Play More Media Formats on your Chromebook with VLC
Updated on by Jim Mendenhall
While the built-in video and audio players in Chrome OS can handle common file formats like MP4 and MP3, you’re likely to come across media files that won’t play by default on your Chromebook. This happens most often with older video formats, files from professional video cameras, or media downloaded from various sources online. Windows, Linux and Mac users have long turned to VLC to play audio and video files, network streams, and DVDs. VLC is available for Chrome OS through the Google Play Store, making it easy to expand your Chromebook’s media capabilities.
What VLC Can Do on Chrome OS
VLC for Chrome OS plays most local video and audio files and network streams. The supported formats include MKV, MP4, AVI, MOV, Ogg, FLAC, TS, M2TS, Wv, AAC, and many more obscure formats you might encounter. The player handles video files from a DVD ISO image, though physical DVD playback remains limited on Chrome OS. All codecs are included with no separate downloads required, which means VLC works right out of the box without needing to hunt down additional software.
Beyond just playing files, VLC offers features that Chrome OS’s built-in player lacks. You can adjust playback speed to watch lectures at 1.5x or slow down fast-paced tutorials. The app handles multi-track audio, letting you switch between different language tracks in videos. Subtitle support is comprehensive, with options to adjust timing, size, and positioning. These features make VLC particularly useful for watching foreign films, educational content, or videos where the default subtitles need tweaking.
Installing VLC from the Play Store
To get started with VLC on your Chromebook, open the Google Play Store and search for “VLC for Android” by Videolabs. The orange traffic cone icon is unmistakable. Click Install, and once the download finishes, you’ll find VLC in your app launcher alongside your other apps. The installation process is standard for Android apps, taking just a minute or two depending on your internet connection.
On first launch, VLC will ask for permission to access your files. Grant this permission so the app can find and play your media. You can then browse to your local media folder, play files directly from the Files app (right-click any media file and select VLC), or open network streams from the Media menu. If you need help with that right-click, see our guide on how to right-click on a Chromebook. The Android version of VLC is well-optimized for Chrome OS and integrates nicely with the operating system’s windowing system.
Optimizing VLC Performance
If you notice choppy playback with high-resolution videos, especially 4K content or files encoded with HEVC (H.265), open VLC’s Settings, navigate to Input/Codecs, and enable Hardware Acceleration. Chrome OS can offload video decoding to your Chromebook’s GPU, which significantly improves performance and battery life. This setting is especially important on budget Chromebooks with less powerful processors.
For audio, VLC lets you adjust the equalizer, normalize volume across tracks with different recording levels, and boost audio beyond the system maximum if needed. The gesture controls work well on touchscreen Chromebooks: swipe up or down on the left side of the video to adjust brightness, and swipe on the right side to control volume. Swiping left or right seeks through the video.
The Linux Alternative
If you prefer the full desktop VLC experience with every feature the developers have built, you can install it through Chrome OS’s Linux development environment. This requires a Chromebook that supports Linux apps, which includes most models made after 2017. Enable Linux in Settings > Developers, then open the Terminal and run sudo apt install vlc. If you haven’t set up Linux yet, our guide to installing Firefox on a Chromebook walks through the Linux environment setup process. The Linux version offers advanced features like video conversion, streaming server capabilities, and a more traditional desktop interface.
The trade-off is that the Linux version uses more system resources than the Android app. On lower-end Chromebooks with 4GB of RAM, you might notice slower performance with the Linux version. The Android app is generally the better choice for everyday media playback, while the Linux version is worth setting up if you need VLC’s more advanced capabilities like batch file processing or media conversion.
Contributing to VLC
VLC is open-source software maintained by VideoLAN, a non-profit organization. If you’re a programmer interested in contributing to the project, the source code is available on VideoLAN’s GitLab. The VLC community welcomes bug reports, translations, and code contributions from developers of all skill levels.
