VLC is one of the best media players out there. It allows us to stream to other devices , repair damaged videos and even convert videos to MP3 format natively, among many other things.
One of its lesser known features is the ability to play any video frame by frame . Something that can come in very handy if we need to take a screenshot of a specific frame, or view an action in super slow motion. Next, we explain how to do it.
How to play a video frame by frame in VLC
To stop a video and show us all the frames one by one , we just have to press the “E” key . This action will stop playback at the current frame, and we can advance to the next frame by pressing the “E” key again. That easy.
Assign a new keyboard shortcut to move to the next frame
If you prefer to use another key to move frames, you can replace the “E” key with another of your choice by changing VLC preferences.
- In the top menu of VLC go to “Tools -> Preferences”.
- Click on “Keyboard shortcuts”.
- Double-click on the “Next Frame” action.
- Assign the desired key or key combination.
Add a button to play videos frame by frame
VLC also offers us the possibility of adding a specific button with which to be able to stop a video and go through the frames one by one.
- In the top menu of VLC click on “View -> Advanced controls”.
- A new line of controls will automatically be added to the bottom of the player. Among the new buttons available there is one that allows us to pass the video frame by frame.
It should be noted that the option to play frame by frame can only be used on the desktop version of VLC for desktop computers. We have searched for this functionality in the mobile version of VLC, but it is not available (at least we have not found it).
