Hard to navigate

[nasruddin]

I've just started using VLC on an android tablet (Samsung galaxy). I'm finding it real hard to navigate (mostly I mean VLC on this platform, but android is not the easiest thing to deal with either).

The app seems to get stuck in silos - you find yourself in some mode, & there's no way to get out of it. You have to use the finder to do something else (maybe) starting VLC in a different mode.

I've been experimenting using VLC as a podcast & music player on this Samsung tablet, but once it's playing, it is difficult to find the playlist option, & once in playlist, it is difficult to get out of it to play something else.
The video and the audio modes seem to be separated from each other. Once in one, you can't jump to the other. You have to use the android finder to play something else (this is often true inside these modes too).
It is really difficult to get the audio playlist mode to play continuously. It seems unstable - if you add something new to the playlist (which is difficult, option buried in a strange menu), the playlist seems to go back to play once and stop, or play selection once and repeat.

It's really challenging to find files and play them inside VLC. Sometimes you can do it, sometimes the capability doesn't seem to be there.

There are some undocumented? icon options that seem to affect the playlist capability but I think they may not always be dispositive (or something resets them). The icons are associated with individual selections, which is not the best (I'd prefer setting state for the playlist if that's possible).

It reminds me of ancient Adventure online games.

Any help or ideas on this appreciated. It would be really nice to get audio playlists stable, that would make VLC much more useful on the tablet, & that's my top priority.

[Spike1]

It is not hard to get VLC Android to do anything, nor are there inescapable modes. But there is a steep learning curve from this new twist to the interface where controls appear and disappear dynamically.

It is actually easier to move between audio and video, as the top-level selector is a new pane, usually at the bottom of the screen. Formerly it was hidden under three-dots. If you drag the current song from the bottom to the top of the screen, you will see the playlist. While songs are playing, you can search for others and use their three-dots menu to Append.

Pressing a song in the playlist for a second will detach it from its location and let you drag it up or down in the sequence. Flick it to one side to remove it from the playlist.

[nasruddin]

> It is actually easier to move between audio and video, as the top-level selector is a new pane, usually at the bottom of the screen.
No, I don't see anything like that at all. Once it's playing a video, I can't stop & go play the audio tracks. Or vice versa. I can get to them thru the finder, that's it. (Ie it runs VLC itself to do the job.)
That method seems to be bad for the videos, as VLC then often loses its spot in the video (there seem to be other things that cause that but not sure what they are).
It seems better about remembering where it is in the audio track & playlist.

>Flick it to one side to remove it from the playlist.
Have you tried adding something new to the playlist? I'm not sure I can do it again. I didn't notebook the different things I did the last time & I can't remember where I found it the option to see files AND add them to the playlist. In general, this flavor of VLC doesn't seem to have much of an interface with the file system that's accessible to the user to use.

> It is not hard to get VLC Android to do anything
I'm trying to work with it, but I have to say I'm not diggin' it, & I'm not convinced it can do what it needs to do (unlike on other platforms like windows & ipad).

[Spike1]

I pass on the first topic, as I don't play videos on my phone. You might be right that you can't do anything else if your screen is given over to the video.

Adding a song to the queue, if you are in Audio and have any result set showing (ARTISTS/ALBUMS/TRACKS/GENRES), or in Browse, in any song's three-dot button there is Append (to end of queue) and Insert next (after the song that's playing).

Oops, in Browse, there's only Append! (Why? Anyone?)

[nasruddin]

> I pass on the first topic, as I don't play videos on my phone. You might be right that you can't do anything else if your screen is given over to the video.
It's the same if you're playing an audio track. You can't stop & go play the video directly. The finder has to do it for you. (AFAICT)

I think playlists are working better for me & I seem to have them set up consistently so they play thru rather than stop or repeat the same track. That has something to do with the color of icons associated with each track, I guess they have to be examined (and not orange) track by track. Don't think this is documented anywhere.

I am not really sure where "if you are in Audio and have any result set" this state is, but I think I have stumbled into it once in awhile. I just don't know how to find it.
I need to be able to the upload location on the SD card, re-index it (this seems to be something Android VLC needs) & then add the new tracks. The interfaces for these steps are elusive.

[Spike1]

The master index at the bottom of the screen (scroll the song list if you don't see it) has Video, Audio, and Browse. This would be your key to going back and forth. Again, I am no expert on video.

Lift up the current song to the top of the screen to reveal the queue. Now at lower right will be squarish arrows. Black means no repeat, orange means do repeat, orange with 1 in the middle means repeat 1 single track. This (not track icons) determines repeating. Likewise, at lower left, you can turn Shuffle on or off.

Before anything will work, you need to go into Settings and specify what directories (on what devices) VLC should look for media (or set it to search everywhere every time it starts).

[nasruddin]

> The master index
Ok, I see that in the audio silo
The video silo doesn't seem to have that. But what it does do, which is different from the audio behavior, is that after the video selection finishes & you leave it alone for a while, it flips to the audio playlist.
(Not sure if this will happen if you haven't been using the playlist before the video, or don't have an audio playlist.)

[nasruddin]

Here's another puzzler:
The android finder always starts the selected video about 1/2 way in, or just before the hour mark, at about 2.2x speed
Once the selection is played, if you go play it again, it starts it at the beginning, at normal speed
It seems like, if I'm playing the video selection at 1.5 or so when it runs to the end, if the video is started again, it's at normal speed.
I think that's reproducible too.

I would guess the first behavior is a configuration somewhere - but where?
And why does it forget it later?

[Spike1]

That's bizarre! persistent abnormal settings governing video play! Don't say"I think that's reproducible," reproduce it, and perhaps narrow it down to state an exact problem to be corrrected.

I've been receiving your posts, but am beyond my competence in video; perhaps a Developer will reply.

[nasruddin]

I've done what I can figure out how to do. I don't see any settings that look related that I can twiddle. Maybe it's the finder that is up to no good.

I had a whole complement of videos (20-25) for a class that I put on the tablet to work thru while I had to take a trip, & every one has acted like that.
At 1st I didn't really think about it why it was like that, because I had a lot of other things to work on to figure out how to VLC a folder full of videos. And it was much more important to get the audio playlists to behave.
Once I worked out the stuck playlists & the strange navigation I noticed other things.

[nasruddin]

Here's an interesting pair of developments -
I finished the video series I was talking about, dumped them, & replaced them with the succeeding series.
The weird start up speed & start in the middle of the selection disappeared; now they start at the beginning & the speed is normal.

On the other hand, the speed control disappeared, so apparently I can't change it.
It seems to have been replaced with an icon that flips & locks the replay in either portrait or landscape.

[nasruddin]

The weird start up speed & start in the middle of the selection disappeared; now they start at the beginning & the speed is normal.

Not quite. Something seems to remember where the last selection was stopped, & what the speed was. The startup for the new selection will often be same, bizarrely.

Here's another baffler:
*.wmv files get speed control and other options.

*.mp4 files get a scissors to take a snapshot on one side, a padlock to do something (whatever for?) on the other side, & fullscreen/reduced screen icon.
No speed or other options, anywhere.