1 <!doctype linuxdoc system>
4 <title>VLC HOWTO</title>
5 <author>by the Videolan Team<tt><htmlurl url="mailto:videolan-faq@videlan.org" name="videolan-faq@videlan.org"></tt></author>
6 <date>v0.0.4, 12 may 2001</date>
9 This document describes how to use the vlc (VideoLAN client) to read DVDs and mpeg files and DVDs.
16 <heading>Introduction</heading>
19 <heading>What is VideoLAN ?</heading>
21 VideoLAN is a project of sudents of the École Centrale Paris which aims
22 to broadcast video on the campus, and provide the students with a MPEG2
23 software-only decoder. VideoLAN is an OpenSource project which will thus
24 allow anyone to watch DVD movies under Linux, BeOS, MacOS and most Unix
28 You may want to look at the port section on our website :
29 <htmlurl url="http://www.videolan.org" name="http://www.videolan.org/">.
34 <heading>What is the vlc</heading>
36 Vlc stands for VideoLAN client. It is the name of the program which is
37 capable of decoding MPEG streams, and displaying them onto your screen,
38 so you can watch you favourite movies, confortably sit in your armchair
44 <heading>Translated versions of this document</heading>
46 No translation is currently available.
50 The English version is maintained by Henri Fallon,
51 and the VideoLAN team. It can be found at:
52 <htmlurl url="http://www.videolan.org/doc.html"
53 name="http://www.videolan.org/doc.html">.
58 <heading>Disclaimer</heading>
60 This documentation is given "as is", and any comment and improvement
65 In this HOWTO, we consider you already have a little knowledge about
66 Linux, and you know how to use a DVD. If not, good howtos can be
67 found on the Linux Documentation Projet.
72 <heading>Legal</heading>
74 Copyright (©) 2001 by the VideoLAN project. This document may be
75 distributed only subject to the terms and conditions set forth in
76 <htmlurl url="http://metalab.unc.edu/LDP/LDP-COPYRIGHT.html"
77 name="the LDP license">.
83 <heading>Installing the vlc : the packages</heading>
85 This is certainly the simplest way to intsall the vlc on your system,
86 especially if you're using a packaged OS.
90 The first thing to do is to get an archive, on our web site
91 <htmlurl url="http://www.videolan.org/download.html" name="http://www.videolan.org/download.html">
95 <heading>Linux/Unix users</heading>
97 <heading>Which package to chose ?</heading>
99 There are different packages because vlc has "plugins" which provide
100 features but also enlarge the executable and require external libs.
103 SDL is a lib which allows you to have an accelerated video output.
104 You will need libsdl > 1.1.6
107 If you're using the enlightened sound daemon, you may want to try
111 Generally, when you don't know what a module name is, you don't
117 <heading>Binary archive</heading>
121 tar xvzf vlc-x.x.x.tar.gz
123 Go in the vlc directory and get to the 'How to play movies' section If
124 you wish not to keep vlc in this single directory but install it fully
125 on your system, you may, as root, type
133 <heading>Debian package</heading>
137 dpkg -i vlc-x.x.x.deb
141 Depending on the package you have downloaded, you may have dependency
142 problems. You have to solve them, by installing the required libs.
147 <heading>RPM package</heading>
149 Install vlc just as you would install any rpm package :
155 You may have to install external libs to meet dependencies, depending on
156 the package you downloaded (gnome, gtk, esd, ...).
162 <heading>BeOS users</heading>
164 Double-click on the archive. It should open your favorite archive extracter.
165 You can then execute the vlc from there, or extract the archive to a
166 diretory and run it from there.
171 <heading>MacOS X users</heading>
179 <heading>Using the vlc</heading>
181 Good job, you have installed the vlc on your system. Now, it's time to
182 use it. Don't worry, it's not that difficult.
185 <heading>Lauching</heading>
187 <heading>The graphical interface</heading>
189 Basically, double clicking on the vlc icon, or typing 'vlc' in a
190 console should launch a graphical interface On Linux/Unix, you may want
191 to specify gnome or gtk interface, with the "--intf" option.
196 <heading>In case it doesn't work</heading>
198 In case this does not work, you'll have to use command line options.
199 Usually, to play a file, you'll use :
203 To play a dvd, if your dvd device is "/dev/dvd", you'll type :
209 <heading>What is this DVD device you keep talking about</heading>
211 This is a file which is "linked" somehow to your dvd device.
214 <heading>Linux users</heading>
216 Usually, you dvd device is /dev/hd? (if you have an ide drive).
217 For instance, if you DVD player is master on the second IDE device,
221 It is very useful to create a symlink to this file, called /dev/dvd.
222 To do this, as root, type (if your dvd device is /dev/hdc for example) :
224 ln -s /dev/hdc /dev/dvd
226 Also make sure you have read AND write permission to the device
227 (otherwise dvd decryption won't work).
231 <heading>BeOS users</heading>
233 Under BeOS, the dvd device looks like
234 "/dev/disk/ide/atapi/1/slave/0/raw" for example, if your dvd device is
235 slave on your first (not sure) ide device.
