Reactions/wishlist on v3.3.3

[Spike1]

I've just upgraded from 3.1.5 to 3.3.3.

•It didn't fix my biggest bug, a tiny stutter, 2 seconds in, during the FIRST song played after starting VLC. Doesn't recur. Am using a Samsung J3 phone with Android 9.
•Ability to switch from time elapsed to time remaining is great, but not persistent! Merely rotating the phone forgets this preference.
•New tiny line of text summarizing progress in playlist shouldn't round to nearest minute, should pick up any preference for time remaining.
•I find the animation for Current Track is too "Look at me!" Would like to be able to provide my own, perhaps a rotating capstan from a cassette.
•I often miss the three-dots legend at the right of song list entries and trash my play list. Widen? at least to the right edge of the screen?
•Biggest wish: Fade-out when abandoning one song for another. 4 seconds is my preference.

[Originally sent to someone in the Forum contemplating doing some hacking; now reposted as a broadcast.]

[Spike1]

I had an audio playlist of 4 songs (without shuffle) that played to completion. I killed and restarted VLC. The last playlist tip came up and asked if I wanted to resume song #4. I bit, and it resumed song #1! Understandable but unexpected.

If the playlist has completed, tip should ask if I want to restart the list; or not appear at all.

[Aza]

•It didn't fix my biggest bug, a tiny stutter, 2 seconds in, during the FIRST song played after starting VLC. Doesn't recur. Am using a Samsung J3 phone with Android 9.

Could you please send some logs? Reproduce the issue and then go to: Settings > Advanced > Debug logs. Then share the logs with the sharing service you prefer (Google Drive, Dropbox, pastebin...).

•Ability to switch from time elapsed to time remaining is great, but not persistent! Merely rotating the phone forgets this preference.

It's indeed a bug. Now tracked here: https://code.videolan.org/videolan/vlc- ... ssues/1602

•New tiny line of text summarizing progress in playlist shouldn't round to nearest minute, should pick up any preference for time remaining.

I am not sure I understand that. The elapsed time is already rounded after 1 minute has passed.

•I find the animation for Current Track is too "Look at me!" Would like to be able to provide my own, perhaps a rotating capstan from a cassette.

Thanks for the suggestion, we will think about it.

•I often miss the three-dots legend at the right of song list entries and trash my play list. Widen? at least to the right edge of the screen?

Weird. I tried several times and never missed it. Are you in list mode or card mode?

•Biggest wish: Fade-out when abandoning one song for another. 4 seconds is my preference.

I am not sure VLC core supports this. I will take a look.

I had an audio playlist of 4 songs (without shuffle) that played to completion. I killed and restarted VLC. The last playlist tip came up and asked if I wanted to resume song #4. I bit, and it resumed song #1! Understandable but unexpected.

Your progression is only saved when pausing / stopping the playback. So it's expected. I'll see if we can save the progress at least when the track changes.

[Spike1]

Thank you for filing that bug so quickly!

•New tiny line of text summarizing progress in playlist shouldn't round to nearest minute, should pick up any preference for time remaining.

I am not sure I understand that. The elapsed time is already rounded after 1 minute has passed.

Yes, that is what happens; I'm saying it shouldn't. The count is precise for the first minute, and then imprecise. If combined with support for the time-remaining setting, it would be helpful to always show minutes and seconds, to show whether the entire playlist will finish in an alloted time. (A preference, clearly not a bug.)

•I often miss the three-dots legend at the right of song list entries and trash my play list. Widen? at least to the right edge of the screen?

I am in list mode, viewing all audio tracks. It is indeed easy to hit the three-dots legend if you think about it, but there is space between it and the right edge of the screen where a touch doesn't call the menu but just plays the song, not what I wanted. I may have been deliberately shading to the right to avoid playing the song, and that's what I got!

I am not sure VLC core supports [fade-out]. I will take a look.

