What exactly does the plug-in do?

[pengyou]

I have a fresh install of xp on my desktop and am looking at how I can keep it as streamlined as possible. For some strange reason, I always end up with about half a dozen media players on my pc within a few months of "giving birth". Because of this I was looking at the VLC plug-in for Firefox to see if it would help me streamline my pc config. What exactly does it do? I have searched this forum and found mostly posts talking about it working or not working. I have a question before I even get to the install question. Why should I install the plug-in? What will it do for me? Do I have to install the whole program as well? does it reduce cpu time? make the computer run more efficiently? or is it simply an ergonomic tool designed to make the computer easier for the user to use?

[thannoy]

VLC mozilla plug-in is an optional glue to be able to embed a video in a HTML page on Mozilla-like browsers. This component is of no use if you have not VLC installed since it relies on the installed VLC to render the video in the webpage.

Some more informations:
- this plugin is similar to the ActiveX (for Internet Explorer, Visual Basic and other Windows programs)
- It does not have a graphical user interface except the area to render the video. Its control interface (JavaScript based) is documented on the Documentation:WebPlugin wiki page.
- It is in no way more efficient than the main VLC interface. (I think)
- Few webpages uses it.