The VideoLAN Forums

I can launch VLC 1.0.2 on WinXP Pro SP3 with a playlist with vlc.exe --open "<path>\<name>.xspf", but that's been trial-and-error, since the command-line documentation is so (to be kind, I'll say) "sparse."

What I want to do is select a specific entry (either by name or by index) from that list of titles to be played upon start up. At present it usually plays the first, but sometimes skips to a different Playlist item to start playing. Is there a command-line option to do that?

(I have four favorite streams I listen to, and one is the station I listen to virtually every day; when that's down--or running a fund-raiser--I then use the View | Playlist menu to select a different stream.)

What I want to do is select a specific entry (either by name or by index) from that list of titles to be played upon start up. At present it usually plays the first, but sometimes skips to a different Playlist item to start playing. Is there a command-line option to do that?

Random thing is a bug. --no-random should help to that. And I didn't find a option to specify which item from playlist is played first.
http://wiki.videolan.org/VLC_command-line_help

Thanks for that. I couldn't find it either.

Am I to assume that with --no-random on the command line, the first item in the list should always be the stream played first? (That gives me a way to choose the preferred stream, by re-ordering the Playlist.)

Separate issue: Is there any chance that Help (the link you provided) will be edited for meaningful content anytime in the future? For example, let's just take one example at random:
Help says It may be obvious to you the units of measure in <integer> are pixels, but it's not specified. I find that for many options, the properties of the parameters are never defined. In this simple case, I can deduce what's meant. But, what does mean? Are "Active windows" the Window Title displayed (in Windows, customarily in the left end of the title bar)? Are "wild cards" allowed, so the "active windows" can be specified without a complete spelling of the entire Active window title?

--Carol Anne