The VideoLAN Forums

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I've searched the forum and researched all the CLI options, but I can't quite seem to get this working exactly as I'd like.

My goal: get VLC to start with no interface (only a title bar, min/max/close buttons, and the video), and start with a set window size, at a set position.

If I use a dummy interface (-I dummy):

• - the window is un-closable; I can click the X in the corner, but nothing happens
  - positioning works (--video-x, --video-y)
  - size (--width, --height) does not work, unless I turn off video autoresizing (--no-autoscale),
  - however, I can manipulate the size via the (--zoom) option, which is totally acceptable

If I use the Qt minimal interface (--qt-minimal-view):

• - positioning does not work
  - window size does not work, but again, I can trick it using the (--qt-video-autoresize) and (--zoom) options
  - the window does close as it should when I click the X

The Lua interface (-I lua --lua-intf) doesn't support anything (that I know of... ?), so it's out.

So, is there any way I can resolve the other two interface's shortcomings?
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In the interim, I have created an AutoHotKey script that works for what I'm trying to do.

I am still interested in finding a way to do this natively with VLC, but this will work for now:
Hopefully that helps someone out.
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Does it help if you use --no-embedded-video option?

Does it help if you use --no-embedded-video option?

That does work... kind of...

That creates two VLC windows: one with the video and the other with the controls (despite using --qt-minimal-view). The video window does actually show up where I position it with the (--video-x) and (--video-y) options. Do you know if there's an option to suppress the window with the controls?

Also, another issue I'm finding is that you can only close the video window by closing the control window. Clicking the X on the video window does nothing. That's the same behavior as using the dummy interface like I described in the first post.
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--qt-start-minimized
Right-click context menu works.
Known issue:
https://trac.videolan.org/vlc/ticket/11500
https://trac.videolan.org/vlc/ticket/13179

--qt-start-minimized
Right-click context menu works.
Known issue:
https://trac.videolan.org/vlc/ticket/11500
https://trac.videolan.org/vlc/ticket/13179

Ok, cheers mate. Glad that bug is already documented. I think for now I'll stick with the AHK script as it's a little cleaner and doesn't involve a 2nd minimized window.

Cheers for all your replies!
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I am using 32 bit version 3.0.0 Vetinari and the "--width= --height= " parameters still do NOT WORK AT ALL. I've tried every combination of parameters up to and including [ "C:\location\vlc.exe" --no-qt-video-autoresize --qt-start-minimized --no-embedded-video --width=xxx --height=xxx "video file or URL stream" ]. No matter what I do, any new window ALWAYS opens the same size as the last one that was closed. This is a long standing bug and has yet to be fixed. At least the maximize parameter works correctly.

Still not working in 3.0.8.

bump...

hi, regarding the Windows Size/Position properties and the --qt-video-autoresize, i'm trying to create a VLC ( 3.0.8 ) seamless experience with the XFCE4 Windows Manager in the Xubuntu 18.04 LTS:

1st approach (via custom configuration file): vlc --config myconfig.conf
results:
- neither the size and position worked
- autoresize works

2nd approach (via application input args): vlc --no-qt-video-autoresize --width 600 --height 300 --video-x 1 --video-y 1
results:
- neither the size and position worked
- autoresize works

3rd approach (via application input args with a dummy interface - preferred): vlc -I "dummy" --width 600 --height 300 --video-x 1 --video-y 1
results:
- neither the size and position worked
- autoresize doesn't worked since the propriety only exists in the qt interface

Since i'm using a 3rd party tool (as a workaround) to control the vlc window size and position (devilspie2), the dummy interface works almost like expected.

So, i would like to know if it is possible to enable or disable the auto resize property when the vlc is launched with a dummy interface?

Position never worked on Linux. Window managers almost universally ignore the requested position so the non-feature was dropped altogether. works for me in 4.0. It's known broken in 3.x; you can use --zoom instead of with and height.

Position never worked on Linux. Window managers almost universally ignore the requested position so the non-feature was dropped altogether.

Code: Select all

vlc --no-embedded-video --width 600 --height 300

works for me in 4.0. It's known broken in 3.x; you can use --zoom instead of with and height.

Is this also true of Windows?

Can the documentation (https://wiki.videolan.org/VLC_command-line_help) please be updated if this is the case?