Progress bar in partly viewed videos even when history is disabled

[Spike1]

We've had users post wanting to disable "history" settings for the sake of privacy - they wanted to disable collection of data on their usage. Unfortunately, even when you do this, VLC (3.6.0 Beta 1 nightly 2023-12-28) shows an orange progress bar in the thumbnail of any partially viewed video. VLC does not resume from there, per the Settings, but it does display usage data (what you viewed and where you left off).

Further, my non-rigorous testing suggests that Settings > Video > Save Playback Speed doesn't work, as playback speed continues to vary between videos. Our privacy posters will be shocked to know what their nosey flat-mates can discern about their viewing habits.

[Aza]

Could you please provide reproduction steps for the second issue?

The first one is now tracked here: https://code.videolan.org/videolan/vlc- ... ssues/3020

[Spike1]

To reproduce the second bug:
1. Enable Save Playback Speed as above (that is, make it apply across videos)
2. View a video, set playback speed to .50, verify, back out to selection speed
3. View another video, set playback speed to .60, verify, back out
4. View the first video again. Playback should be .60 (as last set; user preference is to carry across videos), but it's .50 (apparently saved with file).

[Aza]

So that was I feared. This is in fact done this way on purpose.
The "Save playback speed between videos" has a lower priority than the individual speed saved upon playback. We did it that way to make sure that a video you played at a specific speed will remain played that way later.

[Spike1]

If that is what the user wants, then he should uncheck that preference! Otherwise, if he is playing the second video and alters the playback speed, then clearly what he thinks he is doing is altering the GLOBAL playback speed, and that it will carry over to future videos.

Perhaps the setting name and the check-box text could be clearer, but I see no difference between checking and not checking; this setting "has a lower priority" than doing the exact opposite! Our poster who doesn't want his nosy flat-mates to know what pornos he viewed, certainly doesn't want them to discover at what speed he watched each.

Are the "Save audio delay" and "Save brightness level" settings similarly afflicted?

[Aza]

Are the "Save audio delay" and "Save brightness level" settings similarly afflicted?

Save audio delay -> saves the delay as metadata for each video
Save brightness level -> saves the brightness level when the user changes it ans restore it for next playbacks (doesn't depend on the video played)
Save playback speed -> each time the speed is changed, it will be restored if the media doesn't already have a speed set

I agree that these 3 settings behaviors are confusing.

This is now tracked here: https://code.videolan.org/videolan/vlc- ... ssues/3022

[Spike1]

Thank you!

[Spike1]

Fixed in the Nightly of 2024-02-01. But bump the Copyleft year, please.

[Aza]

Done here: https://code.videolan.org/videolan/vlc- ... uests/1839

[Spike1]

Further non-rigorous testing indicates that videos that had stored a playback speed continue to use this rather than the global playback speed if you turn history off because you don't want usage data collection.

If you define an A-B playback region for a video, it remains set if you open the video with history off.

In my opinion, turning history off should not send VLC on a search for per-video settings; there is a separate option to purge the database. But if you open a video with history off, all playback settings stored with the video should be wiped.

[Aza]

It will be fixed by https://code.videolan.org/videolan/vlc- ... uests/1869

[Spike1]

I'm reading it now; have not read the code. You describe your commit as "Prevent loading...metadata when history is off". But it's still there? Our privacy poster says his nosey flat-mates can simply turn history on and see his metadata. Yes, he could clear the database. If history is off, no metadata from the session (or previous sessions) should persist.

[Aza]

That' was already the case for the playback speed (and most of the metadata):

Code: Select all

fun saveMediaMeta(end:Boolean = false) = launch(start = CoroutineStart.UNDISPATCHED) outerLaunch@ { if (!Settings.getInstance(AppContextProvider.appContext).getBoolean(PLAYBACK_HISTORY, true)) return@outerLaunch (... save the metadata ...) }

I just added a commit to do the same for AB repeat.

[Spike1]

Nice! Thank you.