- Basic info
- About plugins.dat
- Plugins overview
- Access plugins
- Audio filter plugins
- Audio mixer plugins
- Audio output
- Codec plugins
- Control plugins
- D3D11 plugins
- D3D9 plugins
- Demux plugins
- GUI plugins
- Keystore plugins
- Logger plugins
- Meta engine plugins
- Misc plugins
- Packetizer plugins
- Services discovery plugins
- SPU plugins
- Stream extractor plugins
- Stream filter plugins
- Text renderer plugins
- VA-API plugins
- VDPAU plugins
- Video chroma plugins
- Video filter plugins
- Video output plugins
- Video splitter plugins
- Visualization plugins
Basic info
libVLC is a powerfull cross-platform audio and video library that provides a comprehensive multimedia API.
All of its shared libraries are stored in build/<platform_prefix>/lib. The most important of them:
libvlc- the main librarylibvlccore- the core part of libVLC
There are also many of libVLC plugins which enhance the functionality of the libVLC library by providing codec support, input and output modules, hardware acceleration and many more. All plugins descriptions are presented in this section.
More information about the library can be found in libVLC documentation and official Gitlab.
About plugins.dat
Many of plugins are loaded dynamically and to help an application to load these plugins faster during runtime, the plugins.dat file is generated..
The plugins.dat file can be regenerated if needed by running vlc-cache-gen executable from platform-specific build directory as described below.
Windows
- Just run:
/lib/vlc-cache-gen.exe /lib/plugins
Linux
- Set
LD_LIBRARY_PATHenvironment variable:LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$(pwd)/lib. - Run:
lib/vlc/vlc-cache-gen lib/vlc/plugins
Mac
- Set
DYLD_LIBRARY_PATHenvironment variable:DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH=$(pwd)/lib. - Run:
lib/vlc/vlc-cache-gen lib/vlc/plugins
Plugins overview
Each plugin is presented as a shared library with following name: lib<plugin_name>_plugin.(so|dll|dylib).
Plugins are divided into several groups according to their purpose and these groups are presented as subdirectories in plugins directory. Each of these subdirectories content are described further.
Access plugins
This directory contains plugins related to various methods of accessing multimedia content, such as file access, network streaming, or capturing from devices.
| Plugin name | Description |
|---|---|
| access_alsa | ALSA audio capture |
| access_concat | Concatenated inputs |
| access_imem | In-memory bit stream input |
| access_jack | JACK audio input |
| access_mms | Microsoft Media Server (MMS) input |
| access_wasapi | Windows Audio Session API input |
| attachment | Input reading an attachment |
| avio | libavformat AVIO access input |
| dshow | DirectShow input |
| dtv | Digital Television and Radio |
| filesystem | File input |
| ftp | FTP input |
| https | HTTPS input module |
| http | HTTP input module |
| idummy | Dummy input plugin, to manage "vlc://" special options |
| imem | Memory input for VLC |
| pulsesrc | PulseAudio input plugin |
| rist | RIST (Reliable Internet Stream Transport) input module |
| rtp | Real-Time Protocol (RTP) packed input |
| satip | SAT>IP Receiver Plugin |
| screen | Screen capture module |
| sdp | Fake input for SDP (Session Description Protocol) scheme |
| shm | Shared memory frame buffer |
| smb | SMB input |
| tcp | TCP input module |
| timecode | Time code subpicture elementary stream generator |
| udp | UDP input module |
| vdr | VDR recordings access plugin |
| xcb_screen | Screen capture (with X11/XCB) |
Audio filter plugins
Plugins in this directory are responsible for applying various audio filters and effects to audio streams, such as equalization or audio format conversion.
