The Remote Control for VLC is an iPhone / iPad application that controls the VLC Media Player from Videolan remotely over a WiFi connection

The design philosophy was to create an application that is easy to use with a simplistic yet functional User Interface, that is free and does not serve advertisements.

About

The Remote Control does not require any additional software to be installed.  It only requires the computer name (or IP address) of the computer that is running VLC and the port number for the VLC service is running.

If it does not connect, it is most likely a result of the firewall on the computer that is blocking the request.  Please consider to ask someone technical to assist, before given me a poor rating.  The Remote Control is running on 10000s of iPhones and iPads worldwide, and connection issues are mostly related to the firewall setup on your computer.

In order to use the application, setup of the VLC Media Player and the Firewall has to be performed.

on the iPad Rotary controls are available

v1.60 What's new in the version:
April 2012
- Super new User Interface (UI) and User Experience (UX)   (thank you Francois for cool design)
- Additional rotary volume control for iPad
- Multi-line items in playlist
- Minor bugfix for iOS5 for playlist Minor bug fix for displaying empty playlist.
- Application name changed to Remote Control for VLC. (it was formerly known as VLC Remote Control)
- Improved instructions how to setup VLC and the Remote Control, and specifically when you want to enter a computer name rather than the IP address for the VLC host.

v1.41 What's new in the version:
28 February 2012
- Rebuilded for iOS5

v1.40 What's new in the version:
24 January 2012
- Minor bug fix for displaying empty playlist.
- Application name changed to Remote Control for VLC. (it was formerly known as VLC Remote Control)
- Improved instructions how to setup VLC and the Remote Control, and specifically when you want to enter a computer name rather than the IP address for the VLC host.

v1.30 What's new in the version:
13 July 2011
- Faster response connecting to VLC Server when application is made active from the background.
- Display of the playlist.
- Any track can be selected to be played.

v1.20 What's new in the version:
07 June 2011
- Minor user interface changes in displaying connection info
- iPad release.

v1.10 What's new in the version:
11 May 2011
- Tap speaker buttons for small increase / decrease of volume
- Tap and hold for incremental volume change
- Tap track seek buttons for a small change in the track playback position
- Tap and hold track seek buttons for incremental change in the track playback position

v1.00 What's new in the version:
1 Febraury 2011
- Initial Release

In order to use the application, setup of the VLC Media Player and the Firewall has to be performed.

Setup of VLC Media player to allow for remote control

Note: The setup for VLC 1.11 and earlier differ slightly from the setup instructions for VLC v2.0 and later.
(Also note the instructions distributed with the Remote Control downloaded from the App Store is only for VLC v1.11. If you have VLC v2.0 and later installed please follow the instruction on this page)

For VLC v1.11 or earlier

1.       Dowload VLC v1.11 ( http://www.oldversion.com/download-VLC-Media-Player-1.11.1.html) and install
2.       From the VLC Main Menu, select Tools,  Preferences,  select All radio button from the Show Settings in bottom left of Preferences screen.
3.       From the treeview select Interface, Main interfaces and tick the option 'HTTP remote control interface'
4.       This will bind to all network adapters on default port 8080. 
Optionally, and only if you want to bind to another adapter or port, then from the treeview select Interface,Main interfaces,  HTTP and then enter the Host address in the format  eg.  127.0.0.1:8080

depending on your version of VLC it may appear as

or on MAC OS X

Save the preferences
Quit and restart VLC Media Player(This is required that the HTTP remote control interface starts correctly)

For VLC v2.0x or later

1. Dowload VLC  (http://www.videolan.org) and install
2. From the VLC Main Menu, select Tools,  Preferences,  select All radio button from the Show Settings in bottom left of Preferences screen.
3. From the treeview select Interface, Main interfaces and tick the option 'Web'
4. This will bind to all network adapters on default port 8080.

Save the preferences and Quit VLC

A Second configuration step is required:
Edit the   .host   file distributed with VLC. (it is located in)

·         Windows (32bit) :  C:\Program Files\VideoLAN\lua\http
·         Windows (64bit)    C:\Program Files (x86)\VideoLAN\lua\http  
·         Linux:  /usr/share/vlc/lua/http/
·         MacOS:  VLC.app/Contents/MacOS/share/lua/http 

In the section   # private addresses
remove the comment symbol # for all the private addresses (or specific to your network)

Save the file and restart VLC Media Player

Firewall Setup Required

If you have a firewall installed, it would need to be configured to allow for remote connections to the VLC Media Player.  The setup procedure will differ between the various Operating Systems and firewalls. If you experience difficulty with his process consult a technical person to assist.

In general, most firewalls will prompt for rule setup when a new application is detected. 

1.       Close VLC Media Player, restart VLC Media Player.  

2.       On Windows 7, with the standard firewall installed, a form will appear as seen below.  Select the option as indicated.  The VLC Media will now accept remote connections.

On Mac OS X, if the Firewall is enabled the message my look like

Setup of iPhone/iPad Remote Control for VLC

1.       Enable WiFi on the iPhone or iPad

2.       Launch the Remote Control for VLC application on the iPhone or iPad

3.       Press the i, Information button in bottom right of display

4.       Enter the hostname or IP address for computer VLC Media Player is running on
(See section below how to find hostname or IP address on a Windows or Mac computer)

Depending on your network setup, DNS setup,  you can use one of the following:

ipaddress                    in format  xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
<computername>.local
Contact your network administrator if you experience problems with this step, or try to use the IP address if possible.

Note: If you want to use the <computername>.local.   rather than the IP address for the setup then you must have iTunes (or Bonjour) installed on the computer that is running VLC.  Then name resolution is performed by an Apple a service called Bonjour. http://www.apple.com/support/bonjour/    (this is part of the iTunes installation , but can be installed by independently)

5.       Enter the port number, use 8080 unless you have specified another number on the VLC Media Player setup.

Here are example setups, depending on the DNS configuration setup within your network.

How to find the computer name

If you want to use the hostname for the computer the VLC service is running on, instead of an IP address, the name can be determined as.

Windows 7

From Start bar -> Control Panel -> Type in search area to the right computer name

If for example the computer name is w7.  You may need to VLC server name as w7.local.

Windows XP

From Start bar -> Control Panel -> System -> Computer name

On Mac OS X

From the Mac Menu ->  System Preferences...  ->  Sharing ->  Computer Name

In this example the computer name is mac.  You will then enter the VLC server name as mac.local.

Usage notes

Adjusting the volume

·         Tap speaker buttons for small increase / decrease of volume

·         Tap and hold for incremental volume change

·         Use the volume slider

On the iPAD

 
Adjusting the track seek position

·         Tap track seek buttons for a small change in the track playback position

·         Tap and hold track seek buttons for incremental change in the track playback position

·         Use the track slider

Other notes

The Remote Control will only connect if 1 instance of VLC is running. If you had more than 1 instance open, close all VLC windows, and only open a single instance.

Rate it

If you like the application, please consider to give it a rating on the App Store, I will appreciate it.  Although it is a rather simplistic interface, it is really functional and has taken many hours to develop.  Also consider that is free and it does not  serve any ads. 

If you want to contribute send me email through the contact form on the website.
If you have a setup tips to share,  or if you want to design a new skin, let me know.

Download

The App Store™ download: