Permanently Change the Streaming Buffer

• Click “Tools” and select “Preferences.” In the lower left of the Preferences dialog, select the “All” button under “Show Settings” to display the advanced settings.
• Select “Stream Output” from the sidebar menu. The setting that affects buffer size is labeled “Stream Output Muxer Caching.”
• Enter a new amount in milliseconds in the Muxer Caching field. Since this setting requires a value in milliseconds, the amount of memory it uses varies with the streaming video’s quality. If you have ample RAM but a slow network connection, a high setting such as 2,000 ms to 3,000 ms is safe. You may need to experiment to find the right setting for your machine.

Change the Buffer for Individual Streams

• Press “Ctrl-N” to open a new network stream, then enter a URL in the address field. VLC supports HTTP, FTP, MMS, UDP and RTSP protocols, and you must enter the full URL in the address field.
• Select “Show More Options” to display advanced settings for the current network stream. The Caching option controls the streaming buffer size.
• Enter an amount in milliseconds in the Caching field, then click “Play.” Depending on the cache setting, the video may take a few seconds to start streaming.

Change the Buffer for Local Files

• Click “Tools” and select “Preferences.” In the lower left of the Preferences dialog, select the “All” button under “Show Settings” to display the advanced settings.
• Select “Input / Codecs” from the sidebar menu, then scroll to the Advanced section in the Input / Codecs panel.
• Enter a new amount in the File Caching field. The default setting is 300 ms, which results in VLC accessing your disk three times per second. If video playback stutters on your machine, increasing this setting can make it smoother. However, depending on your RAM and CPU resources, you may need to experiment to find the right setting.