The VideoLAN Forums

Hi!

When I watch videos while working I often move and resize the player window. Unfortunately you always have full freedom to change X and Y size independently -- not only when you don't use a single border to change size but also if you move a corner of the window to resize X and Y simultaneously. I have searched everywhere but I can't seem to find a setting to lock the aspect ratio in a way that resizing the window with the corner handle does not change the current ratio (whatever it was set to before resizing) so I don't have to fix it manually after resizing. It must be there, but where??

Best regards, Stefan.

I don't understand.
Do you want to be able to resize only in order to keep width/height in the same ratio ?

No, I want to resize the viewer window while I'm working (often for many hours) on other things -- I make the video smaller when I need to see larger portions of the stuff I'm working on and I want to make it larger when I read stuff that only covers half my screen. So while I'm working on boring stuff I watch videos that don't need constant attention (series and stuff). Now e.g. when I make the VLC window smaller it's not just "grab a corner and drag it until the window is small enough" -- it's also "and then fumble around with height and width until the video does not have those annoying black bars". When the video is 4:3 and the initial VLC window nicely opens with just that ratio, I want VLC to keep this ratio when I drag a corner to make the window smalle or larger. My TV application makes exactly that -- it has a setting that says "lock ratio on resizing" and voila... A built-in "lock ratio" is also common in many graphics programs or scanner frontends when you resize a selected area -- the 4 single border handles move just that border (and thus change the ratio) while corner handles move two borders, keeping the ratio of the marked area intact.

Best regards, Stefan.

So, yes, that is what you want

You are right, I misread your question perfectly. Indeed I want to be able to "resize only". If that is a new feature request (i.e. it really is *not* somewhere and I just don't find it) then I would prefer to have a setting to make that the default behaviour and not to add it as e.g "press CTRL while dragging the corner handle". Even more since I don't see why anybody would *usually* want to resize a window to an aspect ratio different from the ratio of the source.

Best regards, Stefan.

You could want that is you use the playlist when integrated and want to resize in a different way...

Of course there might be uses for resizing the window *and* changing the X/Y ratio but as I suggested the *usual* resize desire would be "I want to make the viewer window somewhat larger/smaller and keep the current X/Y view -- e.g. 4:3 -- so I don't introduce unused window space aka black bars". Both needs would be addressed if the 4 border handles continued to work as they do now -- they can be dragged independently -- and only the 4 corner handles which move 2 adjacent borders get their function modified so that resizing the adjacent borders keeps their ratio intact. As a developer, could you enter this into the wish queue? It's a feature I use so naturally and often in other applications, I wondered why I did not find any request for it in VLC. That's why I suspected it's already there and it's only me who doesn't find it...

Thanks so much for your support, Jean-Baptiste!!

Best regards, Stefan.

I'm also looking for a feature exactly like this, it would make it so much easier when resizing the window while watching videos. Thanks!

I'd like this too.

What I'd really like is an option to just auto-resize the window to the max (but not 'maximize' of course) that the screen can hold while maintaing the video-to-window ratio, so there are no black bars.

I posted a feature request: viewtopic.php?f=7&t=52075

Stefan.

I posted a feature request: viewtopic.php?f=7&t=52075

Stefan.

Trac it!

Not solved yet?

hello
i am new to vlc and want to be able to lock the window size, across video with different aspect ratio. i am making a long playlist in vlc as a backup for our mediachannel at a music festival in austria and have videos with different aspect ratios to play. i need the screen size to stay the same, automatically, between videos of different aspect ratios. is this possible?

thank very much

this is a perfect feature but it hasn't been implemented till now.

I have turned this into a feature request ticket. The wait is for a volunteer to spend his free time on it.
ticket 18553

For others coming here to request this feature; it's on the list now.

Sure Love this Player,,,, I'm using a 50 inch monitor via laptop and Bose surround.. Wicked. I do a lot of multitasking also and i usually have a couple vlc's going along with a website and a Cad program and just like buddy there said, in order to make everything fit the way you want it,,, resizing is important,,, and locking it in that size and position on the screen also.. I was wondering if that new youtube player is related to vlc? its no where good as vlc but pretty damn good from what they had,,,, is there any way to link youtube videos to vlc?.. i almost always record everything i watch so i use vlc after . And i see that the Opacity feature coming about in more programs... that would be a cool feature for subliminal controls or maybe playlist ,, lots of stuff if a guy put his mind to it.. anyway i just wanted to say you guys are doing a great job!!!