239 <heading>Other OS</heading>
248 <heading>Using the interface</heading>
250 By now you should see a beautiful interface, with buttons and menus.
251 The text should be quite self-explaining : "Open file", "Open Disc", ...
254 For Dvd's you can choose directly from the "open" box the title & chapter
259 <heading>Fullscreen - chapters - features</heading>
261 Some of the following features don't work yet on some platforms.
262 We're doing our best to get the ports in sync.
265 At any time you can change the audio/subtitles channel using either the
266 "setting" menu from the interface or using the "right click" menu from
267 the video output window.
270 To change chapter, you can use the right-click menu or the interface.
271 Please note that the gnome interface is more advanced than the gtk or
275 Using the 'f' key when using SDL or XVideo output toggles the
276 fullscreen mode. Be warned that "right click" menus are a bit
281 <heading>User help</heading>
283 First of all, it something seems to go wrong, read and try try to
284 understand the error messages. If you are a confirmed user, you
285 may try the "-vvv" option which makes the vlc very verbose.
288 There is a FAQ page on our website :
289 <htmlurl url="http://www.videolan.org/doc.html" name="http://www.videolan.org/doc.html">.
290 If you think one question should be in the FAQ, please contact
291 <htmlurl url="mailto:videolan-faq@videlan.org" name="videolan-faq@videlan.org">
294 Finally, there's a users mailing list (English speaking). To subscribe, send a mail to
295 <htmlurl url="mailto:listar@videlan.org" name="listar@videlan.org"> containing
296 "subscribe vlc" as message body.
301 <heading>Advanced use of the vlc</heading>
303 <heading>Command line options</heading>
305 <heading>Choosing the video output</heading>
307 You have to use the "-V" otpion. For example :
315 <heading>Choosing the audio output</heading>
317 Use the "-A" option. For example :
325 <heading>Specifying a file</heading>
327 Simply put the file name at the end of the command line, you won't need then
328 to click "open" when the interface launches :
336 <heading>Specifying the title and chapter where to start</heading>
338 Use the "-t" and "-T" to specify title and chapter. For example, to go to the 12th
339 chapter of the 2nd title, you'll type :
349 <heading>For real men : building your vlc :-)</heading>
351 You can choose either to take the latest release, or a CVS source. Note that
352 CVS snapshots may be broken, although we do our best to prevent this from
356 From here, you have to be a little experienced, even more if you want to use
360 <heading>Getting an archive</heading>
362 You have guessed it, the first thing to do is to get the source.
363 Until there, everyone should understand :)
366 <heading>Web site</heading>
368 Source packages can be found in the "tarballs" section of the download page :
369 <htmlurl url="http://www.videolan.org/download.html" name="http://www.videolan.org/dowload.html">.
372 CVS snapshots are available from the address :
373 <htmlurl url="http://www.videolan.org/packages/snapshots/"
374 name="http://www.videolan.org/packages/snapshots/">.
377 Then untar the archive :
379 tar xzf vlc-x-x-x.tar.gz
384 <heading>Directly from CVS</heading>
386 Firs log in as suer anonymous with an empty password :
388 cvs -d :pserver:anonymous@anoncvs.videolan.org:/var/cvs/videolan login
390 Then retrieve the repository :
392 cvs -d :pserver:anonymous@anoncvs.videolan.org:/var/cvs/videolan -z3 checkout vlc
399 <heading>Building the program</heading>
401 Go into the vlc directory and run the configure script :
405 If you want to enable options, you may add "--enable-option" to the previous line.
406 For example, to build with the xvideo extension, and alsa support, you should type :
408 ./configure --enable-xvideo --enable-alsa
410 To get the list of the available options, and know if they are enabled by default,
415 A very typical installation, on a XFree 4.1 system, recent video card, with gnome, is :
417 ./configure --enable-xvideo --enable-esd --enable-gnome
422 <heading>Plugins, builtins ...</heading>
424 The configure script should create a Makefile.opts file, which you can edit and modify.
425 Indeed you can chose to have features (as esd support, for example) built as plugins
426 or inside the program.
429 If you build a feature as a plugin, it can lead to a little loss of performance.
430 It you build it inside the code, i'll enlarge a bit the size of the executable.
433 When you're done with Makefile.opts (which also works if you leave it untouched), just
438 It should compile without any error. If there are, please check you have the required libs
439 installed on your system, as the configure script can't check them all.
442 When you're done with it, as root, type :
446 if you wish to have vlc fully installed on your system. If you prefer to keep in in the
447 current directory, you may skip the "make install". You'll then have to cd into the vlc
448 directory and type "./vlc" instead of just typing vlc.
454 <heading>Really advanced use</heading>
456 <heading>Using the videolan network solution</heading>
458 I'll only speak about the vlc here. There will be a howto on the whole network solution.
459 You have to tell the vlc that it will receive network streams. This can be done either by
460 using the "network" button of the interface, or in the command line :
462 vlc ts://server[:port]
466 This works for unicast. If you are receiving a broadcasted stream, you have to specify the
469 vlc --broadcast broadcast_addr ts://server[:port]
475 <heading>Developping the vlc</heading>
477 Christophe Massiot has written a documentation for developpers.
483 </article></linuxdoc>