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VLC, the free and open source media player is great at playing media of even the most obscure formats. However, that is not all it can do. It can be used to easily convert videos from one format to other. Converting videos with VLC media player is pretty fast and is in the league of most premium video converters in terms of quality. It can also be used to resize videos from one size to other for when you need to shrink videos to fit in your mobile devices. It can also serve as a quick video cutting tool.

Convert Videos with VLC Media Player

To convert videos with VLC media player, follow the steps given below:-

1) Open VLC media player.
2) Click on Media in the Menu bar.
3) In the dropdown menu, click on Convert/Save. Alternatively, you can press Ctrl+R to directly reach media options.


4) Click on the Add button on the right of the File selection box to load the video whose format you want to change.
5) In the following dialog box, click on browse to select the destination where your converted video will be.


6) In the profile selection option, select from a pre-configured profile of the output or customize it by clicking on the Settings icon on its right. You can select from a range of encapsulation, video and audio formats in the following dialog box if you wish to customize the output.
7) Click on Start to begin conversion.
8) VLCs progress bar will show progress. Do not close the player when it is converting videos as it will result in output video getting corrupted.

The speed with which VLC converts videos depends upon your computers specifications. A faster computer converts faster while slower PCs take a lot of time. At the end of the conversion process, you will get the video in the format that you have selected in step 6.

Resize and shrink videos with VLC media player

Resizing the video involves making minor changes in the steps followed in conversion. While customizing the profile in step 6, go to the Video codec tab. Inside the Scale option, enter the desired width and height that you deem fit for your needs. After that, just convert the video as you normally would. This would result in the output video having the same dimensions that you specified. However, it is important to note that exact dimensions would only be achieved if the aspect ratio of the video is maintained. If the correct aspect ratio is not satisfied by your dimensions, VLC will take one of your dimension and change the other to satisfy it.

Cut videos with VLC media player

To crop videos with VLC media player, go to the menu bar and click on View menu. Inside it, check Advanced Controls. This will result in a few extra buttons over the normal toolbar. Play the video of your choice and press the record button (from the newly added buttons) at the point in the video from where you want to start. Then, again press this button when the video reaches the point at which you want to stop it. The cut video will automatically be saved in your Videos library. It is located at Libraries/Videos in Windows 8.1, Windows 8, Windows 7 and Windows Vista. In Windows XP, it is located at My DocumentsMy Videos. You can use the Frame by Frame button to get a high degree of accuracy. You need to install the newer versions of this program as older versions do not support this.

VLC is a video player with a lot of tricks. While you definitely would be aware about converting videos with it, the feature of converting any video to ASCII is one that is slightly less known. As ASCII version of movies like Star wars are very popular online, I think this feature of this amazing media player can be used to have lots of fun.

An example of a video in ASCII form

All you need to do is open any video and VLC will automatically display its converted form. To convert any video in ASCII, just follow the steps given below:-

1) Open VLC Media Player.
2) Click on the Tools menu and in the drop down list, click on Preferences at the bottom of the list.
3) Click on Video icon in the left sidebar.
4) Click on the drop down box next to Output.
5) Select "Color ASCII art video output" from the drop down list.
6) Click Save and restart VLC.

Older versions of VLC might require you to modify these settings under the Advance tab or All Settings tab. As VLC runs on a variety of OSs, this trick will work on any PC capable of running this media player. However, it is interesting to point out that older PCs having poor hardware will slow down and give a stuttered output.