Hotkeys Fail Consistently

[PhredE]

I'm finding that hotkeys in VLC fail consistently. Pretty much.
I listen to a lot of MP3 podcasts and I run VLC showing a list of enqueued items in a docked playlist; viewing of advanced controls active.
As soon as I stack up a group of files - 'Enqueue items..' - and have them play, the hotkeys for, say,
- speed increase
- Volume control
- Jump forward or backwards
- others...
...will not operate.
Even though the playlist is docked and the application window has focus, it appears that 'sub-focus' is somewhere other than the entire interface. It takes at least two Tab presses to get them enabled and there are no visual cues. Hotkeys ain't hotkeys.
This happens on multiple machines.
If I'm not alone in this Playlist Docked configuration, could we have a fix? Thx.

[nervousaurus_wrex]

I have the same problem with VLC + docked playlist in Windows Vista, and it drives me a little batty. It pretty much means I must always reach for the mouse to interact with VLC -- because, how else can you be sure which panel has focus?

Right after launch, you can be sure the sources panel has focus. But later on, I may not remember if I've already moved the focus away from the sources panel in the current instance. So it can't just be tab-space to pause playback every time. (The keys I tend to use most, play/pause and skip fwd/back, work whether focus is on the playlist proper or the button panel, but not the sources panel.)

The visual clue about which panel has focus is a little too faint to go by, especially if you're in a hurry. There's just the 1 pixel dotted outline around some item. It's easy to tell when the search box has focus (blinking cursor), but it's not so easy to visually tell if the playlist, sources panel, or button bar has focus, with Vista Aero at least.

Hitting space to pause playback and having nothing happen is frustrating, so I find myself always grabbing the mouse, placing focus on the playlist proper (at least it's a large area to click), and then hitting space.

Having the focus always start on the button panel whether or not you use a docked playlist would be consistent and predictable. I hope that change will be made sometime. I like having the docked playlist up enough (and I like VLC enough!) to just deal with the focus frustrations.

[PhredE]

Here we are at the other end of the year with 2.1.5 Rincewind* and nothing's any better. Like nervo-wrex, I'm going batty, too.

Hotkeys when the application's up - and nothing happens.. It's like the parallel universes in Fringe; parallel applications, ostensibly with the same character, but in fact entirely different.

Hotkeys that do nothing. It's hard to imagine.

Any hope..?


[*there was Twoflower; is it gone from the mainstream..?]

PhredE
14th Nov. 2014