Recording Video With VLC

Anything you have playing in VideoLAN Player (VLC) can be recorded to a file on your harddrive thanks to a feature added around version 1.0. You can record a DVD you are playing with VLC, a streaming source, or whatever video VLC is rendering to your screen.

Enable Display of Record Button

By default the record button is not visible on the VLC interface. On the VLC top menu bar goto VIEW and select ADVANCED CONTROLS. By displaying advanced controls you will now see the record button.

Start Playing Video Source

Start playing video in VLC, either DVD or some other video you wish to capture.

Start Recording

Click on the red record button. While recording the button will go from red to blue. It is blue while recording, and red while stopped. To stop recording simply click the record button.

Locate Recorded Video

The video will record to MPEG format by default and the video file created in My Documents\VLC Record . In Windows 7 this file is located in C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\vlc .

Capture vs Record

VLC will "capture" the stream and will not re-encode when using the record button. If you view H.264 MPEG4 and click the record button, the segment of the stream being played will be captured to H.264 MPEG4 directly. If viewing MPEG1 and record, it will capture MPEG1. Using the "record button" feature only captures the video and format being viewed.

VLC doesn't specialize in encoding, but is capable at a basic level. Use of the term "record" is not clear because record can mean "capture" or "encode." Using the record button does a capture. However, there is also a way to choose a codec and reencode the video stream.

In VLC look under the MEDIA menu for CONVERT / SAVE or use (CTRL-R) where you can select the video file source and select the codec for Destination. When doing this you are NOT recording while you view the video. This causes VLC to run the encoder creating a new video stream at the fastest speed the encoder can process the video stream. It is also lossy. Each time you do this there is quality loss as a result of re-encoding. Remember, you can't ever "add" quality no matter what format you choose, you can only minimize the quality loss depending on output format and bitrate.

 

 

Other Notes

You can change the default record path for the video by going to TOOLS, PREFERENCES, INPUT & CODECS, and change the record directory.
details:

• Tools

• Preferences

• Input & Codecs

• Files: Record Directory or Filename (enter a path such as c:\video)

Doing this modifies the vlcrc file located in C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Application Data\vlc changing a configuration line under the section # Record directory or filename (string)