# Using VLC to convert files



## Mikuro (Nov 27, 2005)

VLC apparently has some very powerful conversion features. Has anyone actually managed to get them to _work?_

I've tried a million different ways, and nothing works. I've tried it with the wizard, I've tried from the Open dialog, and I've tried from the command line. And with each way I've tried it with various files of various formats with various settings. But nothing works at all. All I get is a file wrapper with 100 bytes or so of header data for the file format  there's no actual media data in it.

Is this feature just dead on OS X, or am I missing something? Any help would be greatly appreciated.


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## MisterMe (Nov 27, 2005)

Seeing as how *VLC*'s proper name is *VLC media player*, has no _Save_ command, no _Save As..._ command, and no _Export..._ command, it seems unlikely that you can access its "powerful conversion features."


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## Mikuro (Nov 27, 2005)

Err....it does have an export command. That's what I'm talking about. File > Streaming/Exporting Wizard. It also has an "advanced output" option in its Open dialog. As I mentioned, there are three ways of accessing its conversion features, all with lots of documentation. See http://www.videolan.org/doc/streaming-howto/en/ch04.html (naturally this has not helped me at all).

I must say I'm confused by your reply. Do you think I'm making this up? Or do you believe that these interfaces were put in by the VideoLan guys as a joke?

Edit: I've found some examples online of Mac users using its conversion features. See http://www.windley.com/archives/2005/11/using_vlc_to_cr.shtml. But I can't get their examples to work. Hmm. Any advice?


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## ElDiabloConCaca (Nov 27, 2005)

Looks like they're doing it all command-line style... have you tried that?


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## Mikuro (Nov 27, 2005)

Yeah, I tried the command line, about a hundred different ways (not an exaggeration). The only thing I've gotten to work is the plain stream dump, with no conversion or remuxing, but that's not really useful (in the case of local files it's just a roundabout way of duplicating it).

I get the exact same results from the command line, the wizard, and the "advanced output". I'm at a total loss.


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## Mikuro (Dec 13, 2005)

I feel a little silly. I solved the problem. Turned out I just had to delete my VLC prefs. I don't know why my prefs files killed the exporter, but apparently they did. I guess that's why they include the "Delete_Preferences" script with the application...

I haven't done extensive tests, but I managed to convert an mpeg to an mp4 with no trouble. Cool.


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