VLC Media Player is one of the most used applications by a large number of people who want play both audio and video in Windows; The advantages of this tool are multiple, because in order for a multimedia file to be played (in most cases) it does not require the installation of a special codec.
Without trying to make any kind of comparison, but GOM Player is also an interesting application that helps us to play videos like VLC Media Player, but only making similarity to the fact that the installation of a special codec is not required. Now, what would you think if we mentioned at this very moment that VLC Media Player has the ability to record video using only your webcam. This would be a great help that we could be using if at a certain moment we do not have an application at hand to help us with this task.
Enable additional options in VLC Media Player
Like any tool that we can download and install on Windows (and other platforms), VLC Media Player also has certain options that are kept "invisible" for everyone to see; It is only required to have to locate them so that they are shown immediately, something that we will explain below through a series of suggested steps.
First of all you must start VLC Media Player once you have installed this tool in Windows; "administrator permissions" are not required, although, for security reasons, it would be convenient to carry out this task to avoid some kind of freezing during the process of recording a video (which is what concerns us for now). Once we have run this tool, we must go to the option «VIEW»Displayed in the options bar at the top of the interface.
This option generally serves to make visible certain windows or functions that are regularly hidden, which does not mean that they are disabled. Right here we should activate one of them, which says "Advanced Controls".
If you pay attention to the multimedia file playback bar that is shown at the bottom, we will be able to admire that an additional one will appear immediately, which will only handle the video recording options; This means that we must necessarily have a web camera, something that we find without major problem in portable personal computers, although we could also use one that connects through the USB port of our desktop computer.
When we can already admire the second active bar, we must go to the option of «Medium»Which is located in the options bar at the top of the VLC Media Player interface; there we will find an option that says «open capture device ...«, Same that we will have to choose it to be able to enter the configuration of the webcam that we will use with this tool to take certain captures.
Record video or take photos with VLC Media Player
In the new window that appears we must define the type of accessory or device that we will use to record the video as well as the one that we will use to record audio; once we make the configuration we can close this window to prepare to test VLC Media Player by recording any video scene that is present in front of our personal computer.
The new bar that we previously activated will have the ability to record video or only audio if we wish; We could also capture a few images as photos or snapshots.
In conclusion, VLC Media Player can be an excellent tool for use completely free on our personal computer with Windows, being able to record certain video scenes or take pictures (still images); with proper programming within this operating system we would have the capacity to that these captures are made at a certain time, something that is generally used by those who use webcams as a means of security in their respective businesses.