How To Record Desktop With VLC Media Player

VLC, a media player needs no introduction, as all of us have been using it for the past so many years to watch our favorite videos and to listen to our favorite musical tracks. This amazing player supports so much of audio-video codecs that you can play almost any video file irrespective of its format that even Windows default media player i.e. Windows Media Player can’t play. And whatmore, VLC is completely free to use and you do not have to pay anything to anyone to use it.

But do you guys know that VLC is more than a video player? This amazing tool is capable of performing so many other tasks apart from playing video files that includes but not limited to converting a file to another format, recording the screen, trimming the video, changing the orientation of the video file and much more. 

In today’s article we will be discussing one such amazing feature of VLC which can be used as a desktop recorder in Windows 10. So without further ado let’s check out how to record screens using VLC.

How To Record Screen With VLC

You can have several reasons to record your screen, maybe you want to record your favorite game and share it with your friends, maybe you’re recording the steps of a problem that you have faced with your new software so that you can share it with the software manufacturer, or maybe you want to create a demo video on how to use a product. Whatever be the reason, you need software to accomplish the task. Now if you search for a recording software then most of them come with paid subscription, and the ones which are free have many bugs.

So if you do not wish to spend money for a paid tool or do not wish to install any additional software then you will be glad to know that VLC can help you in recording the screen, and that too in a few easy steps.

Let’s check out the steps on how to record screen using VLC:

• To record the screen in VLC, you do not need to be a tech savvy guy and a basic understanding of computers is enough. The process of screen recording itself starts with downloading VLC on your Windows 10 computer. But if you have already installed it on your computer then move on to the next step.
• Double click on the VLC icon located on the desktop of your computer to start the program.
• Now on the main screen of the program, click on the Media from the Men. This will open a drop down menu.
• Now, in the menu select the option Convert/Save. This will open a Open Media dialog box. A shortcut key to it is Ctrl+R.
• Next, on the Open Media dialog box, click on the Capture Device tab.
  
• Alternatively you can also click on View from the menu and from the drop down menu select the option of Advanced Controls. Once done you will find the direct option of Open Capture Device in the drop down menu of Media as well.
• Now once you  click on the Capture Device tab you will find three modes in the Capture Mode setting, that are DirectShow, TV – Digital, and Desktop.
• Since we wish to record the desktop activities therefore select the option of Desktop. The TV – Digital option is used to capture the input from a TV tuner card. The third option of DirectShow helps you to select a video and audio device to record the webcam video.
• Now once you have selected the Desktop option, next select the desired frame rate for the capture ranging from .01 fps to 100 fps. We have here selected the frame rate of 10 fps that works fine for a normal desktop recording.
  
• However, if your requirement is a high-quality screen recording, then we recommend you to select high fps ie. something 35- 50 fps.
• Once you have selected the frame rate, click on the Convert/Save button to continue.
• Now in the new window that opens, select the output file for the video recording from the Profile.
• Next, set the destination location for the file and provide a name for the output recording file by clicking on the Browse button. Once done click on the Start button at the bottom.
• That’s it. Now, VLC will start recording everything on the computer desktop.
• Once you are done with the screen recording, you can stop the recording by two ways.
  Open VLC > right-click the red record button to select Stop.
  Another option is click the Stop Playback button in the toolbar of VLC

After you have stopped your recording you can find the recording file in the destination folder that we have selected in the above methods.

How to Fix if VLC Screen Recording not Working

Although the process of screen recording with VLC is quite simple and swift, there are some users who face certain problems with screen recording through VLC. Like the one common problem, reported by several users is that after capturing the screen recording when they try to access this video it was all black and hence of no use. 

So, here are some tips that might help you to fix the screen recording problem in VLC.

Change the video output :

To change the video output, open VLC and click on the tools from the main menu. Now from the drop down menu that appears click on the Preferences option.

Now in the new window that opens click on Video and from the Output, that is by default set to automatic change to Direct X video output Now save and reset VLC.

Edit capture screen width/height

To change the video output, open VLC and click on the tools from the main menu. Now from the drop down menu that appears click on the Preferences option.

Now in the new window that opens choose All in Show Settings located at the bottom. 

Next, from the menu that appears, scroll down and select Video, and from the right panel, set the width and height.

Disable video acceleration

To disable video acceleration, go to Tools > Preferences > Input/Codecs > change Hardware-accelerated decoding to Disable.

Reinstall VLC

If the problem still persists even after following the above methods then as a last resort we suggest you to completely uninstall VLC from your computer. Then visit the VLC official website and download the latest version of VLC on your system. After downloading, install it and check whether it has resolved the problem.

Limitations While Recording the Screen in VLC

Undoubtedly VLC is a powerful and best video player that can be used for basic video editing purposes so that you do not need to put extra efforts for searching other desktop recorders for Windows 10 or invest money on the paid video editing tools. However, VLC too has some limitations while recording the screen like there is no way to use the audio while recording the screen. If you wish to put the audio, then you will have to first record your voice and stream that audio along with the desktop recording. Another limitation is that you can only record your entire desktop as there is no way to record a certain part of the desktop. And therefore it leads to huge sized videos that are in GBs and that too even for a short screen recording.

Another limitation is that VLC will not show you the mouse pointer while recording the screen. And if you wish to record your screen with a mouse pointer then you need to download the mouse pointer or obviously go for a VLC alternative.

Wrapping Up

So folks, this is all from our side. We hope that the article has helped you in getting better insight on how to record screen with VLC.