The VideoLAN Forums

I am a school teacher and have access to a videotheque of nearly 3000 videos protected by rights. We cannot cut and paste the videos.

Many times an extract of a video would be quite usefull.

Is it possible to control the VLC player with a text file that could specify the start position and the end possition(timecode or frame), the place on the screen(coordinates), the size(1X, 2X, full, widthXhight) of the screen, the possibilité of adding a subtitle, a starting and closing effect like phase in controling the video and sound levels and a closing option (stop, replay, quit). The only required field is the video one. The text file could also be replaced by a command line.

Here is an exemple:
VLC control.txt

control.txt could be:
video="petrole.mpg"; start="mm:sec:xx"; effectin="fade";subtitle="Le pétrole en 2005";position="0,0";size="full"; volume="80%"; stop="mm:sec:xx"; effectout="fade"; quit

some of this is possible, but not all.
try something like this:
vlc petrole.mpg :start-time="sec" :stop-time="sec" :sout="#std{access=file,mux=ts,url=output.mpg}" vlc:quit

you can change the size and add the subtitle if you are willing to re-encode the clip, but it will add some complexity to the command