6 Best VLC Plugins To Improve Video Playback On Linux
Many Linux users love to use VLC as their primary video playing program. It’s not hard to see why, as the video player has dozens of features, and can do anything from playing DVDs and Blu-rays, to playing streaming videos, to handling any video format (no matter how obscure) with ease.
Still, for as many features that VLC has, there’s always room for improvement, and that’s why we’ve made this list. Here are the six best VLC plugins to improve video watching on Linux!
Note: many plugins in this tutorial rely on a folder that may not be on your Linux PC. Before continuing, please open up a terminal and run the following commands.
mkdir -p ~/.local/share/vlc/lua/ mkdir -p ~/.local/share/vlc/lua/extensions/ mkdir -p ~/.local/share/vlc/lua/playlist/
1. Resume Media
VLC is an excellent media player that manages to pack in a lot of different useful features. Unfortunately, having a resume feature isn’t one.
That’s where the Resume Media plugin comes in. It allows Linux users to quickly resume playback for any video or audio file, by making use of bookmarking.
Install Resume Media
To install the Resume Media plugin to your VLC Media player,(https://www.opendesktop.org/p/1154044/startdownload?file_id=1473753742&file_name=165231-VLC%20Resume%20Media%20V3.40%20Release.zip) download the Plugin and then open up a terminal. In the terminal, use the unzip command to extract the archive.
cd ~/Downloads unzip 165231-VLC*Release.zip
Place the plugin in the VLC plugin folder.
mv VLC*.lua ~/.local/share/vlc/lua/extensions/
To use Resume Media, open any video file, right-click to open the menu, highlight “view” and click the “Resume Media” button.
2. YouTube Playlist
Love YouTube but hate the website? Install the YouTube Playlist plugin into VLC! With it, you’ll be able to load up individual YouTube videos or entire playlists directly into your local VLC video player.
Install YouTube Playlist
To get YouTube Playlist, download the plugin. Then use mv to put the plugin in the right place on your PC.
cd ~/Downloads mv 149909-playlist_youtube.lua ~/.local/share/vlc/lua/playlist/
3. Twitch Playlist
Out of the box, VLC can play many different types of internet broadcasts. Stream protocols like RTP, RSTP, HTTP, and others are no match for the video player.
However, if you’re a fan of the Twitch streaming platform, you won’t be able to catch your favorite VODs or live streams without the Twitch Playlist plugin.
The Twitch Playlist plugin is an excellent addition to VLC, considering many Linux users use it for various types of live streams, so adding this plugin is only natural. Features include watching live streams, videos on demand, video collections and game clips.
Install Twitch Playlist
Twitch Playlist is a Lua script, so installation is very straightforward. To install, download the Twitch Lua file and move it into place with the mv command.
cd ~/Downloads mv twitch.lua ~/.local/share/vlc/lua/playlist/
4. Click To Play/Pause
VLC has a pretty intuitive user interface, but let’s face it; it feels much more natural to click the video to pause it.
That’s what the Click to play/pause plugin for VLC does. It allows users to stop or start a video just by clicking the content.
Install Click to play/pause
First, install the “Git” package, and all of the plugin’s dependencies to your Linux PC.
Ubuntu
sudo apt install git build-essential pkg-config libvlccore-dev libvlc-dev
Debian
sudo apt-get install git build-essential pkg-config libvlccore-dev libvlc-dev
Arch Linux
sudo pacman -S git base-devel
Fedora
sudo dnf install git su - dnf groupinstall "Development Tools" "Development Libraries"
OpenSUSE
sudo zypper install git sudo zypper in -t devel
With the dependencies taken care of, build the plugin and install it.
git clone https://github.com/nurupo/vlc-pause-click-plugin.git cd vlc-pause-click-plugin make sudo make install
To enable the plugin, launch advance preferences in VLC, click on “Video” and check the box next to “Pause/Play video on mouse click”.
5. Subtitle Finder
VLC can display subtitles for videos and movies, but it doesn’t do a good job of finding them. That’s why the Subtitle finder extension is so useful.
The VLC plugin works by interacting with OpenSubtitles.org. It searches through its vast database to help you get the subtitling you need for the videos you want.
Subtitle finder works great on macOS and Windows, but it also has excellent support for Linux, which is excellent as the Linux platform doesn’t have many subtitle downloading tools.
Install Subtitle finder
Like many of the plugins on this list, Subtitle finder is a Lua script file.
To start the installation for Subtitle finder, you’ll need to head over to the official plugin page on VideoLAN.org.
Click the “Files” tab and download 141787-subtitles-mod.lua.
Once Subtitle finder is done downloading to your Linux PC, open up a terminal window and use the CD command to move into your ~/Downloads folder.
cd ~/Downloads
Using the mv command, move the 141787-subtitles-mod.lua file into place in the correct folder.
mv 141787-subtitles-mod.lua ~/.local/share/vlc/lua/extensions/
6. Get Movie Info
VLC can play just about any video file, DVD, etc. However, it has no real ability to provide relevant information about them. Not knowing what movie you’re watching in the VLC app can be quite annoying.
The best way to fix this problem for Linux users on VLC is to install the Get Movie Info extension. It’s a simple tool that can quickly find information on what you’re watching in VLC.
Install Get Movie Info
Loading up Get Movie Info on VLC is a little more involved than most. Before installing the extension, you’ll need to grab an OMDb API key.
To get the API key, go to the OMDb website and fill out the form. Be sure to click the “FREE” option.
Download the extension, and install it to VLC with the following commands.
cd ~/Downloads mv GetMovieInfo.lua ~/.local/share/vlc/lua/extensions/
Next, load any video file and right-click on it. Select the “view” option, and click “Get Movie Info.”
At this point, you’ll be prompted to put in your OMDb API key. Do so. When the API key loads up, VLC will be able to use Get Movie Info.
Conclusion
VLC gives Linux users an excellent video watching experience that other video players can’t deliver. When coupled with the plugins on this list, the VLC media player becomes unstoppable!
VLC has a “Continue where you left off?” prompt every time I open a video that I closed part way through. This has been there across several version in the past few years that I’ve used it across multiple platforms. I only ever install the default version from the website or the distro repo.