VLC

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VLC media player is a wildly popular, cross platform video player and streamer. VLC media player has been quickly achieving its goal of world domination since its initial release in February of 2001.

Installation

USE flags

USE flags for media-video/vlc Media player and framework with support for most multimedia files and streaming

+X	Enable support for e.g. fullscreen mode via X and the X C-language binding. It does not build a graphical interface
+dvbpsi	Enable support for Mpeg-TS files (.ts, .m2ts, .mts) via media-libs/libdvbpsi
+encode	Enable streaming-output support and videolan manager to control multiple streams from within one instance
+ffmpeg	Enable ffmpeg/libav-based audio/video codec support
+gcrypt	Enable cryptography support via libgcrypt
+gui	Enable support for a graphical user interface
+libsamplerate	Build with support for converting sample rates using libsamplerate
a52	Enable support for decoding ATSC A/52 streams used in DVD
alsa	Add support for media-libs/alsa-lib (Advanced Linux Sound Architecture)
aom	Enable AV1 encoding/decoding support using media-libs/libaom
archive	Enable support for libarchive stream extractor
aribsub	Enable support for decoding ARIB STD-B24 subtitles
bidi	Enable bidirectional language support
bluray	Enable libbluray for Blu-ray disc support
cddb	Access cddb servers to retrieve and submit information about compact disks
chromaprint	Enable libchromaprint for Chromaprint based audio fingerprinter support
chromecast	Enable experimental support for Google Chromecast
dav1d	Enable support for media-libs/dav1d AV1 decoder
dbus	Enable dbus support for anything that needs it (gpsd, gnomemeeting, etc)
dc1394	Enable IIDC cameras support
debug	Enable extra debug codepaths, like asserts and extra output. If you want to get meaningful backtraces see https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Project:Quality_Assurance/Backtraces
directx	Enable Win32 DirectX, D3D11va and DxVA2 support
dts	Enable DTS Coherent Acoustics decoder support
dvd	Add support for DVDs
faad	Enable AAC audio decoding library support via media-libs/faad2
fdk	Enable the Fraunhofer AAC codec library
flac	Add support for FLAC: Free Lossless Audio Codec
fluidsynth	Enable Fluidsynth MIDI software synthesis (with external sound fonts)
fontconfig	Support for configuring and customizing font access via media-libs/fontconfig
gme	Enable support for media-libs/game-music-emu for playing various video game music formats
gstreamer	Enable GStreamer based decoding support (currently supports only video decoding)
ieee1394	Enable FireWire/iLink IEEE1394 support (dv, camera, ...)
jack	Add support for the JACK Audio Connection Kit
jpeg	Add JPEG image support
kate	Adds support for Ogg Kate subtitles via libkate
keyring	Enable support for freedesktop.org Secret Service API password store
kms	Enable kernel mode setting video output plugin via x11-libs/libdrm
libass	SRT/SSA/ASS (SubRip / SubStation Alpha) subtitle support
libcaca	Add support for colored ASCII-art graphics
libnotify	Enable desktop notification support
libplacebo	Enable support for GPU accelerated video rendering with media-libs/libplacebo
libtar	Uses libtar instead of the built-in tar reader for reading custom skins
libtiger	Enable Ogg Kate subtitles rendering using libtiger
linsys	Enable support for Linux Linear Systems Ltd. SDI and HD-SDI input cards
lirc	Add support for lirc (Linux's Infra-Red Remote Control)
live	Enable live555 streaming media support (client support for rtsp)
loudness	Enable loudness normalisation according to the EBU R128 standard using media-libs/libebur128
lua	Enable Lua scripting support, needed for including support for Jamendo (online music platform) and similar things
macosx-notifications	Enable Mac OS X notifications module (formerly growl)
mad	Add support for mad (high-quality mp3 decoder library and cli frontend)
matroska	Enable matroska support using reference libraries (fallback on other existing matroska support if disabled, i.e., matroska enabled FFmpeg)
modplug	Add libmodplug support for playing SoundTracker-style music files
mp3	Add support for reading mp3 files
mpeg	Add libmpeg2 support for mpeg-1 and mpeg-2 video streams
mtp	Enable support for Media Transfer Protocol
musepack	Enable support for the musepack audio codec
ncurses	Add ncurses support (console display library)
nfs	Enable support for nfs protocol via net-fs/libnfs
ogg	Add support for the Ogg container format (commonly used by Vorbis, Theora and flac)
omxil	Enable OpenMAX Integration Layer codec module
optimisememory	Enable optimisation for memory rather than performance
opus	Enable Opus audio codec support
png	Add support for libpng (PNG images)
projectm	Enable the projectM visualization plugin
pulseaudio	Add sound server support via media-libs/libpulse (may be PulseAudio or PipeWire)
rdp	Enables RDP/Remote Desktop support
run-as-root	Allows vlc to start for root. Don't enable this unless you have a very specific (e.g. embedded) need for it!
samba	Add support for SAMBA (Windows File and Printer sharing)
sdl-image	Enable sdl image video decoder (depends on sdl)
sftp	Enable libssh2 to support SFTP file transfer
shout	Enable libshout output
sid	Enable SID (Commodore 64 audio) file support
skins	Enable support for the skins2 interface
soxr	Enable SoX Resampler support via media-libs/soxr
speex	Add support for the speex audio codec (used for speech)
srt	Enable support for Secure Reliable Transport (SRT) via net-libs/srt
ssl	Add support for SSL/TLS connections (Secure Socket Layer / Transport Layer Security)
svg	Add support for SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics)
taglib	Enable tagging support with taglib
test	Enable dependencies and/or preparations necessary to run tests (usually controlled by FEATURES=test but can be toggled independently)
theora	Add support for the Theora Video Compression Codec
tremor	Enable tremor, a fixed-point version of the Ogg Vorbis decoder
truetype	Add support for FreeType and/or FreeType2 fonts
twolame	Enable twolame support (MPEG Audio Layer 2 encoder)
udev	Enable virtual/udev integration (device discovery, power and storage device support, etc)
upnp	Enable support for the Intel SDK stack based UPnP discovery module instead of CyberLink
v4l	Enable support for video4linux (using linux-headers or userspace libv4l libraries)
vaapi	Enable Video Acceleration API for hardware decoding
vdpau	Enable the Video Decode and Presentation API for Unix acceleration interface
vnc	Enable VNC (remote desktop viewer) support
vpx	Enable the decoder(s) from the WebM VP8 / VP9 Codec SDK
wayland	Enable dev-libs/wayland backend
x264	Enable h264 encoding using x264
x265	Support X265 Encoder
xml	Add support for XML files
zeroconf	Enable support for zero-configuration networking via avahi
zvbi	Enable support for teletext subtitles via the zvbi library

