The VideoLAN Forums

I use VLC on my Mac mini, and the Apple Remote works pretty well to control it. The one big problem is the forward/back buttons. Pressing either one of them causes VLC to jump to the beginning of the currently-playing video. My guess is that maybe VLC is trying to go to the previous/next item in the playlist, but a) my playlist is just a single video, and b) even if there were multiple items in my playlist, that's still not the most common nor obvious function of these kind of forward/back buttons.

I think the ideal solution would be to provide options so the user can specify what each button does. But I looked through the prefs and I couldn't find any way to configure the functions of these buttons.

I also think it'd be a good idea to change the default behavior from skipping through the playlist to jumping forward/backward 30 seconds within the currently-playing item. But I'd be happy enough just to be able to customize the functions myself.

Is there some way to customize these buttons that I'm missing?

Thanks,

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Anthony DiSante

Yes, both the Apple Remote buttons and the OSD controls skip to next/previous item in the playlist. I don't know of a way to customize them, either.

I second this idea. A 30 (or 15) second skip, or next/previous chapter when chapter points are available (mainly for DVDs) would be in my opinion a more intuitive and commonly needed function for these buttons than the playlist item change. If it's something that divides the user base into two camps, configurability would be nice.

I third the idea!
It's reported that a long-press on the menu button is a distinct signal, just as a long-press on next gives fast-forward instead. So that could be given an effect (like toggle fullscreen) or made configurable.

I support this idea. Since the apple remote has only a limited number of buttons, it would be awesome for a user to select each button on the apple remote with the current commands supported for VLC. I would love rather than a 30 second jump to have my 8 second quick jump (I often times miss just a single word or phrase, I don't need a full 30 seconds to jump back and I don't want to sit with my keyboard to hold command+option+back every time).

I would also like an option to change the default behaviour of the Apple Remote controller in VLC. The left and right button are perfect for 10second/30second/1minute jumps in a video (how big a jump would be for the user to decide in the preferences).

There is now a setting in VLC to disable the skip function and have the left and right remote buttons only perform the seek function in Mac OS X. You can find it in the preferences by clicking show all, and then look under: interfaces->main interfaces->macosx. You just need to click the check box next to the counterintuitively titled 'control playlist items with apple remote' checkbox.

There is now a setting in VLC to disable the skip function and have the left and right remote buttons only perform the seek function in Mac OS X. You can find it in the preferences by clicking show all, and then look under: interfaces->main interfaces->macosx. You just need to click the check box next to the counterintuitively titled 'control playlist items with apple remote' checkbox.

Yup, You are right. It's the opposite effect: To disable the controlling of the playlist, you have to ENABLE it. Thank god I found this post, it was driving me crazy... Thanks BIniculator.