VLC Media Player Keyboard Shortcuts

VLC media player needs no introduction because it is one of the best media players out there for Windows. I remember those days when I used to exchange movies and songs in CDs/DVDs with friends, and there were times when default media player failed to play various videos that have some different formats. But, VLC was there that played almost all formats. That is the main reason; people love VLC. Apart from this, it has a good number of features that make it a complete media software program. That all, you get for FREE. Yes, VLC media player is offered free.

Since most of us use VLC; it is good to know some of the cool VLC keyboard shortcuts to ease the use of it, and this blog post is all about those VLC keyboard shortcuts you can use while watching movies.

List of VLC Keyboard Shortcuts

1. Press “F” to make VLC go full Screen

Once you play a movie in VLC, and it is in small windows, just press F and it will be toggled into full-screen mode. Again, pressing F will get back to the smaller screen.

2. Press “A” to Change Aspect Ratio

Aspect ratio in VLC is the ratio of width and height of the screen playing the video. Many videos don’t display well, in that case toggling between predefined Aspect ratios can help. Though it can be done by going to the menu as well but just pressing A will do this job which is easier.

3. -/+ Play video slower/faster

Though you can go to Playback >> Speed and adjust if you play a video either faster or slower, you have the shortcut keys for it. Press – button to play slower and + to play faster. Press -/+ multiple times to make the playback slower/faster.

4. Press “Space” to pause the Playback

If you are watching a video or movie, and suddenly you have got to do some work, but you don’t want to miss any scenes, just quickly hit space button, the playback will be paused. To resume, press the space button again. Simple!

5. Press “S” to stop the Playback

If you want to stop the playback but don’t want to close VLC, then simply press “S,” and playback will be stopped.

6. “Ctrl + H” to hide/unhide the menu and controls

Pressing Ctrl + H will hide controls and menu, and again pressing the same will get them back showing.

7. Press “N” to Play Next and “P” to Play the Previous file on the Playlist

If you have added many videos or songs to the playlist, and you want to toggle them one by one or just want to play next track, you can press N, and if you want to play previous one, press P. You can repeatedly press N/P to toggle between files one by one.

8. Press “T” to show time remaining and elapsed

While playing a video, press “T” to display the time remaining and elapsed. It will display in the upper right corner of the playback.

9. Press “Ctrl + E” to display audio/video adjustment window

If you want to adjust audio/video settings, press “Ctrl + E” while playback. Then, you can adjust settings from the window displayed as you see in the above screenshot.

10. Press “M” to Mute

While you are watching a movie or song, if suddenly your phone rings and you don’t want to miss the scene, but you have to answer the call as well, you can simply mute the video and answer the call. So that you can keep watching the scenes while you talk over the call. To do this, Press “M”, and playback will be muted.

11. Press “Ctrl + P” to Play from start

No matter how much time elapsed in the video you are watching, as you press “Ctrl + P”, it will restart the video from the beginning.

These are some most common VLC player keyboard shortcuts that we use. Further, there are a lot of other keyboard shortcuts available for VLC as well. Few are I am list down here:

12. Shift + Right Arrow : 3 seconds forward
13. Shift + Left Arrow : 3 seconds backward
14. Ctrl + Right Arrow : 1 minute forward
15. Ctrl + Left Arrow : 1 minute backward
16. Alt + Right Arrow : 10 seconds forward
17. Alt + Left Arrow : 10 seconds backward
18. Alt + M : Open media menu
19. Alt + L : Open playback menu
20. Alt + S : Open subtitle menu
21. Alt + O : Open tools menu
22. Alt + I : Open view menu
23. Alt + A : Open audio menu
24. Alt + V : Open video menu
25. Alt + H : Open help menu

Final Words

VLC is the most popular video player online, and most of us use it because it does play almost all popular formats. In this blog post, I have shared 25 VLC keyword shortcuts for Windows which I think are good enough to start with, but there are many others for different tasks. I kept the list limited to 25 only. If some VLC keyboard shortcuts are not working for you, please write in the comments.

Share the shortcuts you are using day to day while using VLC on your Windows.