Play / Watch YouTube videos and YouTube playlist in VLC media player

There are many YouTube lovers out there including me, so we once shared a post on YouTube tips and tricks. Just like YouTube, people love VLC media player the most in order to watch videos locally. Have you ever wished to play YouTube videos other than watching it in web browser? If Yes! Then your choice is VLC media player. Here we will see how to play YouTube videos in VLC media player.

There are cool apps like Minitube in which you can watch YouTube videos in desktop that is outside your browser. Many are unheard and this app is not commonly known. People don’t like to necessarily download an app for single purpose; rather they look for a versatile app.

You well know that the VLC media player is the favorite and most used media player globally. It’s because it almost supports all types of video and audio formats. Other than that VLC can be used to play, stream and record YouTube videos just like a local video file.

Watch YouTube videos in VLC media player

To play YouTube videos locally, first open VLC media player. Now press CTRL+N or open network stream from media tab. Then paste the URL of the YouTube video in input box and play, you’re done.

By using the above method you can only play single YouTube video at a time, but what if you wish to play the entire YouTube playlist in VLC. There is a trick, but before that we will see the use of playing YouTube videos inside VLC media player.

Use of playing YouTube videos inside VLC media player

By playing YouTube videos in VLC you will get many more features and functionalities that you don’t see in normal YouTube player.

• First of all you are free from ads. Just play any YouTube videos and VLC will take you to the video directly by avoiding ads.
• In VLC you can loop, record and take a screen shot of any YouTube videos.
• You can make changes to audio effects, video effects and by adjusting playback you can make videos play fast or slow.

How to play YouTube playlist in VLC media player

There is a downloadable extension in VLC that makes you play the entire YouTube playlist in VLC. You can download the extension from videolan or simply right click and save this file. It is an .lua file (playlist_youtube.lua). Now move the file to VLC installation folder that is to

Windows – %ProgramFiles%\VideoLAN\VLC\lua\playlist\

Mac OS X – /Applications/VLC.app/Contents/MacOS/share/lua/playlist/

You are done and now go to YouTube, copy the playlist URL and just paste it in network window. Now play, lean back and then enjoy watching the entire YouTube playlist.

Hope this helped you to play YouTube videos in VLC media player. If it is useful then share and if you need more such tricks, then subscribe to our RSS feeds.