issues or the Common Problems pages.

Retrieved from 'https://wiki.videolan.org/index.php?title=MacOS&oldid=59911'