Set up VLC for the VLC Remote
NB: It is much easier to do this setup with the Setup Helper.
The manual instructions are for anyone who doesn't have Mac OS 10.5 (Leopard) or later installed, or who is geeky enough to want to do things manually!A) Enable the HTTP Interface
- Open the VLC settings
- VLC Menu/Preferences
- Enable 'All Settings' (by default VLC only shows the most used settings)
- Click on the 'All' button at the bottom left of the scree
- Enable the interface
- Select the 'Main Interfaces' line, then select the 'HTTP Remote Control Interface' checkbox
- NB - You have to actually click where it says 'Main Interfaces' on the left hand window, rather than expanding the list and clicking on a sub-option.
- Save the preferences
- Quit VLC and restart it
B) Give your phone permission to access VLC (if necessary)
Once you have enabled the http interface, press re-scan on your phone remote.
If you see a traffic cone beside the computer you are trying to control, then you can skip this step. If you see a cone with a red X through it, then you need to give your phone permission to access VLC. This probably means you have a very recent version of VLC.
VLC in the latest versions uses a file called '.hosts' to define which computers can access the VLC remote player.
Editing the .hosts file is painful as it won't show in the finder by default, so there are two approaches:
Using the (free) show/hide files app
- Download "Show Hidden Files" from here
- Install the app, run it and click on the 'show' option
- Browse to VLC in your Applications folder
- Control click on VLC and select 'Show package contents'
- Navigate to /Contents/MacOS/share/http/ where you should see the .hosts file
- Open this file in your favourite text editor
- Make the changes suggested below and save the file
- Quit and restart VLC and all should work.
Using the Terminal:
- Open a terminal window
- Click on the spotlight in the top corner of your screen, type 'Terminal' and you should see the terminal app. It will open an input window.
- Copy the following command into the window
- open -e /Applications/VLC.app/Contents/MacOS/share/http/.hosts
- This assumes that you have VLC installed directly in your Applications folder (not in a subfolder). If you have VLC installed somewhere different, then you'll need to adjust the path above.
- The hosts file should open in Text Edit. Make the changes suggested below and save the file.
- Quit and restart VLC and all should work.
This is the default file (this will not allow VLC remote to access VLC)
# # localhost # link-local addresses # private addresses # The world (uncommenting these 2 lines is not quite safe) |
if you want to access VLC from your local network, then you will need to remove the # signs in the 'private addresses' area so that it looks like this
# # localhost # link-local addresses # private addresses # The world (uncommenting these 2 lines is not quite safe) |
if you want to access VLC from the entire world, then remove the # in the 'The World' section. As VLC says, this is 'not quite safe' as you allow the whole world to control your VLC player.
# # localhost # link-local addresses # private addresses # The world (uncommenting these 2 lines is not quite safe) |
C) Check that your firewall allows connections to VLC
Launch the System Preferences application, then click on Security and then Firewall
The simplest option (the one I use) is to simply allow all incoming connections
if you prefer to have a more restrictive setting, then just make sure that you specify that VLC should allow incoming connections
D) Update status.xml
VLC's status.xml file needs to be updated in order to enable DVD controls, subtitle control and other advanced controls.
The current file is saved in the VLC application.
Right click on the VLC.app file and select 'show package contents'
then find the file at:
Contents\MacOS\share\http\requests\status.xml
Replace that file with this one (right click on the link and 'Download linked file as...')
E) That's it!
By now, you should be able to see your computer in the VLC Remotes page under 'Found Computers'. If VLC is running on your computer, then you should see a Traffic cone next to the computer entry.
You can then select that computer and control it remotely.
Troubleshooting...
If you can't connect, try the troubleshooting page.