Playlist Random Clips

[geocentricdesign]

I'm trying to find a script or get help writing a script that will play random parts of movies in 5 minute clips on rotation. I presently have the command line opening a playlist in full screen on startup. Can I do the random clips directly in the command line? Or so I need to extend VLC to do so? I can't find any good beginner documentation or examples of LUA so I don't know if it's even possible. Any help is greatly appreciated!

[VLC_help]

Can I do the random clips directly in the command line?

It should work if you add files to playlist and use random

[geocentricdesign]

What I'm going for is the ability to set the start point to a random position in the timeline and play 5 minutes of video from there, then move on to the next file repeating the same behavior. It's kind of like creating a slideshow of movie clips. I don't want to show whole movies in the playlist, just random clips.

[VLC_help]

You have to get the random time from somewhere, VLC cannot provide one. After that

--start-time=<float> Start time
The stream will start at this position (in seconds).
--stop-time=<float> Stop time
The stream will stop at this position (in seconds).
--run-time=<float> Run time
The stream will run this duration (in seconds).

those should do the trick.

[geocentricdesign]

Very cool indeed. Thanks! I'm not sure how to get variables in the command line to make the start time random though. Any suggestions? Should I use LUA (and if so how do I learn LUA)?

[VLC_help]

You can use some kind of .bat magic http://www.jameskoopmann.com/?p=16