VLC Media Player: How to install and Watch TV on Windows

In this guide, I will explain how to watch TV using the VLC list on a Windows operating system computer.

Although such lists can also be used on any device that allows the VLC media player and has an Internet connection.

The VLC media player is one of the best multimedia players you will find and it is also available for almost any device on any operating system.

The player is the perfect complement to play any type of multimedia content such as mp4, avi, mpeg, mp3, m3u8, mkv, or any HD or Full HD video format.

If you want to know how to find VLC playlists and how to play them on your computer, keep reading this guide.

Table of Contents

What is a VLC media player?

As I told you, the VLC media player is probably the best multimedia player you will find for devices like phones, tablets, or computers.

The ability to open any type of extension and play any type of media, whether it’s locally via downloaded files or streaming from a URL.

Due to its potential, VLC Media Player has become the ideal complement to many IPTV applications used to play m3u lists.

VLC Media Player is free and you can download it from its official website via this link for the device you want.

Note: VLC for iOS, and Android can not play the M3U list with more than 10 items, but many IPTV players support VLC as an external player.

What is VLC List?

Don’t let anyone deceive you when I talk about VLC lists as if it is some proprietary list and can only be played using this media player.

VLC lists are just IPTV lists that play in the VLC media player and they can be managed in a very simple way that requires almost no knowledge.

Very often, when you buy an m3u or m3u8 IPTV list, you will verify that it cannot be played by many IPTV applications and that there are playback or formatting errors.

If you try the same lists in the VLC media player, you will see how the player opens and plays them without any problem, so many people talk about VLC lists when in reality they are just m3u lists.

How to play IPTV listings in the VLC media player?

As I told you, this player is one of the most versatile players you can find to play any kind of files and media, and of course, any kind of IPTV listings.

Open VLCMP: After downloading and installing the VLC media player, open the player, which is a program with orange and white cone icons.
Playlist: This is the menu on the left side of the screen that allows you to manage the media played or available on your device.
Media: Click the Media tab in the menu at the top of the player to open the various options for opening files and adding them to the application.
Open Network Stream: In the Media tab, click Open Network Stream and you will see a box on how to open the IPTV list URL that you must write in the network protocol.
Play: After entering the url for the VLC playlist and clicking the Play button, you will see the player try to connect to the server and start playing the first available channel in the playlist.
Channel List: To switch between available channels in the IPTV list or to search for a specific channel, you must click the list button and you will see a list with all channels and search engines.

Open IPTV listings automatically with VLC

If you want to use the VLC media player to automatically open all IPTV lists without adding each list to the player, follow these steps to associate file extensions to the player.

File Options: Right-click on your IPTV list file or media file to open the available options menu.
Open: In all of these options, click the “Open as” option.
Options: A new window will open that will show you the default program for opening that type of file and a list of available programs for you to search for the VLC media player.
Always open: Check the VLC Media Player option and always open the file with this application…

You will see how all the files you have with that extension will change their icons and will always be opened with the VLC media player, and you will have to repeat the process for each type of file you always want to open with this player.

So now you know that the VLC list is just a list of IPTV channels that are displayed using the VLC media player.

How to record IPTV on VLC

Step 1: To capture and record a video of your desktop to a file, click the “Media” menu in VLC and select Convert / Save.

Step 2: Click the “Capture Device” tab and select “Desktop” from the “Capture mode” box.
Note: The default frame rate is one frame per second, which won’t appear very smooth. You’ll probably want to increase the frame rate. After you’re happy with the frame rate, click the Convert / Save button.

Step 3: Set a destination file in the Destination section. You can enable the Display the output checkbox to display the contents of your desktop in the VLC window while recording, but this isn’t necessary.
To adjust the resolution and video codec, click the edit button to the right of the Profile box.

You can also select a profile from the profile box and use it as-is, without editing it.

Step 4: Change the resolution by clicking over to the “Video codec” tab and using the options in the Resolution section. For example, you can use half your desktop’s resolution by typing 0.5 into the Scale box.

Step 5: After specifying your options, click the Save button and click the Start button.

VLC will inform you that it’s “streaming” your desktop to a file. Use your computer normally and VLC will record your desktop. When you’re done, click the Stop button.

Open your saved file to view the video on your desktop. You can send this file to others, upload it to YouTube, or do whatever else you like with it.

How to optimize my VLC for watching IPTV?

There are some ways by which you can modify the setting of the VLC media player which finally can help you to watch IPTV with less buffering by increasing the cache size. In the following, some of these tips are mentioned.

How to optimize VLC

Step 1: Open the VLC media player, select “Tools“, and click on “Preference“.

Step 2: Next, click “Input / Codecs” and show the setting “All” option at the bottom of the window. Click “Input / Codecs” in the left sidebar.

Step 3: If the file that is buffering is playing from a local hard drive (Static M3U file), look for the “File Caching (ms)” option under “Advanced” on the right side. The caching value here is estimated in milliseconds, so setting the value to 1000 will buffer for 1 second. The issue with setting this option too large is that if you want to manually skip to a new point, there will be a larger lag while the content is buffered again.

If the file you are trying to play is located on a network share (Dynamic M3U URL), you can change the caching value for “Network Caching (ms)”.

Cache size in VLC

Another temporary solution when you are running a network URL format or streaming files like TS and M3U file formats is explained below:

Open the VLC media player, click on “Media” and select “Open Network Stream“.
Type the URL you want to play, then click on the “Show More Options” checkbox.
Now, based on your Internet speed you can increase the cache size.

How to change the channel’s audio on VLC?

Sometimes the channels you watch on the VLC media player have multiple audio channels. For example, all Nordic channels have multiple audio languages and you can select any language from the list.

How to change the audio channel

In order to change the audio channel, you must “Right-click” on the middle of the screen and select “Audio” and then “Audio Track” as depicted in the above picture. Here you can select the language you want and the audio channel will change.

If you think need further help, feel free to discuss it with us in the comments section down below.

FAQ

Is VLC good for IPTV?

VLC is one of the most popular programs for streaming PTV channels. VLC is a free, open-source, cuckoo, cross-platform media player and streaming server from the VideoLAN project.
However, using the newer versions of VLC, you can stream TV from IPTV through the VLC player if you properly configure the player.

Why does VLC crash while loading the m3u link?

It happens while loading a very huge playlist (like the full package of IPTV SMARTERS PRO provider which is more than 10000 items ).
You need to decrease the Channels and VOD list. It’s possible to manage and remove unwanted categories via IPTV dashboards provided by your provider.