Elektrine lite

← Feed

@AstroLightz@lemmy.world

Arch: Control VLC through terminal commands?

2026-03-06 16:17 UTC

I’m making a Python script to play music through VLC and I wanted to add a way to control audio playback of VLC, like pause/play, next/previous, etc. I know I can change shuffle mode before launching VLC with the –random and –no-random arguments. However, is there a way to change playback settings through the Linux terminal while VLC is running?

Replies (3)

  • @Maxy@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2026-03-06 16:39

    VLC appears to support MPRIS, so commands like $ playerctl play-pause $ playerctl next $ playerctl previous Should be able to control it. See the Relevant arch wiki page for more info. VLC also appears to have a TUI interface. Check out the VLC wiki

    Open ##557517

  • @utopiah@lemmy.ml 2026-03-07 08:10

    I tinker with VLC using and… so far my “trick” is a bit dirty, namely I don’t “control” it as much as I killall potential running instances then I start cvlc again with the right parameters. If you want continuity though you might not want that. Note also that if you plan to do scripting check mpv as it’s a bit easier to tinker with IMHO.

    Open ##567171

  • @hkwln@lemmy.ml 2026-03-08 20:21

    when you use the terminal, why use vlc when you can use ffmpeg?

    Open ##589386