Resuming playback of a video file at last viewed position?

[Bob_Swede]

I have been spoiled by MX Player on my Android tablet, which remembers the position a particular video file was stopped at last time it played.
Then when one starts the player next time it shows a selection of media files to play where the ones already viewed are in different color from the ones not viewed.
When a viewed file is selected the playback starts at the position I last left off on that file or from the beginning depending on user choice.
Likewise if I start playback by selecting a video file in file manager it starts playing from start or where I left off if it has been played before.

I think this is a neat usability feature and I have been looking for a way to configure VLC (which is my player on Windows) to do the same, but I have not found any such setting. I am regularly viewing university lecture files and I often have to stop viewing in the middle somewhere and then it is hard to find exactly where to resume when using VLC on Windows.

So is there a way for VLC to store the last playback point of the files it has played and restart at that point on a later resume?
Or better yet, like MX Player show a dialogue where I can specify "From start" or "Resume"??

If not existing this would be a nice GUI improvement for an upcoming version.

[mederi]

>> srpos plugin or
>> mempos extension
https://forum.videolan.org/viewtopic.ph ... 80#p375581

[Bob_Swede]

I downloaded SRPOS and copied the dll:s to the C:\Programs\VLC\plugins folder as described in the readme inside the zipfile.
Then started VLC and looked at the settings, but in the Interface/ControlInterface tab there is no sign of any such setting as shown in this thread:
https://forum.videolan.org/viewtopic.ph ... 80#p375581
But the other settings shown in that thread are there, so I am looking at the correct place, I believe.

What did I do wrong?
Maybe the dll:s are not supposed to go there, because that folder was totally empty except for a large number of subfolders...

EDIT:
Forgot to ask why there are so many DLL:s in the zipfile. THe files therein are:

Code: Select all

ChangeLog libsrpos2064_plugin.dll libsrpos2086_plugin.dll libsrpos2164_plugin.dll libsrpos2186_plugin.dll ReadMe.txt

Shouldn't it be just a single dll without a number at the end???

[Bob_Swede]

Does it matter if I am on Windows7X64?
I have specifically NOT installed VLC to the Microsoft Program Files tree in order to avoid UAC problems.
Now I have shut down the VLC again, waited and restarted still without a trace of the setting that should be there to activate the function.

[Bob_Swede]

>> srpos plugin or

Download is a *.lua file, which I put at the specified location. Does not work, nothing at all happens...

>> mempos extension
https://forum.videolan.org/viewtopic.ph ... 80#p375581

And this comes with 4 different numbered dll:s and a readme, but also here nothing happens and the instructions in the linked discussion do not work.

[isamu]

>> srpos plugin or

Download is a *.lua file, which I put at the specified location. Does not work, nothing at all happens...

>> mempos extension
https://forum.videolan.org/viewtopic.ph ... 80#p375581

And this comes with 4 different numbered dll:s and a readme, but also here nothing happens and the instructions in the linked discussion do not work.

Use this LUA script bro.

http://scientificswede.blogspot.se/2012 ... h-lua.html

Works on my dvds without issues so far. Only tried on Vision of Escaflowne but no problems so far. That srpos gimmick works too but not on dvds and I still need to do more testing.

[Bob_Swede]

Well, I do not know what you mean by "use this lua script" since I have already used a lua script but not gotten it to work at all.
I am obviously not on Ubuntu, though, I have a Windows 7 box.
But I have noted a few things that might indicate another VLC problem as the base cause:

1) If I start VLC and go to the View menu there IS an item named "Remember position"

2) So I tested by checking that and then closing VLC. When I restarted VLC the check mark was gone! Not persistent!!!

3) If I start VLC by double clicking a video file it ALWAYS starts from the beginning and the check mark is not there anymore.

4) If I go to the Media/Open recent media submenu a list pops up showing what I played about 6 months ago. Nothing I have played since is listed!

5) VLC dies in the following reproducible way:
- Start VLC
- Make sure the View/Remember position item is checked
- Use Media/Open file and select an MP4 video
- The video starts playing, so move ahead a bit
- Then hit the square stop button to stop playback
- Use Media/Open file and select another MP4 file
- When I hit the Open button VLC immediately vanishes, it is as if I had clicked the X button up in the right hand corner!