| Plugin name | Description |
|---|---|
| audiobargraph_a | Audio part of the BarGraph function |
| audio_format | Audio filter for PCM format conversion |
| chorus_flanger | Basic chorus/flanger/delay audio filter |
| compressor | Dynamic range compressor |
| dolby_surround_decoder | Simple decoder for dolby surround encoded streams |
| equalizer | Equalizer with 10 bands |
| gain | Gain control filter |
| headphone_channel_mixer | Headphone virtual spatialization channel mixer module |
| karaoke | Simple Karaoke filter |
| mad | MPEG audio layer I/II/III decoder |
| mono | Stereo to mono downmixer |
| normvol | Volume normalizer |
| param_eq | Parametric Equalizer |
| remap | Audio channel remapper |
| samplerate | Secret Rabbit Code (a.k.a. libsamplerate) resampler |
| scaletempo_pitch | Pitch Shifter |
| scaletempo | Audio tempo scaler synched with rate |
| simple_channel_mixer | Audio filter for simple channel mixing |
| spatialaudio | Ambisonics renderer and binauralizer |
| spatializer | Audio Spatializer (sound reverberation) |
| speex_resampler | libspeex DSP resampler |
| stereo_widen | Simple stereo widening effect |
| tospdif | Audio filter for A/52/DTS->S/PDIF encapsulation |
| trivial_channel_mixer | Trivial channel mixer plug-in (drops unwanted channels) |
| ugly_resampler | Zero-order hold "ugly" resampler |
Audio mixer plugins
These plugins deal with mixing and processing audio streams, allowing for tasks like adjusting audio levels or merging multiple audio sources.
| Plugin name | Description |
|---|---|
| float_mixer | Single precision audio volume |
| integer_mixer | Integer audio volume |
Audio output
This directory contains audio output plugins responsible for delivering audio streams to different output devices or audio systems, like speakers or headphones.
| Plugin name | Description |
|---|---|
| adummy | Dummy audio output |
| afile | File audio output |
| alsa | ALSA audio output |
| amem | Audio memory output |
| auhal | HAL AudioUnit output (Mac OS X) |
| directsound | DirectX audio output |
| jack | JACK audio output |
| mmdevice | Windows Multimedia Device output |
| pulse | Pulseaudio audio output |
| wasapi | Windows Audio Session API output |
| waveout | WaveOut audio output |
Codec plugins
Codec plugins handle the encoding and decoding of audio and video data, making it possible to play and manipulate multimedia content in different formats.
| Plugin name | Description |
|---|---|
| a52 | ATSC A/52 aka AC-3 audio decoder plugin |
| adpcm | ADPCM audio decoder |
| aes3 | AES3/SMPTE 302M audio decoder |
| aom | AOM video decoder (AV1) |
| araw | Raw/Log Audio decoder |
| aribsub | ARIB subtitles decoder |
| audiotoolboxmidi | AudioToolbox MIDI synthesizer (Mac OS X) |
| avcodec | Video and audio decoder and encoder using libavcodec (FFmpeg) |
| cc | Closed Captions decoder |
| cdg | CDG video decoder |
| crystalhd | Crystal HD hardware video decoder |
| cvdsub | CVD subtitle decoder |
| d3d11va | Direct3D11 Video Acceleration |
| dav1d | Dav1d video decoder (AV1) |
| dca | DTS Coherent Acoustics audio decoder |
| ddummy | Dummy decoder |
| dmo | DirectMedia Object decoder |
| dvbsub | DVB subtitles decoder |
| dxva2 | DirectX Video Acceleration (DXVA) 2.0 |
| faad | AAC audio decoder using libfaad2 |
| flac | Flac audio decoder |
| g711 | G.711 decoder |
| kate | Kate overlay decoder |
| libass | SSA/ASS subtitle decoder using libass |
| libmpeg2 | MPEG I/II video decoder using libmpeg2 |
| lpcm | Linear PCM audio decoder |
| mft | Media Foundation Transform decoder |
| mpg123 | MPEG-1 & 2 audio layer I, II, III + MPEG 2.5 decoder |
| oggspots | OggSpots video decoder |
| opus | Opus audio decoder |
| rawvideo | Pseudo raw video decoder |
