VLC Media Player is a great open-source video player, and is free to download and use. You can zoom in and out in VLC with a couple of different settings and tools.
To learn how to zoom in and out on videos in VLC, simply follow our step-by-step tutorials below. For all other information, see our FAQ section at the end of this article.
Table of Contents
How to zoom in and out in VLC (Interactive Zoom)
- Open VLC on your device, and load a video through the app (alternatively, right-click on a video found in your videos folder, select ‘Open with…’ and then ‘VLC Media Player’)
- The video will begin playing automatically, you can loop it, so that you have time to play around with the zoom function(s), by clicking the ‘Loop’ button along the bottom of the player
- Click ‘Tools’ and from the drop-down menu, select ‘Effect & Filters’
- Tip: You can also press CTRL/CMD + E on your keyboard to open Effects & Filters
- Tip: You can also press CTRL/CMD + E on your keyboard to open Effects & Filters
- Select the ‘Video Effects’ tab from this new window
- Tip: Left-click and drag the window to the upper-right of your screen so that it doesn’t block the video
- From the ‘Video Effects’ tab, click ‘Geometry’, and then lastly, click the blank box next to ‘Interactive Zoom’
- Apply the Interactive Zoom tool by clicking ‘Save’ and then ‘Close’
- Your video will now automatically be zoomed in to ¼ of the full video. In the upper-left corner of the video you’ll see a thumbnail of the full-aspect image, with a white box signifying which part of the video you are zoomed in on.
- Left-click and drag this white box to focus on another zoomed-in part of the video
- Below the thumbnail, there is a vertical slider – left-click and drag the white portion of the slider up (to zoom further in) or down (to zoom out)
- To exit the Interactive Zoom view, repeat steps 3-5, but this time uncheck the ‘Interactive Zoom’ box, then click ‘Save’ and ‘Close’
How to zoom in and out in VLC (Zoom Settings)
- Open VLC on your device, and load a video through the app (alternatively, right-click on a video found in your videos folder, select ‘Open with…’ and then ‘VLC Media Player’)
- The video will begin playing automatically, you can loop it, so that you have time to play around with the zoom function(s), by clicking the ‘Loop’ button along the bottom of the player
- Click ‘Video’ from the menu toolbar along the top of the player
- From the drop-down menu, select ‘Zoom’
- From the pop-out menu, select one of the aspect ratios from the list:
- 1:4 – Quarter ratio plays you the original video at a quarter of its normal size (thus zooming far out)
- 1:2 – Half ratio plays you the original video at a half of its normal size (thus zooming out)
- 1:1 – Standard/Normal ratio plays you the video at its default aspect ratio
- 2:1 – Double ratio plays you the video at twice its normal size (thus zooming in)
- Note: This zoom method technically alters the size of the player, increasing or decreasing the amount of your screen it takes up. If you wish to zoom in on the actual video, use the ‘Interactive Zoom’ method described above.
And there you have it. Zooming in and out on VLC is really easy with our tutorials, and we hope you have fun using the tools we’ve taught you all about! For any other information, or if you have further questions, we recommend you see our FAQs below.
FAQs
Why would I want to zoom in and out in VLC?
VLC Media Player is a free, open-source, cross-platform video player which you can download onto just about any device. VLC enables its users to watch a host of different video files, often supporting file types which other, more conventional video players, do not.
VLC puts a surprisingly diverse array of video effects and user tools at your disposal. It’s certainly worth playing around with those available to you. One of the most often-required tools is the zoom function. It might not be something you’ve ever used before, but zooming in and out from videos in VLC can be useful for lots of reasons.
Video editors often need the ability to zoom in close on specific frames or aspects of their videos in order to make sure every tiny detail is correct. Everyday viewers, on the other hand, may just want to examine a video close-up for the sake of novelty, or curiosity. Whatever your reasoning, we’re here to teach you how to zoom in and out in VLC – just follow our tutorials above!
How does adjusting the zoom in VLC affect playback?
Naturally, if you’re zooming in and out from a video in VLC, you’ll have concerns as to the playback speed, quality, and overall performance when using the zoom tool. VLC makes the zoom tool interactive, and easy to use, so that at any given time you can quickly view the video as standard, thus resetting its playback to default.
Even when zoomed in as far as you can go, however, the speed and performance of the video is unaffected. There is no lag caused by the zoom tool, so you can use it to your heart’s content. The only major downside, of course, is that the quality of the image itself will decrease the more zoomed in you are. This is unavoidable, as is down to the number of pixels present in each frame. The fewer there are, the rougher and lower quality the image will seem when zoomed in.
Nevertheless, once you return the zoom level to default, you’ll resume playback at the video’s highest quality. What’s more, you’d have to be zoomed in very far before quality became a real issue.
Can I alter the default zoom settings in VLC?
Funnily enough, applying the interactive zoom settings in VLC applies them as standard across the app. This means that once having activated the zoom tool, it will be present and applied to all videos you watch in VLC in future, until you turn the tool off. In some senses, this works as an alteration of the default zoom settings.
You can turn the zoom tool back off at any point by simply following the steps in our tutorial above, and unticking the ‘Interactive Zoom’ tool under ‘Geometry’ at any time.
When it comes to actually altering the zoom at which a video plays as standard, however, you can use the other zoom method described above – Zoom via the ‘Video’ menu tab – in order to change the default playback of VLC videos.
Does the zoom method described work for Mac and Windows?
Yes, the app should be standardised across both Mac and Windows, meaning that you can access the Interactive Zoom tool and the Zoom function in the Video menu in an identical fashion, no matter the device you’re using.
