Using VLC media player from iTunes

Question

Level 1

8 points

Using VLC media player from iTunes

Is there any way to set VLC as my default video player in iTunes instead of Quicktime? I much prefer using VLC to watch videos, but I like the organization of the iTunes library. I'd love it if it was possible to have VLC automatically open whenever I double-click on a video file in my iTunes library.

Macbook Pro 1.83 Ghz, Mac OS X (10.4.7)

Posted on Jul 16, 2006 5:44 PM

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Answer 1

Jul 16, 2006 7:24 PM in response to staceyeileen

One thing you may want to try is to associate video files with VLC as the default instead of iTunes. I am not sure if that will get iTunes to open VLC though.

My guess is no, as usually all the Multimedia parts on OS X are handled by Quicktime.

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Answer 2

Tom Graves

Level 7

20,627 points

Jul 16, 2006 10:45 PM in response to staceyeileen

iTunes is set up to play videos in iTunes. It does not have an option to choose an external player. If you want to use an external player, you can control-click on the video, choose "Show song File", control-click on the file, and then choose VLC Player. Or, you can change the default app of the videos by highlighting a video in Finder, pressing Command-I to get the Get Info Box, changing "Open With" to VLC Player and clicking on "Change All". now you can go to the file in the Finder, double click on it, and it will open in VLC Player. Note that any video purchased through the iTunes Music Store can only be played in iTunes because they are copy-protected files.

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Answer 3

staceyeileen Author

Level 1

8 points

Jul 17, 2006 5:43 PM in response to Michael Kalus

Sadly no, having VLC as the default player doesn't change the player that iTunes uses.

The more I think about it, the more annoying this is. It seems counter-intuitive (to me, at least) that iTunes does not honor my default settings to have video files open with VLC and not Quicktime. To give a Microsoft analogy, imagine if everytime I clicked a link in Outlook, it opened up in Internet Explorer and not my default browser of Firefox?

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Answer 4

Jul 16, 2006 6:39 PM in response to staceyeileen

hi Stacey,

iTunes codecs are based in Quicktime (that's why you need quicktime to run iTunes) sorry, I do agree with what you are saying, maybe there is a third-party patch...

regards,

Pete.

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Answer 5

staceyeileen Author

Level 1

8 points

Jul 17, 2006 5:35 PM in response to Tom Graves

Thanks. VLC is already set up as my default player, but I was just getting annoyed with having to navigate to the files in Finder. "Show Song File" helps with that a bit!

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