Vlc Player Mac Network

Get the VLC media player from App Store onto your iPhone. It allows users to remote play videos and music from network devices. Run the player, tap on its icon at the top left corner to open the side menu. Choose Local Network. VLC should automatically detect your Mac SMB File Server. Tap on your Mac name to open the Connect to Server screen. VideoLan media player (VLC) is an incredibly versatile media player available for Windows, Linux and other.Nix clones. It's also available for Mac, and gives you powerful options for advanced media controls and display. Using VLC makes it easy to stream audio and video using Multicast.

It is likely that you have heard and used VLC media player for playing streaming videos. But it is more likely that you are fooled by its name — VLC media player is by no means a one-trick pony. Instead, it is a feature-packed powerful tool which is not only capable of playing streaming videos but also able to download videos from all the popular websites, like YouTube.

Today, you are going to learn about how to download video with VLC on Mac/Windows and solve a series of problems involved when using it all in one passage.

CONTENTS

1. VLC's Hidden Feature — Download Video from Internet
2. Problems Tackled in YouTube Downloading Using VLC
3. An Alternative to VLC for Downloading Web Video Including YouTube

VLC's Hidden Feature — Download Video from Internet

In fact, there are two methods to download videos with VLC. Here I will introduce the easier one. Please follow the steps below with VLC downloading a YouTube video as an example.

Step 1. Fire up VLC

After installing VLC media player to your Windows or Mac, fire it up.

Step 2. Copy the Video URL from YouTube

Go for the video on YouTube and copy the link from the browser’s address bar above the page.

Step 3. Paste the Video URL into VLC and Start Playing

On Windows:

Click on 'Media' > 'Open Network Stream' in VLC main interface.

Then under the Network tab on the pop-up window, you should then enter the YouTube video URL that you have copied from YouTube. Press the 'Play' button to start playing the video.

On Mac:

Click on 'File' > 'Open Network', enter the YouTube video URL and click 'Open'.

Step 4. Get and Copy Codec Information of the YouTube Video

On Windows:

Hit 'Tools' > 'Codec Information' to copy the full URL besides the 'Location' title. This is the direct URL of the YouTube video.

On Mac:

Select the YouTube video in VLC, hit 'Window' > 'Media Information'. You are looking for the 'Location' input box.

Step 5. Enter the URL into Address Bar and Download the YouTube Video

Open a web browser page and paste the copied Location URL into the address bar before hitting 'Enter' on your keyboard. More clicks of 'Save' button might be needed after that, which depends on the video link and the setting of your browser.

Problems Tackled in YouTube Downloading Using VLC

Now, have you learned about how to download YouTube videos using VLC yet? Don't worry if you encounter some problems when in practice. The first thing you need to do is to repeat the above steps more carefully in order to rule out the possibility of not following the right procedures. If that problem does continue to exist, you might need to read the second part of the passage. We have listed some common problems involved in saving video from websites with VLC and given out our solutions.

Problem 1:

'Sadly this didn't work for me. It downloaded the video but instead of getting a playable video I get a file called 'file' in my download folder.'

Solution A: Put an extension to the file name when it gives you 'Enter file name', like '.mp4' or '.avi'.

Solution B: Use a video converter to convert the file into '.mp4'.

Problem 2:

'I could download some YouTube videos with VLC while others didn't work.'

Solution: Check if the video is tagged 'Age-restricted video (based on Community Guidelines)'. If that is the case, the video will NOT download using the established method due to YouTube policies. There is no way of getting rid of it. So try VLC alternatives.

An Alternative to VLC for Downloading Web Video Including YouTube

The built-in download feature of VLC cannot go without drawbacks since it is not an expert in video download. Indeed, some videos are highly protected by their website program and prevented from grabbing by VLC. To solve such a problem, I suggest you to try some online tools to download videos from popular websites for offline viewing.

VideoSolo Online Video Downloader is one of the best free online downloaders on the internet for grabbing YouTube videos. Aside from YouTube, it claims to support Facebook, Instagram, Dailymotion, Vimeo, SoundCloud, etc. in almost all browsers and all operating systems including Mac/Windows/Android/iOS. With a clean and intuitive interface, VideoSolo Online Video Downloader is very easy to use within just several clicks.

In addition, VideoSolo now released a video downloader which can also download online videos easily.

You can take a try with it from the button below.

Follow the 3 steps to grab videos from the Internet easily with VideoSolo Online Video Downloader.

Step 1. Go to the page containing your loved video and copy the video link from the address bar above.

Step 2. Head to the VideoSolo Online Video Downloader homepage and paste the video link into the search box. Press the 'Download' button to the right of the box to interpret the video.

Step 3. After deciding on the output format and quality, hit the corresponding 'Download' button to the right hand. Then the browser immediately pops up a download dialog; if not, click the menu button > 'Download' on the pop-up window, or right-click the mouse and select 'Save as'.

Hope the above information can settle your problems when downloading videos with VLC on your Mac or Windows. If you are not so satisfied with VLC’s inherent download function, your best bet is to try VideoSolo Online Video Downloader, which is quite easy and efficient to use.

When opening videos from YouTube and other video-sharing sites, VLC tries to get the best quality of the video possible. The best quality that it fetches depends on a number of factors like the speed and bandwidth of your internet connection. The player will try to load the best video resolution that is feasible with the current connection. But what if you wanted to choose the quality/resolution of the online video that VLC loads from YouTube? There is an advanced option that allows us to select Full HD (1080p), HD (720p), Standard Definition (560p or 480p), Low Definition (360p), and Very Low Definition (240p). This video quality will be applied to the online media opened from video sharing sites like YouTube.

Here are the detailed steps to change the video quality of videos loaded in VLC from online video sharing sites like YouTube:

Go to Tool > Preferences [CTRL + P].
Click on All under Show settings for advanced preferences.
Click on Input / Codecs.
Choose the maximum video quality in Preferred video resolution.

As mentioned before, the video qualities that are possible are–Best available, Full HD (1080p), HD (720p), Standard Definition (576 or 480 lines), Low Definition (360 lines), Very Low Definition (240 lines). Suppose you choose HD 720p, VLC will pick a resolution that is closest to 720p and it won’t go higher than 720p. So, 720p will be the maximum resolution and it won’t go for 1080p. But if you pick something like Very low definition (240 lines) and a video stream containing 240p is not available it will load up the closest one that is 360p. Hit CTRL + J or go to Tools > Media Information to view the video resolution that is currently playing.

Pick a video that fits your internet speed and device’s hardware capability. If you pick an HD video and your device cannot handle it, it will be a bit sketchy and lag while playing.