User support - Help
VideoLAN is free software and provided free of charge; besides, it is not backed by any large company, and developers are mostly volunteers. As such, user support is provided by the VideoLAN users and developers community on a voluntary basis.
However, you can find many resources and informations on how to get support and help for VideoLAN software. We will do our best.
Getting help
FAQ
If you have any questions about VideoLAN, about VLC media player, you should always start by reading the Official FAQ.
HOW TO
If you have a question about how to do something with VLC media player or other VideoLAN software, you should:
- read the Documentation,
- browse our wiki and its knowledge database.
Problems
If you are experimenting problems using our software, you should:
- read the Common problems page in our wiki.
- search the official forum for an answer.
Ask a question
If this is not enough, which can happen, ask a question. For that, you need to get information and prepare a correct report for people to help you. The VLC report page on our Wiki will help you to do it.
Then ask your question, on:
- the Forum, in the correct section;
- the users mailing-lists, especially vlc - at - videolan.org;
- the IRC channel on the freenode Network (irc.videolan.org, #videolan), for live answers. Use the web-based IRCWeb interface, if you need it.
Developers and Reporting bugs
Developers
You are a developer and you want to help the project or build a project around our software?
Read the developers section of this website or go and finds lots of info on the Developer's corner. You should also use the developers mailing-lists and IRC.
Report a bug
Read and conform yourself to our Reporting Bugs policy and look on our Bugtracking.
Professional questions and other questions
Consulting services
If you are a professionnal, and need services around our products, some companies provide professionnal support on VideoLAN. They are listed on the consultants page.
Contacting the team
If your matter is not answered yet, and you need to contact the team, do it by IRC or mail, But please prefer the users mailing-list first for support .
As we have a lot of spam and lots of e-mail, be sure to state in the subject that you want to speak about VideoLAN. Try to not write HTML mails, thanks.
The forums
Our Web forums can help you finding answers to your questions or problems. Please check that your question has not yet been answered before asking.
VideoLAN Wiki
The VideoLAN Wiki is at http://wiki.videolan.org/
The Wiki is a website that anyone can change. Its goal is to document all that is not in the official documentation: tips and tricks for each O.S., graphical interfaces, etc...
The mailing-lists
The user mailing-lists are dedicated to user support and announces for VideoLAN releases and events. Please see the mailing-lists page to subscribe, unsubscribe, consult the archives and read about the rules and restrictions.
IRC
If you want more real-time stuff, you can meet many VideoLAN
developers and users on IRC.
Please remember that everyone in here is
doing this in his free time. Don't come running in and demanding
an answer. Sometimes the persons there have no knowledge of that
particular subject. Sometimes simply no one is present. If you want
to be sure to get a REAL answer you can often better try the mailing-lists.
Also consider the timezone. Most people in this chatroom are from Europe.
- IRC network:
irc.videolan.org - Channel:
#videolan
You can connect with any IRC client. If you cannot connect from your place, try the web-based IRCWeb interface.
Consulting services
Some companies provide professionnal support on VideoLAN. They are listed on the consultants page.