VLC is one of those programs that most people install once and never think about again. The problem is that VLC does a lot more than just play files, and almost none of it is obvious from looking at the interface. There are plenty of features already built in. You just need to know which keys to press.<\/p>\n
Manual scrubbing in VLC media player using the default playback timeline bar is pretty frustrating. If you've ever tried to go through a long video by clicking on that tiny visual progress bar, you know how easy it is to overshoot or undershoot the frame you want. I actually learned that VLC has a way around this.<\/p>\n
VLC gives you jump lengths that are very short, short, medium, and long. You can move in a very short jump by holding Shift and pressing a Left or Right Arrow key. That uses the default of 3 seconds.<\/p>\n
The next speed is done by pressing Alt and an Arrow key, which jumps 10 seconds. For the next speed, press Control and an Arrow key to leap 60 seconds. Finally, for going through long recordings or jumping deep into a multi-hour file, you need to press and hold Control and Alt and then press an Arrow key to jump 300 seconds. That's five minutes ahead.<\/p>\n
You should write this on a piece of paper or post it when you're watching a show or movie because it's kind of hard to remember the exact keys needed.<\/p>\n
Mismatched audio tracks and subtitles that drift out of sync can ruin a video fast. I notice immediately when the dialogue doesn't line up with anyone's mouth, or the subtitles show up way too late or too early.<\/p>\n
A lot of people get frustrated and just deal with it, but you don't have to, thanks to how VLC is a swiss army knife. All you have to do is learn your J and K keys. Hit J, and it takes out 50 milliseconds from the audio presentation timestamp. That would be for when you want to pull the audio forward so it matches the lip movements. If the audio is playing too early, tap K to add a positive 50-millisecond delay, which pushes the sound back.<\/p>\n
If you overdo it or load a new file, just press Ctrl and G (Cmd and G on Mac) to reset the audio delay back to zero.<\/p>\n
When it comes to subtitles, press G to make subtitles appear earlier by applying a negative 50-millisecond offset. Then you can press H to add a positive 50-millisecond delay. It's the same as dialogue, but with subtitles it's pretty much good however you're comfortable. You can reset everything back to default with Ctrl, Shift, and K.<\/p>\n
I never watch anything educational at the regular speed. My brain is very used to watching things quickly, and I even listen to my audiobooks at a faster speed. While you can click, it is a time waster when you need to go back or slow down to understand something, or just need to change the speed itself.<\/p>\n
The left bracket key [ slows the playback down in fine steps of 0.10x, or 10%, with each press. Tap the right bracket key ] to speed up the playback rate by another 0.10x per press. If you want to jump faster, you can press the plus + and minus – keys. This will boost or slow down the speed by 0.5x. You can see the change on the top right.<\/p>\n
And if you ever want to snap back to normal speed, just hit the equals key =, and it jumps straight back to 1.0x. Every time you hit one of these keys, VLC flashes an overlay in the top-right corner of the screen showing you how fast your video is playing so you won't forget the speed you're at.<\/p>\n
I have always thought the default VLC media player skin looks pretty dated. It has all those thick toolbars, status icons, and nested menus that make me feel like I'm back to the XP era of Windows. Luckily, VLC's interface isn't tied directly to its playback engine, so you can swap layouts in the middle of a video.<\/p>\n
If you hit Control and H on Windows or Linux, it triggers Minimal Interface Mode, which clears away the clutter by hiding the top menu bar and the bottom control panel. So you just have the media window and nothing else on the screen.<\/p>\n
Technically, it removes all the standard window borders, title bars, and GUI controls, but you can still resize the video in the borderless window. Just don't assume that this cleaner look gives you some sort of performance boost. Minimal Interface mode just hides the visual elements; it doesn't get rid of them.<\/p>\n