How to Play Certain Sections and Part of Video and

Audio in VLC
Tutorials

Using VLC Media Player, if you want to play a certain portion of a video/audio and then skip some segments
and then resume playing, then there is a special playlist trick that can be used. The bookmark feature in the
player is useful for bookmarking and playing the currently active media file at different points or time. But once
the player is shut off or closed, the bookmarks are lost forever. If you want to keep the bookmarks in VLC for
the next time, then use this special trick. It’ll allow you to play only certain parts of a video.

This special trick allows you to specify a video file as well as the start and end time for it. There can be multiple
start and end points for a single video. If needed, you can open multiple videos—one at a time—with specific
start and end times.

If it sounds complicated, then think of it like this: You open a video, instead of playing it from the start you
directly navigate to some point in the video and play it until it reaches another point. Then you can skip the
portions or open up a totally different video and do the same thing. It is basically highlighting and playing only
the portions of the video or audio that you want. It allows you to watch your favorite portions of a long media
file or from multiple media files.

This trick is set up using a playlist that contains special instructions for the player. It might sound complicated
to some but once you get the hold of it, you will be creating start and stop locations for video files like a pro.
Here are the steps to create a playlist to tell VLC to mark and play media files:

 Open up your notepad or any other plain text editor.

 Enter the start time, stop time and video file location like this:
#EXTVLCOPT:start-time=28
#EXTVLCOPT:stop-time=36
video.mp4
#EXTVLCOPT:start-time=500
#EXTVLCOPT:stop-time=550
video.mp4
#EXTVLCOPT:start-time=900
#EXTVLCOPT:stop-time=1100
video2.mp4
 Save the file as .m3u file. Give it a name like playlist.m3u.
 Open the playlist using VLC.

Explaining the Playlist Instructions

#EXTVLCOPT:start-time=28

It tells the start time in seconds for the video.

#EXTVLCOPT:stop-time=36

It tells the end time in seconds for the same video.

video.mp4

It is the name of the video file. We keep the playlist.m3u as well as the video.mp4 file in the same folder to keep
it simple.

If there are more than one start and stop points for the same video then continue adding the start-time and stop-
time along with the video file name. If there’s a different file, then change the file name as shown in the
example: video.mp4 to video2.mp4.

After setting up the playlist, instead of directly opening up the media file with VLC; use it to open the playlist. It will
automatically adapt to the time that you have set. Files will start to play from a certain second offset and then continue
to play until it reaches the end time. Then if it needs to skip or if it needs to open another video, it will do it. Just be
precise with the seconds that you enter. It might sound a bit complicated, but with correct calculations and some trial
and error, you will be able to set it up easily.

80 thoughts to “How to Play Certain Sections and Part of Video and Audio in VLC”
Can we see your playlist code?

#EXTM3U
video01.mp4
#EXTVLCOPT:start-time=40.017
#EXTVLCOPT:stop-time=167.383
video02.mp4
#EXTVLCOPT:start-time=11.000
#EXTVLCOPT:stop-time=179.000
video03.mp4
video04.mp4
#EXTVLCOPT:start-time=42.000
#EXTVLCOPT:stop-time=78.000
#EXTVLCOPT:start-time=104.000
#EXTVLCOPT:stop-time=155.000
audio01.m4a
## Note that the start and stop times are marked in seconds. The filename is underneath the start/stop times. The
filenames do not need full paths if they are in the same directory as the .m3u file. Files without time-markers
will be played from beginning to end.

How VLC will read this playlist file:

1. Play video01.mp4 from beg-to-end.
2. Play video02.mp4 from 0.40 and stop at 2.47.
3. Play video03.mp4 from 0.11 and stop at 2.59.
4. Play video04.mp4 from beg-to-end.
5. Play audio01.m4a from 0.42 and stop at 1.18, skip to 1.44 and play, then stop at 2.35.