| This page describes how to play multiple instances of VLC media player. | Other 'how to' pages |
Start Video in Full-Screen. Most of us usually watch videos in full-screen. Now each time you open a new video, you have to play in full-screen by either double-clicking on the video or by pressing ‘F’ on your keyboard. However, with a few changes in VLC’s settings, every video will automatically start in full-screen. 9) Leave the Settings the way it is and Click on Save, VLC media player will request for a restart, You close and reopen VLC media Player. 10) After restarting VLC media player,Load a Video into the VLC media player, your video should show at the top right hand corner, Video time in hr:mm:sec.millisecond, that is for Hour:Minute:Seconds.
In version 0.8.5 it was easy to have multiple instances of VLC playing each with its unique stream of data.
- 1Graphical
Graphical
Windows
In versions 2.1.x and 3.x.x playing multiple VLC instances and different streams in each is as easy as clickingTools → Preferences... (or just pressCtrl+P):
- in the Interface tab scroll down to playlist and instances
- untick checkboxAllow only one instance
- untick checkboxuse only one instance when started from file manager
- PressSave.
- This allows users to use more than one VLC player at a time. Once you've done the above you should be able to play as many VLC instances and video or audio files as you like.
macOS
On the Mac, running multiple instances of VLC is not supported out of the box.
As a workaround, you can create a Droplet/App that does the following:
- launch the VLC droplet/app to get a separate instance of VLC,
- drop one or more files onto VLC droplet/app, or
- associate your .mov, .avi, and other files directly with the VLC droplet/app, allowing you to simply click on the files to launch the files in a new standalone VLC session.
Paste the code below into a new AppleScript Editor script and save it as an application.
File Association with the Droplet/App can be done as follows:
- OpenFinder and find the video file of interest
- Right click on the file (assumes you have right click enabled)
- Choose Get Info
- Under Open with:, click dropdown and select the VLC droplet/app
- ClickChange All button
- If prompted 'are you sure', select 'Yes'.
Command-line
Use the option --no-one-instance.
On *nix systems you can create background jobs:
On Windows systems you might use START:
Frequently Asked Questions
view this alone
The VLC menu
This menu gives you access to non-operational types of commands.
- About VLC media player gives the usual version and creator information,
- Check for Update will tell you if there is a newer version released than the one you are using,
- Preferences gives you access to a very wide range of settings for the program,
- Extensions some text,
- Add Interface enables other ways of getting access to VLC functionality other than the Graphical User Interface programme,
- Services some text,
- the others are standard OSX options which do not affect VLC functionality.
Preferences
Free Vlc Player Mac
Preferences are usually default settings that operate in the background to the operations you want to perform. These are therefore not part of the standard user interface because it is believed you will probably only want access to these occasionally if at all. Should you want to do something a little (or a lot) non-standard then these preferences are important. They allow you to choose non-default audio output channels (e.g. your headphones) or select sub-titles as well as more technical things that probably require some knowledge of video file structures or other in depth knowledge.
The preference sections available under VLC are:
- Interface - Choosing and configuring the alternate interfaces
- Audio - which audio to play through which channels
- Video - which video to play through which channels
- Subtitles & OSD - Some text
- Input & Codecs - How to interpret the video file
- Hotkeys - Some text
Add Interface
If you are using VLC on your Mac to display video on the same Mac's screen(s) then this may be of little interest to you.
The alternate interfaces currently offered are:
Vlc Player Mac Video And Playlist On Same Screen Sharing
- Mouse gestures where you can control VLC by simply moving the mouse
- Web interface for controlling VLC over a network using a browser
- Debug logging
- Console *nix-style non-graphical interfaces