LibVLCSharp is a cross-platform audio and video API for .NET platforms based on VideoLAN's LibVLC Library. It provides a comprehensive multimedia API that can be used across mobile, server and desktop to render video and output audio as well as encode and stream.

The official repository URL for this repo is https://code.videolan.org/videolan/LibVLCSharp.

• LibVLCSharp
  • Features
  • Supported platforms
  • Installation
  • Getting started
  • Samples
  • Quick API overview
  • Roadmap
  • Versioning
  • Release Notes
  • Contribute
    • Pull request
    • Gitlab issues
  • Communication
    • Forum
    • Issues
    • IRC
    • StackOverflow
  • Code of Conduct
  • License

Check out libvlc-nuget to get a basic understanding of how libvlc works, what it can offer and how to install it with NuGet.

Some of the features include:

• Plays all formats
• Network browsing for distant filesystems (SMB, FTP, SFTP, NFS...).
• HDMI pass-through for Audio HD codecs, like E-AC3, TrueHD or DTS-HD.
• Stream to distant renderers, like Chromecast.
• 360 video and 3D audio playback with viewpoint change.
• Support for Ambisonics audio and more than 8 audio channels.
• Subtitles size modification live.
• Hardware and software decoding on all platforms.
• DVD playback and menu navigation.
• Equalizer support.

Most things you can achieve with the regular VLC desktop app, you can also achieve using libvlc.

Mono, .NET Framework and .NET Core runtimes are supported.

• Xamarin.Android
• Xamarin.iOS
• Xamarin.tvOS
• Xamarin.Mac (Cocoa)
• Windows Classic (WPF, WinForms, GTK)
• Windows Universal (UWP for Desktop, mobile and Xbox)
• Linux (GTK)
• Xamarin.Forms
• .NET Standard 1.1 and 2.0
• .NET Core (including ASP.NET Core)

1. Install LibVLC in your platform specific project.

Platform	LibVLC Package	NuGet	Minimum OS Version
Windows	VideoLAN.LibVLC.Windows		Windows XP
UWP	VideoLAN.LibVLC.UWP		Windows 10
Mac	VideoLAN.LibVLC.Mac		macOS 10.7
Android	VideoLAN.LibVLC.Android		Android 2.3
iOS	VideoLAN.LibVLC.iOS		iOS 8.4
tvOS	VideoLAN.LibVLC.tvOS		tvOS 10.2
Linux	Linux guide	N/A	N/A

dotnet add package VideoLAN.LibVLC.[Windows|UWP|Android|iOS|Mac|tvOS]

LibVLC is the actual VLC engine written mostly in C/C++ and compiled for your target platform. More information here.

2. Install LibVLCSharp or LibVLCSharp.Forms (if you plan on using Xamarin.Forms)

Platform	LibVLCSharp Package	NuGet
.NET Standard	LibVLCSharp
Xamarin.Android	LibVLCSharp
Xamarin.iOS	LibVLCSharp
Xamarin.tvOS	LibVLCSharp
Xamarin.Mac	LibVLCSharp
UWP	LibVLCSharp
Xamarin.Forms	LibVLCSharp.Forms
WPF	LibVLCSharp.WPF
Xamarin.Forms.WPF	LibVLCSharp.Forms.WPF
GTK	LibVLCSharp.GTK
Xamarin.Forms.GTK	LibVLCSharp.Forms.GTK
Windows Forms	LibVLCSharp.WinForms

LibVLCSharp is the .NET wrapper that consumes LibVLC and allows you to interact with native code from C#/F#.

Follow the Getting started guide. Make sure you read it since it contains platform-specific caveats

For more advanced samples, have a look at libvlcsharp-samples. It currently includes:

• Chromecast sample: Discover chromecasts on your local network and select one for playback in 100% shared code (Xamarin.Forms, iOS/Android).
• Record HLS sample: Simple .NET Core CLI app which shows how to record an HLS stream to the filesystem.
• RTSP Mosaic: Cross-platform RTSP player sample with 4 views mosaic (Xamarin.Forms, iOS/Android).
• PulseMusic UX: A stylish music player UX example using Skia on iOS and Android.
• Gestures sample: Cross-platform touch gestures and 360 videos on iOS and Android.

Feel free to suggest and contribute new samples.

• LibVLC.cs: Main object pointing to a native libvlc instance in native code.
• MediaPlayer.cs: Manages playback, offers event listeners and more. Accessible from VideoView with data-binding support.
• Media.cs: Class representing and providing information about a media such as a video or audio file or stream.
• VideoView.cs: Custom native view which holds a MediaPlayer object.
• MediaDiscoverer.cs: This object should be used to find media on NAS and any SMB/UPnP-enabled device on your local network.
• RendererDiscoverer.cs: Use this to find and use a Chromecast or other distant renderers.
• Dialog.cs: Dialogs can be raised from the libvlc engine in some cases. Register callbacks with this object.

• MediaPlayerElement control
• Game engines (Unity, Unreal, Godot)

If you have a request or question regarding the roadmap, feel free to open an issue or PR.

As this is a libvlc binding, we try to follow the libvlc versioning scheme as much as possible. The versioning strategy is explained in the VERSIONING document.

Check out the NEWS file for details about each release.

Pull requests are more than welcome! If you do submit one, please make sure to read the contributing guidelines first.

You can look through issues we currently have on the VideoLAN Gitlab.

If you have any question or if you're not sure it's actually an issue, please visit our forum.

You have encountered an issue and wish to report it to the VLC dev team?

You can create one on our Gitlab or on our bug tracker.

Before creating an issue or ticket, please double check for duplicates!

Want to quickly get in touch with us for a question, or even just to talk?

You will always find someone from the VLC team on IRC, #videolan channel on the freenode network.

If you don't have an IRC client, you can always use the freenode webchat.

We are also on Gitter

We regularly monitor the libvlcsharp tag on

Please read and follow the VideoLAN CoC license.

LibVLCSharp is under the LGPLv2.1.

Note: the .NET4.0 LibVLCSharp build references a nuget package that may indicate its license as the .NET Library license but it's actually opensource under MIT.