The VideoLAN Forums

I would like VLC to not close any video file when it reached the end but rather stop there, pausing on the last frame.

It would be a tremendous help when using VLC in video production, using it for going through small clips where you want to repeatedly watch a clip and scrub back and forth. Now when it reached the end the clip closes and you have to hit play again to be able to scrub back.
Also player changes size and when you hit play again it takes a little while to scale to correct size and you miss the first half second or so of your clip.

I think a pause on EOF would not interfere with normal usage but yet add much value to some users. It could of course be optional to have this behaviour.

I second that!

I'm "forced" to use VLC to play videos captured by a Vivotek surveillance cam, since it's the only player supporting that codec.
The clips are very short; VLC can play them, but as soon as the window is opened and the first frames are shown, the video output window gets closed already. Therefore it is impossible to use the controls, because they're deactivated already.

The only "workaround" for now seems to set a high loop counter (like >10 or so), to catch the pause control in an active status.

If the player would pause at the end of file, or some controls (e.g. frame-by-frame control) would work before pressing play, that problem wouldn't exist.

Alternatively, how to extract/export that single video codec for use with another player?

Alternatively, how to extract/export that single video codec for use with another player?

You cannot use VLCs build-in codecs with other media players.