How to Stream With VLC: Open a Stream URL or Send Your Own

Two opposite jobs both get called streaming in VLC - pasting in a link to watch something, and sending your own video out - and this covers both, quickest first.

Most people arriving here have been handed a link and want it to play.

That takes three clicks in VLC Media Player, so it goes first.

Broadcasting your own video is the longer job, and it starts halfway down.

Open a stream URL in VLC

1. Open VLC, then choose Media and Open Network Stream. The shortcut is Ctrl and N together.
2. Paste the full address into the box, including the http:// or rtsp:// part at the front.
3. Click Play. A live stream may sit black for a few seconds while it fills its buffer.

If you only want to check whether a link is alive before bothering with any of this, you can try it in our web player straight from the browser.

What a stream link actually looks like

The prefix tells you what you are dealing with, and whether VLC is even the right tool.

Where to get stream links

• Our roundup of free and legal IPTV playlists has fresh M3U links sorted by country and category.
• Our Stream Extractor pulls the real video address out of a page when all you have is the page itself.
• The Playlist Builder turns a pile of individual links into one M3U file you can open in a single go.
• You can also turn a YouTube playlist into an M3U and play it through VLC like any other list.
• If your provider gave you a username and a server instead of a link, read what Xtream Codes logins are first.

When the link will not open

• VLC says it is unable to open the MRL. The address is malformed, dead, or missing its prefix - our guide to the MRL error works through each case.
• The playlist loads but every channel is dead. Nothing is wrong at your end - free lists go stale within weeks, so fetch a current one.
• It plays for a few seconds then stalls. Raise the buffer: in the Open Network Stream window, tick Show more options and set Caching to 1500 ms or higher.
• Audio plays but the picture is black. A decoding problem rather than a network one, and usually H.265 - see playing HEVC files in VLC.
• It worked yesterday and not today. Many providers sign their links with a token that expires, so you need a freshly generated address.

Sending your own video out

This is the other half of the job: taking a file on your PC and serving it to another device on your network.

VLC does it with a wizard that is longer than it needs to be, and there is one setting in it that quietly decides whether any of it works. Install VLC first if you have not already.

1. Choose Media, then Stream. The shortcut is Ctrl and S.
2. On the File tab, click Add, pick the video you want to send, then click Stream at the bottom.
3. The Stream Output window opens on a summary of your source. Click Next.
4. Pick your destination from the dropdown - HTTP is the right choice for almost everyone - then click Add.
5. Leave the port at 8080 and the path at /stream unless you have a reason to change them. Click Next.
6. Tick Activate Transcoding and choose the profile Video - H.264 + MP3 (TS). This is the step that matters, for the reason below.
7. Click Next, then Stream. VLC now looks like it is playing nothing, which is normal - it is serving.

Tick Display locally on the destination screen if you also want the video playing on the sending PC.

Pick a profile that can actually stream

Most guides tell you to choose Video - H.264 + MP3 (MP4) here. That advice produces a stream nobody can open.

An MP4 file keeps its index in one lump, which works beautifully on a hard drive and not at all down a network cable. VideoLAN's own compatibility table lists MP4 as supported for file output only, and as unsupported for HTTP, RTSP, UDP and RTP alike.

Transcoding also costs processor time on the sending machine. If the source file is already H.264 in a TS or MKV container, you can untick Activate Transcoding entirely and VLC will pass it through untouched.

Finding the address your viewers need

The sending PC knows itself as localhost, but no other device does, so you need its address on the network.

1. Press the Windows key and R, type cmd and press Enter.
2. Type ipconfig and look for IPv4 Address. It will read something like 192.168.1.42.
3. On the other device, open VLC, press Ctrl and N, and enter http://192.168.1.42:8080/stream with your own number in place of that one.

Which output method to pick

Easier ways to do the same thing

The wizard is worth knowing, but it is rarely the shortest path any more.

• Casting to a TV. Play the file normally, then choose Playback and Renderer and pick your Chromecast - no wizard and no addresses.
• A permanent home setup. Kodi serves a whole library with artwork and resume points, which VLC was never built to do.
• A second opinion on Windows. Our guide to streaming with MPC-HC covers a lighter alternative, and there are other media players worth a look.
• Capturing rather than sending. If what you actually want is a video of your own screen, that is recording your screen with VLC instead.

Quick questions

Ten seconds for a link, ten minutes for a broadcast, and one profile setting between a working stream and a silent failure - download the latest VLC and give it a try, or tell us how it went. For the deeper options there is always the VLC Streaming Documentation.