How to Play Online Videos in VLC player?

Did you know that VLC media player supports direct playback of online videos? Yes, VLC can play videos from URLs. That means, you can use it to watch videos hosted by online streaming services like Youtube, Vimeo, Dailymotion and more. Continue reading to lean how to use VLC media player network streaming feature to watch online streaming videos.

How to stream online videos with VLC player?

1. Go to your web browser and copy the URL of video that you want to play.
2. Open VLC media player. In the menu bar, open Media and select Open Network Stream from the menu. Alternatively press VLC shortcut keys Ctrl+N.



3. The VLC Open Media dialog box will appear. Under the Network tab, there is a field to enter the network URL. Paste the URL that you copied in Step 1.



4. Press the Play button at the bottom of the window. VLC will load the video. Enjoy.

Depending on the size of the media file and speed of your Internet connection, it may take few seconds to several minutes to start the video playback. So, be patient. If your internet speed is slow, you’ll also experience frequent lag during the playback.

How VLC plays video from the Youtube URL? VLC player comes with some special settings or scripts (lua files), which translates video webpages into video URL. Lua files are available for all major video hosting or video streaming services. So, you won’t find it difficult to play a video from a popular site like Youtube. You can also play videos from sites other than those included in VLC lua playlist, provided you have the direct URL of the media file.

Issues while playing online videos in VLC

• Sometimes video won’t load and the media player will display an error message stating “input can’t be opened”. This is a common problem with Youtube videos. But it may appear in other sites too. Youtube restricts playback of certain videos, specially those with copyrighted content, on location other the native site. Such videos won’t load on VLC and you’ll notice an error such as MRL error. Watch such a video on a browser or download it using a video downloader.
• No playback and no error message: If VLC fails to play a video, try another video from a popular site like Youtube. Make sure the Youtube video is copyright free. If VLC fails to play that video, there is a problem with your network or computer. Check your security software. Sometimes, firewall blocks VLC player from access the web. If that’s the case, whitelist VLC on your firewall.
• When everything fails, update! Check if an update is available for VLC. If yes, update your media player and try to load the video URLs.