VLC Media Player Help – Shortcuts, Tips & Troubleshooting

Keyboard Shortcuts

Master VLC with these essential keyboard shortcuts. Speed up your workflow and control playback without reaching for the mouse.

Space – Play / Pause
F – Fullscreen
M – Mute
Ctrl/Cmd + Up/Down – Volume
Ctrl/Cmd + Left/Right – Seek
E – Next frame
S – Subtitle delay

Getting Started

Open VLC, drag and drop media files, or use Media → Open File. VLC supports almost every format, so you rarely need to install codec packs.

Common Issues

Video or audio not playing

Try Tools → Codec Information to see which codecs are in use. If a format is unsupported, VLC may suggest converting the file or using a different source.

Subtitles not showing

Use Subtitles → Add Subtitle File to load an external subtitle file. Ensure the subtitle file has the same name as the video (e.g., movie.mkv and movie.srt) for auto-loading.

Playback is choppy

Enable hardware decoding: Tools → Preferences → Input/Codecs, then set Hardware-accelerated decoding to Automatic or your GPU type.

Download VLC

Don't have VLC yet? Download the free media player for Windows or Mac and enjoy playback of virtually any video or audio format.

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