How can VLC be set to *not* autoplay videos on open?

[happywaffle]

VLC's great but it doesn't seem to have a simple option to open videos and wait for me to click the Play button. This is needed for a show I'm in. Am I missing something obvious? Thanks--

[crackstone]

If you start VLC via command line there are two options you can disable:

--playlist-autostart, --no-playlist-autostart
Auto start (default enabled)
Automatically start playing the playlist content once it's loaded. (default enabled)

--macosx-autoplay, --no-macosx-autoplay
Auto-playback of new items (default enabled)
Start playback of new items immediately once they were added. (default enabled)

This should work for you.
I also took a short look in the Preferences but couldn't find those options. I probably missed them.
//crackstone

[fkuehne]

These options are hidden in the advanced preferences (click on "All" at the bottom left of the prefs panel).

[monsieur]

Could you be more specific? I checked the advanced options, can't find a place to disable auto start.

July 14, 2011 build
Video Settings/ Advanced

Options are
Special Modules
Plugins

Performance Options:
1 running instance
1 instance started from file
Enqueue
Increase priority

I just don't see it.

The other categories are Filters/Output/Subtitles

[killswitch]

I also need this option, and am trying to use the --no-playlist-autostart command line parameter.

When I use this option, what happens is that VLC loads fine (without playing the playlist), but then I have to click the Play button twice for it to actually play. Is this a bug? Or is there something I'm missing?

This is the shortcut I'm using:
C:\Program Files (x86)\VideoLAN\VLC\vlc.exe" --fullscreen --no-playlist-autostart "D:\Test Playlist.xspf"

The end result needs to be identical to playing a video and hitting pause immediately.

[tskware]

It's under Playlist. Tools > Preferences, then "all" in the lower left hand corner. Under Playlists, you can uncheck the Autostart box.
Edit: It doesn't do anything for single files opened from within VLC. It DOES, however, pause files opened via the right click context menu. That's on a PC, though. I have no Mac to test it on.