| schroedinger | Dirac video decoder using libschroedinger |
| scte18 | SCTE-18 EAS decoder |
| scte27 | SCTE-27 subtitles decoder |
| spdif | S/PDIF pass-through decoder |
| speex | Speex audio decoder |
| spudec | DVD SPU decoder |
| stl | EBU STL subtitles decoder |
| subsdec | Text subtitle decoder |
| substx3g | MP4 tx3g subtitles decoder |
| subsusf | USF subtitles decoder |
| svcdsub | Philips OGT (SVCD subtitle) decoder |
| textst | HDMV TextST subtitles decoder |
| theora | Theora video decoder |
| ttml | TTML subtitles decoder |
| uleaddvaudio | Ulead DV audio decoder |
| vaapi_drm | VA-API video decoder via DRM |
| vaapi | VA-API helpers for the libavcodec decoder |
| videotoolbox | VideoToolbox video decoder (Mac OS X) |
| vorbis | Vorbis audio decoder |
| vpx | WebM video decoder (VP8/VP9) |
| webvtt | WEBVTT subtitles decoder |
| xwd | XWD image decoder |
Control plugins
Control plugins provide interfaces and mechanisms for local and remote control of the media player, including support for various protocols like HTTP or D-Bus.
| Plugin name | Description |
|---|---|
| dummy | Dummy interface |
| gestures | Mouse gestures control interface |
| hotkeys | Hotkeys management interface |
| motion | Laptop built-in motion sensors control interface |
| ntservice | Windows Service interface |
| netsync | Network synchronization between several network clients |
| oldrc | Remote control interface |
| win_hotkeys | Global Hotkeys interface for Windows |
| win_msg | Windows messages interface |
| xcb_hotkeys | Global Hotkeys interface |
D3D11 plugins
Plugins for video filters using DirectX 11 (Direct3D 11) on Windows.
| Plugin name | Description |
|---|---|
| direct3d11_filters | Direct3D11 video adjust and deinterlace filters |
D3D9 plugins
Plugins for video filters using DirectX 9 (Direct3D 9) on Windows.
| Plugin name | Description |
|---|---|
| direct3d9_filters | Direct3D11 adjust and deinterlace filters |
Demux plugins
Demux plugins are responsible for demultiplexing multimedia containers, separating audio, video, and subtitle streams from a single file or stream source.
| Plugin name | Description |
|---|---|
| adaptive | Unified adaptive streaming for DASH/HLS |
| aiff | AIFF (Audio Interchange File Format demuxer) demuxer |
| asf | ASF/WMV demuxer |
| au | AU demuxer |
| avformat | Avformat demuxer |
| avi | AVI demuxer |
| caf | CAF demuxer |
| demuxdump | File dumper |
| demux_cdg | CDG demuxer |
| demux_stl | EBU STL subtitles parser |
| diracsys | Dirac video demuxer |
| directory_demux | Directory import module (import directory content to playlist) |
| es | MPEG-I/II/4 / A52 / DTS / MLP audio |
| flacsys | FLAC demuxer |
| h26x | Raw H264 and HEVC Video demuxer |
| image | Image demuxer |
| mjpeg | M-JPEG camera demuxer |
| mkv | Matroska stream demuxer |
| mp4 | MP4 stream demuxer |
| mpgv | MPEG-I/II video demuxer |
| noseek | Seek prevention demux filter |
| nsc | Windows Media NSC metademux |
| nsv | NullSoft Video demuxer |
| nuv | NuppelVideo (NUV) demuxer |
| ogg | OGG demuxer |
| playlist | Playlist import module |
| ps | MPEG-PS (Program Stream) demuxer |
| pva | PVA demuxer |
| rawaud | Raw audio demuxer |
| rawdv | DV (Digital Video) demuxer |
| rawvid | Raw video demuxer |
| real | Real Media format demuxer |
| smf | SMF demuxer |
| subtitle | Demux for subtitle text files |
| ts | MPEG Transport Stream demuxer |
| tta | TTA demuxer |
| ty | TY Stream audio/video demux |
| vc1 | VC1 video demuxer |
| vobsub | Vobsub subtitles demuxer |
| voc | VOC demuxer |
| wav | WAV demuxer |
| xa | XA demuxer |
GUI plugins
GUI plugins offer various graphical interfaces and controls for interacting with the media player. Since we don't actually need them, this directory should not exist.