Data provided by the Gentoo Package Database · Last update: 2024-10-13 21:38 More information about USE flags

According to VideoLAN some certain USE flags need to be set in order to not get a very bare bones version of VLC. Many of them might be obsolete or be set by the selected profile.

Streaming online multimedia

VLC provides users with the option to stream multimedia objects (YouTube, Vimeo, music, and more). To enable this functionality, simply enable the lua USE flag. If app-portage/gentoolkit is installed (it is a highly recommended package to have), simply issue:

root #euse -E lua -p media-video/vlc

After proper configuration and installation, streams can be opened via Media --> Open Network Stream.... Enter URLs to popular multimedia websites, such as YouTube or other websites.

Webm support

Webm is a popular video format. To have it work the vorbis, vpx, and matroska USE flags must be enabled.

Emerge

After setting desired USE flags for the initial installation, emerge VLC:

root #emerge --ask media-video/vlc

Usage

Alternate interfaces

VLC provides multiple interfaces in addition to the default GUI interface. There is an ncurses-based interface, and a HTTP interface that can be used for streaming or as a remote control. The VLC wiki has a section dedicated to explaining the alternative interfaces.

HTTP

When connecting to the HTTP interface, make sure a password is set.

Leave the user name field blank when entering credentials on the web page.

Hotkeys

VLC supports a host of hotkeys for more efficient operation. There is an article on the VLC wiki detailing all available hotkeys for the Qt interface.

See also

• MPlayer — a powerful command-line media player
• Mpv — a free and open source command-line media player.

External resources

• https://www.hongkiat.com/blog/vlc-tips-tricks/ - Tips and tricks for VLC.
• https://lifehacker.com/the-best-hidden-features-of-vlc-1654434241 - A lifehacker article on hidden features in VLC.
• https://www.shortcutworld.com/en/win/vlc-media-player.html - A list of keyboard shortcuts for VLC. Highly useful if VLC is frequently used!