I just discovered how to use the Media>Open Capture Device to activate my web cam and use it as a security camera or to make a recording. However, I notice that the timer/counter which normally indicates the elapsed playing time of videos has been started and doesn't stop even when I've shut down VLC. The time picks up from the current total elapsed time since I originally started using this feature when I restart VLC. Ie: If I first started it this morning and then turned it off, stopped the recording and exited VLC, when I restarted it the timer shows that it has been going for the past 8 hours or so. Each incident of use doesn't zero out the timer.
I haven't yet shut down my computer in the interim so, I don't know if that will stop and/or reset the timer or not.
Also I can't find any way to customize the default folder for saving the recordings I make.