Keystore plugins
Keystore plugins provide secure storage and retrieval of cryptographic keys, often used for DRM (Digital Rights Management) purposes.
keystore
| Plugin name | Description |
|---|---|
| file_keystore | File and crypt keystore (secrets can be stored encrypted in a file, or in a file without any encryption) |
| keychain | Keystore for iOS, Mac OS X and tvOS |
| memory_keystore | Memory keystore (secrets are stored in memory) |
Logger plugins
These plugins are used for logging and debugging purposes, helping track and diagnose issues within the media player.
| Plugin name | Description |
|---|---|
| console_logger | Console logger |
| file_logger | File logger |
| syslog | System logger (syslog) |
Meta engine plugins
Meta engine plugins handle metadata retrieval and management, allowing for the extraction and display of information about media files.
| Plugin name | Description |
|---|---|
| folder | Folder meta data |
| taglib | Taglib tag parser/writer |
Misc plugins
The "misc" directory may contain miscellaneous plugins that don't fit neatly into other categories, often providing additional functionality or utility.
| Plugin name | Description |
|---|---|
| audioscrobbler | Submission of played songs to last.fm |
| export | Playlist export module |
| fingerprinter | Audio fingerprinter module (based on Acoustid) |
| logger | File logging plugin |
| securetransport | TLS support for Mac OS X and iOS |
| stats | Stats decoder/demuxer |
| xdg_screensaver | XDG screen saver inhibition |
| xml | XML Parser (using libxml2) |
Packetizer plugins
Packetizer plugins are responsible for breaking down and assembling multimedia data into packets suitable for transmission or processing.
| Plugin name | Description |
|---|---|
| packetizer_a52 | A/52 audio packetizer |
| packetizer_av1 | AV1 video packetizer |
| packetizer_avparser | Avparser packetizer |
| packetizer_copy | Copy packetizer |
| packetizer_dirac | Dirac packetizer |
| packetizer_dts | DTS audio packetizer |
| packetizer_flac | Flac audio packetizer |
| packetizer_h264 | H.264 video packetizer |
| packetizer_hevc | HEVC/H.265 video packetizer |
| packetizer_mlp | MLP/TrueHD audio packetizer |
| packetizer_mpeg4audio | MPEG4 audio packetizer |
| packetizer_mpeg4video | MPEG4 video packetizer |
| packetizer_mpegaudio | MPEG audio layer I/II/III packetizer |
| packetizer_mpegvideo | MPEG-I/II video packetizer |
| packetizer_vc1 | VC-1 packetizer |
Services discovery plugins
Services discovery plugins help locate and identify network services, making it easier to find and access media content from various sources.
| Plugin name | Description |
|---|---|
| bonjour | mDNS services discovery module based on Bonjour (Mac OS X) |
| mediadirs | Picture/Music/Video user directories as service discoveries (My Pictures, My Music, My Video) |
| podcast | Podcasts |
| pulselist | Audio capture (PulseAudio) |
| sap | SAP interface module |
| windrive | List of disc drives |
| xcb_apps | List of application windows XCB module |
SPU plugins
SPU (Subpicture Unit) plugins handle the rendering of subtitles and other overlay graphics on video content.
| Plugin name | Description |
|---|---|
| audiobargraph_v | Audio Bar Graph Video sub source |
| dynamicoverlay | Dynamic video overlay |
| logo | Logo sub source |
| marq | Marquee display |
| mosaic | Mosaic video sub source |
| rss | RSS and Atom feed display |
| subsdelay | Subtitle delay |
Stream extractor plugins
Stream extractor plugins can extract specific streams (e.g., audio or video) from multimedia containers without decoding the entire file. This directory shouldn't exist in our libVLC build.
