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Controlling Playback Speed in VLC

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With VLC, you will be easily able tocontrol the playback speed. Playback speed

or slow it down according to your wish. Speeding up will allow you to watch

relates to the speed at which the video is played. You can speed up the video
the video faster. Speeding up will also allow you to skim through the video

while viewing all the parts. This will enable you to reach the part of the video
where you previously left off. You will also be able to watch documentaries

quickly which saves time while allowing you to take full benefit of the video.

On the contrary, slowing down the video speed will allow you to watch the

video in real detail. You will be playing in such slow speeds that the video will

be moving from one frame to another, really slow. Using this feature, you can
reach your favorite frame of the video or watch your favorite scene in slow
motion for example.

There are several uses of slowing down or speeding up a video. It is left up to

your imagination and use.VLC allows us to control the speed of the video in
two ways. One is by using shortcut keys or hotkeys and the other way is by

using menu and buttons. Both ways are good, but the shortcut option is
simpler and quicker.

To control speed of a video in VLC using shortcuts:

Speed up: ] Key in keyboard

Speed down: [ Key in keyboard

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speed: = Key in keyboard

When you click on the speed up or speed down button, the confirmation is
displayed on the top right of the video. Speed is displayed such as 1.50x or

2 0.80x

depending upon how much you change it. You will also be able to

change the shortcut keys if you prefer.

To control speed of a video in VLC using menu and buttons:

From the VLC Menu Bar go to Playback > Speed and select a speed from
options: Faster, Faster (fine), Normal, Slower (fine) and Slower.

The same options can also be accessed from the right click menu Playback >
Speed.

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Clicking on those buttons buttons will increase or decrease the speed of the
video by certain amount. Speed will be added or reduced to the current

playback speed. For example: click on faster will add the speed by 0.50x.

Fine Tuning Audio/Video Speed

You canadjust the audio/video playback speed in VLC to the tiniest details.
That means you can speed up your audio/video 1.06x times or 1.43 times.

Youll have to use the playback speed slider present in the status bar. It is at

the bottom-right corner of the player, below the volume slider. It displays the

current playback speed.If the status bar is not there, click on View > Status Bar
to enable it.

Make sure an audio or video is playing; you can pause the content if you
want.

Click on the speed indicator and a slider will open.

You can drag the slider towards the left to slow down and towards the right
to speed up.

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This slider allows you to configure the playback speed up to 1/10th

fractional units.

Setting the Default Playback Speed

To set a default playback speed for all your videos, you will have to do it from

the advanced VLC configurations accessible from Tools > Preferences [CTRL + P]
and then selecting All radio boxfor Show settings option. This will display the
Advanced Preferencesfor the player.

Click onInput / Codecs found once you openAdvanced Preferences.

UnderPlayback control you will find Playback speed.Input a value up to two

decimal places.

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This new value will be your default playback speed. You willhave to stop and
play afile again or you can restart your player to ensure that this new

settings is in effect. Youll have to visit this advanced preference again to

reset it back to 1.00x.

Click Save at the end.

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Comments
STUDENT

May 12, 2014 - 9:14 am REPLY

Thank you!!! It was annoying right clicking and changing the speed.
TIAGO FERREIRA

August 19, 2014 - 10:40 pm REPLY

Is it possible to change speed to, for example, 1.70x or 1.20x. Im not seeing those on the
playback speed options
ASHISH

August 20, 2014 - 7:30 am REPLY

Yes it is possible. You dont see it in the playback options. Just use the short cut
keys [ and ] for your desired speed.
MED

October 28, 2014 - 5:22 pm REPLY

What is the best video format to play speeded up? I noticed that when I upload my video
to youtube and speed up there the sound is much better. I would like to get the same
sound in VLC.

ASHISH

December 22, 2014 - 1:45 pm REPLY

Well I think that it is more dependent upon your computer to be able to process
a speed up video with clear sound.
GABRIEL

February 22, 2015 - 9:10 pm REPLY

How to set it to 1.03 or 1.06 as it was long time before? I dont want to set it on 1.10, its
too much and unpleasure to watch.
ASHISH

February 23, 2015 - 8:48 pm REPLY

Use the playback speed indicator/slider present below the volume slider. Read
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the details.
NATE

April 3, 2015 - 3:19 pm REPLY

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the newly added Fine Tuning Audio/Video Speed in the article above to view

This doesnt seem to work with Mac. There is no speed control on the menu at VLC for
Mac

ASHISH

April 3, 2015 - 3:24 pm REPLY

Try pressing:

For speeding up: Command and =

For speeding down: Command and

NATE

April 3, 2015 - 3:23 pm REPLY

Ok I found it at the menu but it does not work like it does with microsoft. It can be done in
increments. But this speed up is too fast or too slow.
ASHISH

April 3, 2015 - 3:29 pm REPLY

You should try adding the Toolbar Element called Speed selector from

Customize > Toolbar. It will allow you to fine tune your playback speed as
shown above.
SIMON

May 26, 2015 - 10:52 am REPLY

Is it possible to jump from normal speed (1.00) to a certain speed (e.g. 4x in my case) by
pressing a key just once?
Thanks for your answer!
HILA

May 28, 2015 - 11:01 pm REPLY

ok I had the same issue as Nate, I was able to control the speed with command and + or
but i cant see the playback speed anywhere unless i open it from the top menu, I dont

have the Toolbar Element that you mention or anyway to customize it, is there any way i
can actually see the playback speed on the toolbar?
RAMPANT

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July 31, 2015 - 9:15 am REPLY

Activate the status bar View -> Status bar

TIPSTER

June 6, 2015 - 8:59 pm REPLY

It took me a minute to figure out why I didnt have that control. Make sure View->Status
Bar is enabled.

MARTIN VLACH

June 26, 2015 - 6:18 am REPLY

Is it possible to start playing a file from command line in a certain speed? How?
Or is it possible to make a playlist with asocciated playback speed?
ASHISH

July 6, 2015 - 8:03 pm REPLY

Yes it is possible to start playing a file from the command line at a certain speed.
Heres the line that you need to run:
vlc --rate 3 myfile.mp4
D-BIE

July 23, 2015 - 6:17 pm REPLY

Request to edit this entry: The Speed bar shown in the above tutorial is not enabled by
default. Advise adding if the speed control is not showing, you can enable it by

navigating (in the upper pane controls) to View > Status bar. Without this little addition
the manual slider portion is confusing and not useful to many.
ASHISH

July 26, 2015 - 10:49 am REPLY

Thanks for the suggestion. I have made the change.

AUREL

July 30, 2015 - 10:34 pm REPLY

Hi!

Thank you for your good work!

We can change the speed with the slower or slower (fine) hotkeys.

But a slower (EXTREMELY fine)-hotkey (i.e. every 0.02) would be perfect for me while
practising the guitar. Please give me any solution!
ASHISH

August 1, 2015 - 4:10 pm REPLY

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Try Fine Tuning Audio/Video Speed and Setting the Default Playback Speed to
control that level of playback speed.
VLC'R

August 10, 2015 - 5:28 pm REPLY

Useful for some stuff, like videos, but too course to use for pitching audio up/down subtly.
The Speed Selector slider if far too course. It needs to allow increments like .01%,
preferably with arrow key support or some-such, too.
E. SWOOPE

September 2, 2015 - 10:32 pm REPLY

One of my students asked if there was a way to watch the course videos at faster than

normal speed. A little searching turned up this page. My students will have to download

the course videos rather than streaming them, but that shouldnt be a problem for most
of them. This should do the trick!

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