Control VLC Media Player Remotely via Web Interface

Watching movies on our home computers has now become a norm for many of us. As soon as friends are together, make some popcorns or call the local pizza home delivery, play your favorite movie’s DVD and you are all set for many hours of fun. I personally like to watch movies on VideoLan VLC Media Player as it can play all types of media files, works on all the major platforms (Windows, Linux, Android and Mac) and allows remote control via a simple web interface. The VLC web interface comes very handy when you are do not want to get up from your comfortable couch or get out from bed while in the middle of watching a movie. You can control VLC Media Player remotely through your mobile phone sitting anywhere in your home if you have enabled the web interface.

Here is how you can enable the web interface in VLC Media Player and use it to control the media playback:

  1. First of all make sure you have the latest version of VLC Media Player installed. The web interface works differently for older versions and is absent in ancient versions. You can get latest version from http://www.videolan.org/.
  2. Open VLC Media Player, press the hotkey Ctrl+P to open the Preferences window. You can also open it from the menubar by selecting Tools → Preferences.Enable VLC Web Interface
  3. In the Preferences window, select All at the bottom to show advanced settings, select Main Interfaces from the list, check the checkbox labeled Web and then click on the Save button.Enable VLC Web Interface
  4. Close VLC Media Player and start it again after a couple of seconds. This time Windows Firewall (or some other firewall software if you use something else) will show a permissions message. Select Private Networks and click on Allow Access.Enable VLC Web Interface
  5. Play some media file in VLC Media Player. Then open a web browser, type http://127.0.0.1:8080 in the address bar and press Enter. You will see the web interface for VLC Media Player.Enable VLC Web Interface
  6. If you want to control VLC Media Player from a smartphone, then type the internal IP address of your PC instead of 127.0.0.1. For example, the internal IP of my PC is 192.168.0.5, so I type 192.168.0.5:8080 in Chrome browser in my Android smartphone.Enable VLC Web Interface

Conclusion: Enabling web interface of the VLC Media Player is very easy and allows you to control some of the player functions via a web interface locally or remotely.