Stream filter plugins
These plugins can filter and process multimedia streams in real-time, performing tasks like noise reduction or stream modification.
| Plugin name | Description |
|---|---|
| adf | ADF stream filter |
| cache_block | Block stream cache |
| cache_read | Byte stream cache |
| decomp | LZMA, gzip, Burrows-Wheeler decompression module |
| hds | Http Dynamic Streaming (HDS) stream filter |
| inflate | Zlib decompression filter |
| prefetch | Stream prefetch filter |
| record | Internal stream record |
| skiptags | APE/ID3 tags-skipping filter |
Text renderer plugins
Text renderer plugins are responsible for rendering text and subtitles on the screen during video playback.
| Plugin name | Description |
|---|---|
| freetype | Freetype2 font renderer |
| nsspeechsynthesizer | Speech synthesis for Mac OS X systems |
| sapi | Speech synthesis for Windows |
| tdummy | Dummy font renderer |
VA-API plugins
VA-API (Video Acceleration API) plugins provide hardware acceleration support for video decoding and encoding on systems that support VA-API (only Linux in our case).
| Plugin name | Description |
|---|---|
| vaapi_filters | Video Accelerated API filters |
VDPAU plugins
VDPAU (Video Decode and Presentation API for Unix) plugins offer hardware acceleration for video processing on systems that support VDPAU (only Linux in our case).
vdpau
| Plugin name | Description |
|---|---|
| vdpau_adjust | VDPAU adjust video filter |
| vdpau_avcodec | VDPAU video decoder |
| vdpau_chroma | VDPAU surface conversions |
| vdpau_deinterlace | VDPAU deinterlacing filter |
| vdpau_display | VDPAU output |
| vdpau_sharpen | VDPAU sharpen video filter |
Video chroma plugins
Video chroma plugins handle color space conversion and manipulation of video frames, allowing for optimizations and effects.
| Plugin name | Description |
|---|---|
| chain | Video filtering using a chain of video filter modules (as a last resort solution) |
| cvpx | Conversions between CoreVideo buffers (Mac OS X) |
| grey_yuv | Conversions from GREY to I420,YUY2 |
| i420_10_p010 | YUV 10-bits planar to semiplanar 10-bits conversions |
| i420_nv12 | YUV planar to semiplanar conversions |
| i420_rgb_mmx | MMX I420,IYUV,YV12 to RV15,RV16,RV24,RV32 conversions |
| i420_rgb | I420,IYUV,YV12 to RGB2,RV15,RV16,RV24,RV32 conversions |
| i420_rgb_sse2 | SSE2 I420,IYUV,YV12 to RV15,RV16,RV24,RV32 conversions |
| i420_yuy2_mmx | MMX conversions from I420,IYUV,YV12 to YUY2,YUNV,YVYU,UYVY,UYNV,Y422,IUYV |
| i420_yuy2 | Conversions from I420,IYUV,YV12 to YUY2,YUNV,YVYU,UYVY,UYNV,Y422,IUYV,Y211 |
| i420_yuy2_sse2 | SSE2 conversions from I420,IYUV,YV12 to YUY2,YUNV,YVYU,UYVY,UYNV,Y422,IUYV |
| i422_i420 | Conversions from I422,J422 to I420,IYUV,J420,YV12,YUVA |
| i422_yuy2_mmx | MMX conversions from I422 to YUY2,YUNV,YVYU,UYVY,UYNV,Y422,IUYV |
| i422_yuy2 | Conversions from I422 to YUY2,YUNV,YVYU,UYVY,UYNV,Y422,IUYV,Y211 |
| i422_yuy2_sse2 | SSE2 conversions from I422 to YUY2,YUNV,YVYU,UYVY,UYNV,Y422,IUYV |
| rv32 | RV32 conversion filter |
| swscale | Video scaling filter |
| yuvp | YUVP converter |
| yuy2_i420 | Conversions from YUY2,YUNV,YVYU,UYVY,UYNV,Y422 to I420 |
| yuy2_i422 | Conversions from YUY2,YUNV,YVYU,UYVY,UYNV,Y422 to I422 |
Video filter plugins
Video filter plugins apply various video effects and transformations to video streams, such as deinterlacing or color correction.
