VLC is one of the best apps for watching movies and TV shows on Android tablets and iPads , and one of its strengths is its incredibly simple and intuitive interface . But precisely because of this, you may never have felt the need to delve too deeply into the settings and preferences, or perhaps you're just now giving it a try. Here's a rundown of everything you need to know.
Choose the way to control the player that we like the most
We think VLC 's gesture controls are probably the best option because they are very easy to use (swipe vertically on the left side of the screen to raise and lower the brightness, on the right for volume, and horizontally to go forward or backward) and are enabled by default. But if they bother us because we accidentally touch the screen a lot, there's a padlock icon that locks it, or we can get rid of them in the " preferences " section of the menu, under " extra preferences ," choosing " interface " and going to controls.
If we're going to use icons, we might miss the rewind and fast-forward buttons , which are disabled by default and can be enabled in the " interface " section. In that same menu, there's a very useful option if our device is connected to a TV or if we have a keyboard or remote attached and don't want to use touch controls: simply go to " Android TV interface ," enable this option, close the app, and reopen it.
Use a dark mode also on Android
We can switch to the Android TV interface simply because we like the format more, although it will not be the best option for smaller screens, but on a tablet of a certain size we may find the user experience interesting, although this is something that is totally up to the consumer's taste.
One of the things that might appeal to us in this mode is, for example, the dark tone of the interface, but it's worth remembering that we can activate dark mode directly, without changing the format. This is another option available in the "interface" section, although only for Android users, of course, since it's used by default on iOS .
More playback options
VLC can also boast of being one of the first apps updated to support Android O 's new Picture-in-Picture (PIP ) feature , and trying it out is extremely simple, thanks to a shortcut in the playback menu (the screen with another screen inside). All you have to do is make sure you have background playback enabled, which is one of the first options you'll find in the " Preferences " section.
It's also worth remembering that we can open a video and choose to play it as audio only (in addition to specific audio files). To do this, simply press and hold on the video and select the corresponding option. When playing audio, a small menu will generally open, similar to those found in audio players, with the usual buttons. However, as you know, we can also use gesture controls if we expand the menu.
Manage subtitles
VLC is also a great option if you want to watch movies in their original language and need subtitles , especially on Android, where you can add them directly from the corresponding menu (the icon to the left of the play button). For some time now, you've also had the option to download them directly from the internet. If you want to increase the size, change the font, or the color, you have to go back to the " Preferences " menu and enter " Interface ."
On iOS, we're a bit more limited because we can't directly add subtitles; we can only choose from the tracks the app automatically recognizes. It's important to remember that these tracks must have the same name as the video file. However, we do have all the other options for changing the format, directly in the "Preferences" menu.
Some extra options for iOS
While we won't yet be able to enjoy some of the features we've highlighted for Android on our iPad, there are a couple of interesting features to consider if you use VLC on iOS. The first is that you can set a password (if you want to prevent, for example, children from accessing your videos) by simply going to the " Preferences " menu. The second, which is much more obvious and has surely caught your eye, is that you can play your videos directly from your preferred cloud storage service.