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Hello,

I have a question about adjusting playback speed using VLC 0.9.2. I know there are options for faster or slower in the playback menu, but I want to know how to adjust the speed in smaller increments. Specifically, I am playing back a PAL DVD and the slightly faster (and, thus, higher-pitch) audio is like nails on a chalkboard to me. So, I think that if I adjust playback speed to 0.96, it should sound okay. I'm sure VLC can do this, I'm just not quite capable of figuring out how. Any help would be HUGELY appreciated!!!

Right click on speed label.

Thanks J-B... I know you can right-click on the speed label in XP/Vista, but I'm using the OS X version where, as far as I can tell, there isn't a speed label to right-click. The only direct control I've found are the "faster"/"slower" options in the playback menu, but they increase/decrease the speed more drastically than I would like. I feel like there may be a way to adjust them but I'm not sure what it is. Thanks for your help.

OOps... Sorry. I don't know then.

The steps are all that is implemented in OSX atm. I would advise you to use the "scaletempo" audio filter (which is not enabled by default in 0.9.* But likely does work pretty well. Your pitch annoyances should be fixed with that at least.

right click menu allow increments of 6% so u can go from 1.00 to 0.94 wich is pretty close to 0.96 but still not perfect convert from pal to ntsc

would be possible to implement increments of 4% or even 2%??

Like the original poster, I want to play DVDs back at reduced speed (0.96) to compensate for "PAL speedup" of film sources. I understand that right now, under OS X, the interface only permits changing playback speed by very large increments with keyboard commands (Cmd-+ and Cmd-=).

However, is it possible to get other playback speeds via the command line? If so, can someone tell me what the syntax would be for the needed options/flags/whatever?

(And if not, what's the barrier to having this functionality in OS X?)

Also, will the OS X version soon have the varispeed slider that the Windows version enjoys? It'd be a big help. I spent some time looking for the speed slider in the OS X version, only to learn that it's not even there...

To be able to play back at x0,96 speed (in any way) would be a huge improvement for all of us watching PAL DVDs.
Please, please, please!

So...anyone? Given that there's a slider that allows for varispeed in the Windows version, surely there must be a way to do it from the command line, at least, in the OS X version.

I am also desperate to be able to do this! Does anyone know how?

Sorry, there is no way yet.

Hi, j-b, thanks for your reply. I'm not surprised that there wouldn't be a graphical way of changing the playback speed in small steps, since the OS X GUI hasn't been updated yet. But I am surprised that it can't even be done from the command line in OS X. Are the Windows/Linux and OS X codebases that different?

If you could give a little more technical information about what the key issues/differences are, maybe somebody here could help. If the code exists to do it in the other versions, I would think that it could be added to the OS X version without too much hassle.

...I spent some time looking for the speed slider in the OS X version, only to learn that it's not even there...

same here, I asked the same question and mentioned I was a Mac user but it wasn't acknowledged very well.
since this is the Troubleshooting forum I figured users were more common but apparently this board only gets used by developers.

I too would absolutely LOVE this feature on VLC! My main problem is actually the opposite: I like playing US videos on a PAL TV via my MacBook... If I could speed up the video by 4% on playback then I wouldn't get the awful PAL judder...

Thanks team VLC

Note: All the following is regarding VLC 1.0.1 for the MAC

It took me an hour to figure out how to do this when it's actually very simple.
I'm not sure if you'll be able to adjust playback by 0.04, but there's a way to adjust things by 0.10

1. Go to VLC, then to Preferences, click on "Hotkeys" and then scroll down til you get to "Faster(fine)" and "Slower(fine)"
2. Select "Faster(fine)" and click on the "Change" button
3. Enter the hotkey that you want and press OK
4. The one I used which worked was "Cntrl+Cmd+=" (control w/ apple key w/ equal sign) as well as "cntrl + cmd + -" (contrl w/ apple key w/ minus sign)
5. Click save
6. RESTART VLC

It should work after that.

PAL Slowdown (x0.96) IS possible, after all !!!

Adjusting playback speed with precision is just a matter of going to the Preferences (selecting "all"), finding "Playback speed" in the first menu "Inputs / Codeks" and setting it to 0,96, save, and then start the movie.
***Make sure that "Enable time streching audio" (in the Audio menu) is not ticked.***

-All those sighs over somethings that has probably been there for a long time...

I found it out while messing with running VLC from the terminal finding out that "rate 0.96" did work from there, then when I tried to set it in the preference file (which worked) and looking through the preferences (all) inside VLC I found my setting, but printed "0,96" instead of a "0.96". -In the preference file the comma must be a "." and in the VLC Preferences a ",". -This may differ with language, so it may very well be only "." when run in other languages (?). The reason I could never make this work before was probably because i tried 0.96 in the VLC settings, when (at least over here) I was supposed to write 0,96.
-Sigh... -But finally... -Yippey!

Edit: Testing it on older versions it seems this was added around ver 1.1. Not so old, then. Anyway I am happy I found it. Thanks!

1. I want to know how to set the speed to 1.20 permanently; so that I do not have to do it every time the videos change (and forget, sometimes).

2. Is it possible to change the speed to something like 1.22 ?

1. I want to know how to set the speed to 1.20 permanently; so that I do not have to do it every time the videos change (and forget, sometimes).

2. Is it possible to change the speed to something like 1.22 ?

yes, in VLC's advanced preferences. Click on "All" at the bottom left of the preferences window and on the "Input / Codecs" category. The 14th option (in the list on the right side) is "Playback speed", which is normally set to 1.0. Change to whatever you want by entering the value in the field. 1.22 should also be supported, since it is a float value.

I'm able to change the playback speed, as per the instructions in this thread. However, this does not seem to affect the pitch of the audio, regardless of what "Enable time streching audio" is set to.

The steps are all that is implemented in OSX atm. I would advise you to use the "scaletempo" audio filter (which is not enabled by default in 0.9.* But likely does work pretty well. Your pitch annoyances should be fixed with that at least.

I've also activated this plugin, but it does not seem to change anything and I don't understand the settings (stride length/overlap length/search length). How can I get the pitch of the audio to change?

VLC 1.1.12 64-bit Intel on Mac OS X 10.7.2

I'm able to change the playback speed, as per the instructions in this thread. However, this does not seem to affect the pitch of the audio, regardless of what "Enable time streching audio" is set to.

Try disabling Time Strech and set Playback Speed, then Save, then restart VLC, then play the file.
A re-start is needed for VLC to use these settings.

It works here on VLC 1.1.12 and OS X 10.7.2 (as well as OS X 10.6.8 )

Could it be possible - either in the Mac or Win version - to shift playback speed by 0.01% during playback, with a hotkey? I need to be able to do this on the fly without interrupting the movie. Thanks in advance

Nope.

Adjusting playback speed of PAL discs to 0.96 in VLC player preferences to compensate for PAL speedup works very well during VLC playback, and using the record function during the playback creates a VLC video clip file which properly shows the added length of the clip due to the speed change. A DVD burned from the clip also shows the longer total length on an external DVD player's run time counter. However, when the burned disc is played, it reverts to PAL speed, and even though the total length still shows the longer run time on the player, actual run time as verified by a separate clock timer is shorter by about 4% (PAL speedup). Is there a way to fix this? Note: this also occurs when played in a computer disc drive.

Update: It appears that the lowered speed adjustment, (which is very apparent during VLC playback), is not retained in the video clip made from it, as the clip itself reverts to PAL speed when played. Is it possible that VLC is recording the input to the player rather than the modified playback output?