The VideoLAN Forums

Not really, no. If VLC handled buffering like most media players, I could start to watch the streaming media before I would be able to if I downloaded the video directly. Plus there's the instance that a service would only offer streaming video and no convenient download option.

I've found that my connection can be so bad that even maxing out the amount of time that VLC pre-caches isn't enough to avoid constant buffering. Is there a way to configure VLC so I can start the stream, pause the video, and continue to load video?