My version is reported as "2.0.8 TwoFlower"

So the combination of not remembering the check mark I put on the View menu and not updating the recently played files indicates to me that VLC is actually NOT saving any settings at all!!!
What could cause this strange behavior?
Is there a bug that has recently been introduced that makes it forget all setting changes between restarts?
Or is there a needed configuration setting I am missing?
And where is VLC saving the settings including the names of recently played files?

[Bob_Swede]

Use this LUA script bro.
http://scientificswede.blogspot.se/2012 ... h-lua.html
Works on my dvds without issues so far. Only tried on Vision of Escaflowne but no problems so far. That srpos gimmick works too but not on dvds and I still need to do more testing.

I have used the exact same lua script when testing and it is not working.

In fact the View menu checkbox causes VLC to crash when opening a recent file from the Media menu.

Test:
- Start VLC from the icon
- Set the checkmark on the View menu "Remember position"
- Go to Media/Open Recent Media and select one of the items listed
- VLC disappears from view!!!

I have tested this many times over now and it ALWAYS happens.
If he checkbox is NOT checked then VLC instead starts playing the file at the beginning.

Question:
Where are you located, or rather which locale is your computer set to?
The reason I ask is that maybe the script reads the pos.txt file erroneously in locales where the decimal point is not period but comma?
But it seems strange if it is like that because the lua script author seems to be located in Sweden where we use comma as decimal separator.
Grabbing for straws here...

[isamu]

Use this LUA script bro.
http://scientificswede.blogspot.se/2012 ... h-lua.html
Works on my dvds without issues so far. Only tried on Vision of Escaflowne but no problems so far. That srpos gimmick works too but not on dvds and I still need to do more testing.

I have used the exact same lua script when testing and it is not working.

In fact the View menu checkbox causes VLC to crash when opening a recent file from the Media menu.

Test:
- Start VLC from the icon
- Set the checkmark on the View menu "Remember position"
- Go to Media/Open Recent Media and select one of the items listed
- VLC disappears from view!!!

I have tested this many times over now and it ALWAYS happens.
If he checkbox is NOT checked then VLC instead starts playing the file at the beginning.

Question:
Where are you located, or rather which locale is your computer set to?
The reason I ask is that maybe the script reads the pos.txt file erroneously in locales where the decimal point is not period but comma?
But it seems strange if it is like that because the lua script author seems to be located in Sweden where we use comma as decimal separator.
Grabbing for straws here...

Yeah I'm not why that's happening on your end. I'm in California.

[Bob_Swede]

Following advice in the thread Menu item Open Recent Media not working I reset my VLC settings and caches.
Then the VLC crashes stopped and I managed to get the resume work a bit, but not as one would have hoped....
1) After starting a video one has to check the View/Remember position check box
2) Then when the video is stopped later on and VLC closed the plug-in writes the current position to a file in appdata
3) Next when reopening the file (by double clicking) it starts playing at the very start
4) But now when I go to the View menu where the check mark is un-checked and check it, then the playback jumps ahead to the resume point!
5) If I instead first start VLC and then make sure the check box is set before I open the video from the Media menu, then it resumes at the correct point!

There are some problems here:
A) The check box state in the View menu is not persistent, which means that whenever VLC starts it is in the "run from beginning un-checked mode"
B) The Media/Open Recent Media list does not show files previously opened by double clicking them in Windows Explorer

These two issues makes for an under-par user experience in my view.

[Orionway]

Use the Playback (menu bar at top of screen during playback), Bookmarks feature, then you can create many different bookmarked spots in your particular video!!! easy to use... work great!

[Bob_Swede]

I think that you have missed my point entirely....
What should be the standard behavior is this:
1) Open a video file in whatever way (from the File menu or by double clicking in Windows Explorer)
2) If the file has already been played to some intermediate position, then pop up a question and ask for "Start over or Resume
3) When the video file is stopped using the stop button or by exiting VLC, then record the current position of the file

This does NOT work for me at all.

It is not useful for a user to be required to go into menu Playback/Custom bookmarks/Manage to manually set a bookmark before exiting the file just in order to be able to resume the viewing!
In fact, I tried it and when I resumed the file later on it started playing from the beginning!
And when I returned to the Manage menu my bookmark was gone!

I have tried to find a setting for enabling the wanted behavior but failed. Is there such a setting, then I would be glad to know where to find it.
How hard could it be to have an automatic resume function with a visible query dialog popping up when a played file is started again?