How to Play YouTube Videos in VLC

📅 April 28, 2016
Are you having trouble playing YouTube videos in VLC?

Whether it be the Flash Player or the HTML5 player, there are times when YouTube’s browser player is less than adequate, such as no full screen or excessive stuttering. An external player usually plays videos instantly and with improved motion smoothness.

Also, maybe it is just me, but something seems broken or unreliable lately when attempting to play YouTube videos in VLC (VideoLAN Client).

It used to be that you could simply copy and paste the YouTube video URL into VLC or almost any other media player, and the player would play the video without hassle. There were even browser plugins facilitating the process. Now, VLC is giving me MRL errors.

Sometimes it works, sometimes it does not. Regardless, there are times when an external player, such as VLC, may be preferred. Can we still use VLC for YouTube videos?

Yes!

While this how-to uses Firefox and VLC on Linux Mint 17.3 Cinnamon as an example, it should work with other browsers and Linux distributions.