You probably know about browsers that the possibilities can be expanded with all kinds of plugins. But did you know that there is also such a thing as VLC plugins? This gives the already very versatile media player some extra useful options. It goes like this.
VLC plugins come in different shapes and sizes. In general, a distinction can be made between three variants. With themes you give the media player a new look, with extensions you add new possibilities and with so-called Playlist Parsers you import playlists from websites so that you can watch the videos in VLC. This can be useful, for example, to play a series of YouTube videos without advertisements in between. More on that later.
Download and install VLC skins
First, let's customize the look and feel of VLC through themes - also known as skins. First, where do you find them? In any case, the official site of VLC has a lot of different ones, which you can download all at once in one zip file. You can also browse Deviantart, where you will also encounter a lot of VLC themes.
The themes are packaged in a vlt file, which you need to manually drag and drop to the appropriate place in your VLC installation folder. By default you follow the path C:\Program Files\VideoLAN\VLC\skins. Then open VLC Media Player and click on Additional and Preferences (or ctrl + p).
below Appearance and use do you choose Use custom theme. click on To elect... behind theme file and then navigate to the skins folder. Choose your skin there and click To open. click on Save and restart VLC to activate the skin.
Tip: If you want to go back to your old interface, you can always set the default theme again at Use default theme.
Install extensions
Then extensions. You can find it on the add-on page of the VLC site, among other things. Follow the link and click on the left VLC Extensions, then at the top Greatest to find some useful ones.
For example, VLSub lets you automatically find subtitles for movies and series, so you don't have to search shady sites yourself. below Traffic jams you will find a download button. With that you get a lua file, which types extensions. You also manually place these in the VLC folder, specifically: C:\Program Files\VideoLAN\VLC\lua\extensions.
You can now find this extension (and others) under Display, VLsub. Click in the following menu Search by name and choose one of the subtitles that pops up. After download selection the subtitles are loaded. Then click close and enjoy your movie.
Another nice extension is Moments Tracker. With this you can save your favorite moments from a video and you can quickly find it next time. Moments Tracker can be installed in the same way and can also be found under Display back: Bookmark your moments.
Then click Capture Moment, give it a name at the top and press Confirm. After that you can always return to this scene by selecting it and Jump to Moment to select. So you no longer have to search for that one cool action scene, or a certain funny dialogue.
And so there are a lot of other extensions to download. Experiment to your heart's content!
YouTube Videos in VLC with Playlist Parser
Finally, the Playlist Parsers. These must go to another folder, namely C:\Program Files\VideoLAN\VLC\lua\playlist. For example, we download the YouTube Playlist Parser.
Once downloaded and put in the right place, in VLC press Ctrl + N - or at the top of Media and Open Network Stream. Paste the URL of a YouTube playlist here to put all the videos in a handy list, with no ads in between. Useful!