| Plugin name | Description |
|---|---|
| adjust | Contrast/Hue/Saturation/Brightness video filter |
| alphamask | Alpha mask video filter |
| anaglyph | Convert 3D picture to anaglyph image video filter |
| antiflicker | Antiflicker video filter |
| ball | Ball video filter |
| blendbench | Blending benchmark filter |
| blend | Video pictures blending |
| bluescreen | Bluescreen video filter |
| canvas | Canvas video filter |
| ci_filters | Mac OS X hardware video filters |
| colorthres | Color threshold filter |
| croppadd | Video cropping filter |
| deinterlace | Deinterlacing video filter |
| edgedetection | Edge detection video filter |
| erase | Erase video filter |
| extract | Extract RGB component video filter |
| fps | FPS conversion video filter |
| freeze | Freezing interactive video filter |
| gaussianblur | Gaussian blur video filter |
| gradfun | Gradfun video filter |
| gradient | Gradient video filter |
| grain | Grain video filter |
| hqdn3d | High Quality 3D Denoiser filter |
| invert | Invert video filter |
| magnify | Magnify/Zoom interactive video filter |
| mirror | Mirror video filter |
| motionblur | Motion blur filter |
| motiondetect | Motion detect video filter |
| oldmovie | Old movie effect video filter |
| posterize | Posterize video filter |
| psychedelic | Psychedelic video filter |
| puzzle | Puzzle interactive game video filter |
| ripple | Ripple video filter |
| rotate | Rotate video filter |
| scale | Video scaling filter |
| scene | Scene video filter |
| sepia | Sepia video filter |
| sharpen | Sharpen video filter |
| transform | Video transformation filter |
| vhs | VHS movie effect video filter |
| wave | Wave video filter |
Video output plugins
These plugins are responsible for delivering video frames to the display or output device.
| Plugin name | Description |
|---|---|
| caopengllayer | Core Animation OpenGL Layer (Mac OS X) |
| direct3d11 | Direct3D11 video output |
| direct3d9 | Direct3D9 video output |
| directdraw | DirectX (DirectDraw) video output |
| drawable | Embedded window video |
| egl_x11 | EGL extension for OpenGL |
| fb | GNU/Linux framebuffer video output |
| flaschen | Flaschen-Taschen video output |
| glconv_cvpx | Apple OpenGL CVPX converter (Mac OS X) |
| glconv_vaapi_drm | VA-API OpenGL surface converter for DRM |
| glconv_vaapi_x11 | VA-API OpenGL surface converter for X11 |
| glconv_vdpau | VDPAU OpenGL surface converter |
| glx | GLX extension for OpenGL |
| gl | OpenGL video output |
| vdummy | Dummy video output |
| vmem | Video memory output |
| vout_macosx | Mac OS X OpenGL video output |
| wingdi | Windows GDI video output |
| winhibit | Windows screen saver inhibition |
| xcb_window | X11 embedded window video (XCB) |
| xcb_x11 | X11 video output (XCB) |
| xcb_xv | XVideo output (XCB) |
| yuv | YUV video output |
Video splitter plugins
Video splitter plugins can split a single video stream into multiple output streams, useful for scenarios like dual display setups.
| Plugin name | Description |
|---|---|
| clone | Clone video filter |
| panoramix | Panoramix: wall with overlap video filter |
| wall | Wall video filter |
Visualization plugins
Visualization plugins generate audio-driven visual effects, often used in media player applications for music visualization.
| Plugin name | Description |
|---|---|
| glspectrum | 3D OpenGL spectrum visualization |
| visual | Visualisation system |