Thanks for investigating. This feature would let VLC replace my Winamp+DirectX when working sporting events. Even when the referee says, "Kill the music!" you don't want to startle the spectators by doing so abruptly.

Your progression is only saved when pausing / stopping the playback. So it's expected. I'll see if we can save the progress at least when the track changes.

I think you are saving context adequately. My complaint is only that, when the status is at the end of the last track (as when a playlist is completed), the tip prompt asks about resuming that track and, if you agree, that's not what happens.

Could you please send some logs?

I'll work on this. Thanks again for the quick reply!

[Spike1]

Aza, I have not gotten the "stutter" to happen at all after enabling logging.

I see in the NEWS file that a couple of the above comments have been looked at for 3.3.4, thanks!

Further to my suggestion that the new, tiny report of playlist progress ① always display seconds and ② report time remaining if the user prefers that over time elapsed, here are two more:

③ If there is only 1 song in the playlist, the report should disappear, just as the Shuffle button disappears. In this case, all the information it has is already on the screen.
④ It would be helpful in some uses if the report would show the exact time of day when the playlist will end.

[Aza]

These are great ideas. They will be tracked here: https://code.videolan.org/videolan/vlc- ... ssues/1610

[Spike1]

I upgraded from 3.3.3 to 3.3.4-Beta-1. Thanks!
•First screen was a notice that there was no media, scary! I checked the dir's, commanded Refresh, never saw the progress bar, but all was restored.
•Time-remaining does persist after device rotation, does persist after stop & restart (time-elapsed briefly visible!), does not yet affect small "Track: Progress:" text. Sometimes skips a second.
•Didn't notice changes on other fronts.
•Directory browser has a nice legend of number of folders and files under each entry. Would be nice if Audio lists showed the total number of songs listed.

[Spike1]

To summarize/edit my above post of 14 Jan, being tracked by https://code.videolan.org/videolan/vlc- ... ssues/1610 — and add a ⑤:

Concerning the queue progress report (the small print just above the playback controls when the queue is displayed).
① Progress (this track and queue total) should always display seconds — because you can, and it's more helpful than approximating.
② Report time remaining if the user has selected that for track timing instead of time elapsed.
③ If there is only 1 song in the playlist, the report should disappear, just as the Shuffle button disappears. In this case, all the information it has is already on the screen.
④ It would be helpful in some uses if the report would show the exact time of day when the playlist will end.
⑤ After tapping "Stop after this track", the Progress total should be adjusted, or simply note that play will stop after this track.

[Aza]

Don't worry, this post has been linked to the issue. I'll make sure to refer to it.

[Spike1]

Github Issues > #1659 more clearly explains my complaint above that the three-dot button on result sets is easy to miss and, if you do miss, trashes the play queue.

(Related: What about a user option, "What action is taken when I tap a song name?" My choice would be Append.)

[Aza]

#1659 was a duplicate of #1604. This issue is already fixed (for 3.4).

[Spike1]

Thanks, Aza.

[Spike1]

I had an audio playlist of 4 songs (without shuffle) that played to completion. I killed and restarted VLC. The last playlist tip came up and asked if I wanted to resume song #4. I bit, and it resumed song #1! Understandable but unexpected.

If the playlist has completed, tip should ask if I want to restart the list; or not appear at all.

There's no progress yet on this one, as of the Nightly dated 2021-07-17.

[Aza]

I missed it indeed. It's now tracked here: https://code.videolan.org/videolan/vlc- ... ssues/2101

[Spike1]

Thanks!

[Spike1]

In the Nightlies, it now seems to suggest the song it will actually play if you tap it. (#1; that is, restart the play queue.) That's a solution.

[Spike1]

I now have 3.4.3 Beta 2 and it seems fade has been implemented! It's not the gradual fade I proposed—seems like less than 1 sec—but it solves the problem of a jarringly sudden cut of the music when the operator selects something different! Confirm?